Lent in the Time of War
Today is Ash Wednesday, which means another Lent has arrived. Over the past few years now, Lent has been marked by global calamities. In 2019, on Good Friday Notre Dame caught fire and burned. Covid, and the regulations around it, began their reign in 2020 and continued on into 2021 and is only now, in the Lent of 2022 that both the disease and its restrictions are finally beginning to subside. But now, of course, as Covid fades into the background, we have Russia invading the Ukraine. I wonder in the midst of all this, what Lents were like hundreds of years ago. What were the Lents like during the Black Death in the mid-14th century? What was Lent in England like in 9th century when Alfred the Great was battling invading Danes? What was it like for 8th century Irish monks to be celebrating Lent while waiting for the Vikings to come and pillage?
Perhaps the hardest Lent is always the one you are experiencing right now. Perhaps we cannot compare ourselves to those who came before because the comparisons will always fail in the particulars. Perhaps the only comparison we can make is with ourselves. Is this Lent going to be harder for me than last Lent? How am I different? How have changed for the better or for the worse in that time? But I don’t think we can stay there. We need to think of ourselves and our holiness, our growing closer to Christ. But we must also think of our communities. Maybe we shouldn’t compare how hard Lent was for Christians in the 21st vs the 14th centuries, but maybe we should think about what we can do to aid our brothers and sisters. After all, the three pillars of Lent are fasting, prayer, and almsgiving. How are we contributing to the betterment of those around us? How are we doing more than saying, “Go! I wish you warm and well fed”?
For my part, as a writer, one of the things I can offer to others is my writing. I can, and of course must, do more than that, but it’s a start. So, here are some pieces I’ve written over the past few years which may, I hope they do, help you this Lent.
Join me also, in this time of preparation, in praying for our brothers and sisters in Ukraine. While their Lent, called the Great Fast, those belonging to the Orthodox Church anyway, does not begin for a few more days, they are still amongst those who face death in way most of us will not this Lent.
Essays and Poems on Lent
Death, Sin, and Fasting: Reflections before the Start of Lent - Patheos
Burial Gardens: Life and Death in Lent - Messy Jesus Business
“On the Burning of Notre Dame” - Imaginative Conservative
“Stations of the Cross” - Imaginative Conservative
