Thoughts On Lent

I’ve been putting off writing this. Lent is a season that I love not because I like it, but because I know it’s good for me. It connects me to the church more broadly, to innumerable ancestors (by blood or creed), and to the Spirit. Returning to reading Bread and Wine this season, a Lenten reader with a great number of voices, I find myself surrounded immersed in the thoughtful writing of some of these folks who have gone before me.

While lent historically is a season of fasting, the idea of fasting isn’t just about giving something up. Fasting allows us to surrender something regular in our daily rounds of life in order to leverage that space and time for prayer and meditation. In the past, I’ve even added a practice for lent, like daily journaling or 10 minutes of meditation in the morning. So, I’ve been trying to identify what I might remove in my life to make space and what I might use that space to do.

I considered forfeiting:

wine

swearing

social media

bread

Ya know. Just a few of my favorite things.

And then I saw it. Perhaps you did too. It seems so obvious once it’s written out. Wine. Bread. Bread and Wine.

Communion is my favorite part of a church service. Not just because it’s a wee snack, but because it’s tangible. All the senses get working during communion. The pastor placing the elements in my hand, the words accompanying the sacrament, the wine waking up my tastebuds, the chapel’s cedar wood aroma, the semi-circle of co-congregants by my side.

Instead of forfeiting all bread and wine (because woof), I’m repurposing my normal bread and wine consumption for a meditative, at-home (because isn’t everything right now) communion time every evening. I’m looking forward to how this changes my relationship with:

evenings

the Holy Spirit

flavor

fermentation

prayer

Stay connected, folks.

xo

em