A Call to Enter into a Holy Lent

What’s Lent?

Lent begins on Ash Wednesday and continue until the day preceding Easter. For centuries, Christians have observed this forty day long season (Sundays are not counted as part of the season) during which they enter into a time of self evaluation. Lent commemorates the forty days when Jesus was in the wilderness prior to his entrance into public ministry. Sometimes people give things up (ie. chocolate, caffeinated drinks, watching TV) during Lent, but Lent is more than just giving things up. The church encourages believers to enter into a holy Lent by practicing spiritual disciplines.

What are Spiritual Disciplines?

Spiritual Disciplines are practices that draw us closer to God and create a deeper spiritual life from which we can draw from in our daily living. In the early church, monastic communities such as the Benedictines established rules for living, these rule used the spiritual disciplines in their daily life. Prayer, meditation, study, fasting, service and worship are all forms of spiritual disciplines.

Prayer is essential for all Christians and is probably the most often practiced of all spiritual disciplines.

Meditation, which is often connected with eastern religions and yet was widely practice by early church mystics, is probably the least practiced of all spiritual disciplines by modern Christians.

Daily Bible study will dramatically improve your spiritual life; participation in a weekly study with others is even more helpful because you then have the opportunity to share and receive insights.

Fasting seems to be a modern fad for losing weight but the practice of fasting for spiritual reasons puts one in touch with the wilderness journey that Jesus experienced before his entrance into public ministry.

Service is the opportunity to express the life of Christ in our actions, to see the face of Christ in those that we serve. Upon washing his followers’ feet, an act of humility, Jesus commanded them to serve others with the same attitude of humility.

Worship is the practice which is both addressed to our individual nature, as the personal experience of the living God, and to our corporate existence, as the assembled presence of the body of Christ.