Wednesday, 25 February 2009

ASH WEDNESDAY

A multitude of responses so the ball is rolling.

"Today is also Losar, so Tashi Dalek...It is the year of the Female Earth Ox."
"I gave up sugar in my tea when I was at school and have never looked back."
". . . lenten lily may be a kind of hellebore"
"I need to start lent AFTER the pancake mini- Mardi Gras." . . .
"Lent is more about doing something positive than giving something up"
"I am a creature of habit, but I have raged against this in many ways over the years, but it is still with me . . . . . . . There are swathes of yellow crocuses here and there and the snowdrops are flowering. The air has a new softness, too."
"It chimes with the idea of Lent as a meditation in preparation for a significant event."

If you want to post something on this site as opposed to just commenting let me have yr email address and I can smooth the way.
I am a novice blogger so please be patient with any delays in yr thoughts appearing here!

Tuesday, 24 February 2009

FORTY DAYS and FORTY NIGHTS

AN ENQUIRY into LENT

TODAY 25 FEBRUARY is ASH WEDNESDAY which marks the beginning of the Christian liturgical season of fasting and prayer called LENT. Lent lasts for 40 days and 40 nights, the time Christ spent wandering in the wilderness resisting the temptations of the Devil. It ends on Holy Saturday, the day before Easter. Traditionally it is marked by acts of abstinence and self sacrifice which last for the whole period of forty days
In contemporary life is this idea still alive? Will you be giving anything up for Lent? Have you even heard of Lent? Do you know of similar seasons in other religions? Are you intrigued to look into the part played by HABIT in your life?

I wonder if you might be interested in joining me to create a record of this year’s Lent as it may be observed, rejected, faltered over by us from now till Easter. This record could take many forms - sacriligious, musical, pictorial, verbal, electronic, - and range as widely as we like into related ideas such as carnival, discipline, charity, poverty, puritanism, other spiritual traditions; and so on.

please let me know if you would like to join in:

by post 79 broadway grantchester cambridge CB3 9 NQ

online via the daily rounds blog section of www.elspethowen.net

I hope very much that you will be in touch and that we can support each other into the Spring

with love from elspeth