Getting Ready to Pray                     

We are beginning the preparation for the major event of our Christian history, the death and resurrection of Jesus Messiah.

At dinner tonight I told my brothers I was spending the evening writing a reflection for this Sunday. One replied that I should write about “fasting”. I asked him about what should I say, he told me, “Tell them you’re in favor of it.”

There is more to this season than fasting. There is more to the readings for this liturgy. Lent might be a good time to fast from feeling falsely guilty.

Some Thoughts 

As we pray from Ash Wednesday to the weekend we might consider the role of our expectations in our spiritual and relational lives. The suffix “itis” comes from the Greek adjective for inflammation or disease.

“Perfectionitis” sounds like a good inflammation of the ego. We could fast from eating that for Lent. There is no word “compassionitis” because it is a blessing not an illness.

I am all for ideals, high principles, lofty aspirations, but only if compassion trumps them all.

For the first few days leading up to the First Sunday of Lent, guilt can be our first-fasting stop—and I am in favor of that!