The Thursday after Ash Wednesday

Direct us, O Lord, in all our doings with your most gracious favor, and further us with your continual help; that in all our works begun, continued, and ended in you, we may glorify your holy Name, and finally, by your mercy, obtain everlasting life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

When I was in seminary, there was one particular professor who began each and every class with this collect. He never bothered to explain why this particular prayer was his chosen one. He never bothered to interpret the prayer for us or to tease out any hidden meanings in the prayer. 

He simply prayed it -- sometimes with a voice full of passion and verve, sometimes with the edginess of anger and irritation, sometimes with a tone that indicated more boredom and disbelief than excitement and faith. But day in and day out, week in and week out, he offered this prayer.

Then, at the end of the semester, he entered the lecture hall, looked around at us, and said, "Today it is your turn, pray the prayer." And without hesitation, we all recited the collect verbatim. After we had finished the prayer, the professor said, "Very good. At least you now know one prayer from the Prayer Book. Now live your lives like you mean the prayer."

Living our lives like we mean our prayers. That's the challenge of Lent, isn't it? We say the words in church, but living the words in life is a different story. 

The fact is, we can only live our lives like we mean our prayers if we are fully aware that we are being "furthered" in our faith with God's continual help. We're not on our own. The life of faith isn't about showing God what we can do, but rather, the life of faith is about watching our lives to see what God is already doing. 

Two days into Lent and our way is not clear as yet. What wilderness will we traverse? What difficulties will we encounter? What challenges lie ahead? We don't know.

What we do know is this: God is directing us. God is "furthering" us -- and one day, by God's mercy and grace we will obtain the awareness that we have been given the life that is everlasting.

What if our lives gave witness to the fact that we mean the words of our prayers??? 

My guess is that if we managed to do that only once in a while, God's Name would be glorified. 

Maybe Lent is the time for us all to begin to live our lives as if we believe our prayers.

Ash Wednesday

Almighty and everlasting God, you hate nothing you have made and forgive all the sins of the penitent: Create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we, worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness, may obtain of you, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

The holy season of Lent begins with the smudge of ashes and the inescapable awareness that "we are dust and to dust we will return" -- a bit of liturgical grounding to counteract our pretensions of immortality. The prayer for Ash Wednesday is full of words that we'd rather not say about ourselves. We don't want to believe that we have any sins to lament (worthily or otherwise!). We don't want to use the word "wretchedness" in a self-referential fashion. Isn't wretchedness the condition of other people???

And yet, when we embark on this pilgrim way of Lent, we know the only nourishment that will carry us through this season of fasting is the sustenance of self-awareness. Self-awareness will lead us to confession. Confession will push us toward repentance. Repentance will shove us toward new behaviors  -- behaviors incumbent upon those who have known the grace of forgiveness. Forgiveness New behaviors then deepen our propensity for self-awareness. 

We have begun the journey of Lent for another year. We walk the pilgrim path in the assurance that a new creation is possible. We rend our hearts so that God can create in us new hearts. "If anyone is in Christ," St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, "New Creation!" Maybe the only way new creation can happen is through a smudge of oily ash...after all, when it comes to church, stranger things have happened!