The Little Book of Lent: Daily Reflections from the World’s Greatest Spiritual Writers. Arthur Howells

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      I know that Lent is going to be a very hard time for me. The choice for your way has to be made every moment of my life. I have to choose thoughts that are your thoughts, words that are your words, and actions that are your actions. There are no times or places without choices. And I know how deeply I resist choosing you.

      Please, Lord, be with me at every moment and in every place. Give me the strength and the courage to live this season faithfully, so that, when Easter comes, I will be able to taste with joy the new life which you have prepared for me.

      Amen.

      THE ROAD TO DAYBREAK HENRI J. M. NOUWEN

ASH WEDNESDAY: THE FIRST DAY OF LENT

      For Reflection

      Brother Alois succeeded the late Brother Roger as Prior of the Taizé Community in 2005. He wrote a series of meditations for the daily newspaper La Croix during the year 2008–2009. This meditation was composed for the beginning of Lent.

      Lent: Turning to God Lent first directs our thoughts to the image of the desert, the one in which Jesus spent forty days of solitude, or the one that God’s people crossed by walking for forty years. Yet when these weeks before Easter returned, Brother Roger liked to recall that it was not a time for austerity or sorrow, or a period to cultivate guilt, but rather a season to sing the joy of forgiveness. He saw Lent as forty days to prepare to rediscover little springtimes in our lives.

      At the beginning of the Gospel of St Matthew, when John the Baptist proclaims ‘Repent!’ he means: ‘Turn to God!’ Yes, during Lent, we wish to look towards God in order to receive forgiveness. Christ has conquered evil and his constant forgiveness allows us to renew an inner life. We are invited to a conversion: not to turn towards ourselves in introspection or individual perfectionism, but to seek communion with God and also communion with others.

      Turning to God! It is true that in the Western world, it has become difficult for some people to believe in God. They see his existence as a limitation on their freedom. They think they must struggle alone to build their lives. That God walks alongside them seems inconceivable.

      A year ago I visited our brothers who have been living in Korea for thirty years. On the way, another brother and I had youth meetings in several Asian countries. What struck me in Asia is that prayer seems natural. People belonging to different religions pray spontaneously in an attitude of respect, even adoration.

      Of course, in those societies there are no fewer tensions or manifestations of violence than in the West. But a sense of interiority is perhaps more accessible, a respect for the miracle of life, for creation, a focus on mystery, on an afterlife.

      How can we renew our interior life by discovering and rediscovering a personal relationship with God? In all of us there is a thirst for the infinite. God created us with this desire for an absolute. We must let this aspiration live in us!

      Lent is a season that invites us to share. It leads us to sense that there is no spiritual growth without consenting to give something up, and to do so for love. Once when he was in the wilderness, Jesus, moved by compassion for those who followed him, multiplied five loaves and two fishes to feed everyone. What kind of sharing can we accomplish in our turn?

      During this time of Lent let us dare to review our lifestyle, not to make those who do less feel guilty, but for the sake of solidarity with the deprived. The gospel encourages us to share freely while setting everything in the simple beauty of creation.

      A MEDITATION BROTHER ALOIS

      Scripture Reading

      ST LUKE 9:12–17

      ‘All ate and were filled.’

      Prayer

      This Lent –

      let your door stand open to receive Christ,

      unlock your soul to him

      offer him a welcome in your mind

      and then you will see the riches of simplicity,

      the treasures of peace,

      and the joy of grace.

      ST AMBROSE (ADAPTED)

THURSDAY AFTER ASH WEDNESDAY

      For Reflection

      Tom Wright was Bishop of Durham and is the author of many books on the New Testament, including (as N. T. Wright) the monumental works in the series Christian Origins and the Question of God.

      Follow Me!

      It is Jesus who is the Good Shepherd (St John 10). It is Jesus who has the task of leading and feeding his sheep and lambs, guiding them to and from pasture, keeping them safe from predators. He knows them and they know him. He has now given his life for them. But the commission of John 20:21 was quite specific. ‘As the Father sent me, so I’m sending you.’ There’s no getting away from it. And this is what it means. Peter is to share Jesus’ task of shepherding.

      Here is the secret of all Christian ministry, yours and mine, lay and ordained, full-time or part-time. It’s the secret of everything from being a quiet, back-row member of a prayer group to being a platform speaker at huge rallies and conferences. If you are going to do any single solitary thing as a follower and servant of Jesus, this is what it’s built on. Somewhere deep down inside, there is a love for Jesus, and though (goodness knows) you’ve let him down enough times, he wants to find that love, to give you a chance to express it, to heal the hurts and failures of the past, and give you new work to do.

      These are not things for you to do to ‘earn’ forgiveness. Nothing can ever do that. It is grace from start to finish. They are the things to do out of the joy and relief that you already are forgiven. Things that will be costly, because Jesus’ own work was utterly costly. Things that will mean following Jesus into suffering, perhaps into death. In the last week, as I have been writing this, more Christians have been killed around the world, simply for worshipping Jesus. ‘Someone else will dress you and take you where you would rather not go.’ Peter will complete his task as a shepherd by laying down his own life, in turn, for the sheep.

      But even this is not something different from the call that drew the disciples in the first place. ‘Follow me!’ Now that Jesus has taken the steep road to the cross, and has proved that death itself is defeated by the life and joy of the new creation, he can ask for everything from those he has rescued, and know he will get it.

      Peter went from strength to strength. He was still muddled from time to time, as Acts indicates. But he became a shepherd. He loved Jesus and looked after his sheep. No one could ask for more. Jesus never asks for less.

      JOHN FOR EVERYONE TOM WRIGHT

      Scripture Reading

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