Can the season of Lent become a year-round lifestyle?
Lent is a time to give up - or sacrifice - something we love to eat or do. Popular choices are chocolate or designer coffee; going to the movies or watching a favorite TV program. In our community we see more and more programs offered at local churches and more and more individuals and families actually attending Ash Wednesday Services and Stations of the Cross programs on Good Friday. Everyone counts the days until Easter Sunday. Every year families go to the Annual Sunrise Service on Pass A Grille Beach or attend one of the many services offered by churches in our community, family members dress up and drag even the most reluctant members to church in order to satisfy their “Easter duty.” We then rewarded ourselves with the Easter Brunch and the contents of Easter baskets and sit back satisfied that we had survived another Lent.
Historically Lent was the period of time before Easter when those adults who had been studying the Faith entered into the final “leg of the race.” Lessons became more intense. The small churches around them spent time praying with and for them. These adults were reminded that they would have to make a personal decision— Church leaders during the first three centuries understood—and wanted converts to understand—that their decision to enter into the Body of Christ also meant signing one’s own death sentence. The Emperor Constantine to the Faith in 313 AD changed that reality with his personal conversion.
Lent, can be if we allow it to be, it can truly be a time for “re-conversion” or “re-commitment” to ones own spiritual journey. As individuals caught up in today’s mass media, technological age we cannot seem to focus on the giving up of something as much as we can allow ourselves to look inward to try to understand on a deeper level what it means to be in a spiritual relationship. Everyone’s path in life is so very different but each and every one of us has experienced a taste of spirituality or we have been exposed to a faith experience that enabled us to see with different eyes. With Lent we are reminded of what Lent means “the mystery of Jesus in the desert” during the 40 days before he began his public ministry. This season of Lent makes many realized that we need to shake off the dust that accumulates each year in our souls and spirits. That “dust” that can sometime obscure our pathway—distract us from what is truly important—and this season of Lent is a time we can all use as a reminder that we all can somehow strive for the Season of lent to become a year round life style not just a lifestyle change for 40 days, we sometimes forget that we all have the power and courage within ourselves to live our lives in accordance with our own quest for that deeper understanding.
Can the season of Lent become a year-round lifestyle?
Walk a Sacred Path...
"The labyrinth is a spiritual tool that has many applications in various settings. It reduces stress, quiets the mind and opens the heart. It is a walking meditation, a path of prayer and a blue-print where psyche meets Spirit."
the Labyrinth at
Pass A Grille Beach Community Church
107th 16th Avenue, St. Pete Beach, FL 33706
