On Lent and Repentance

On Sunday, in observance of the First Sunday in Lent, we will begin the liturgy with a solemn procession and the Great Litany. At the end of the Great Litany, the priest says:

"Give us true repentance; forgive us our sins of negligence and ignorance and our deliberate sins; and grant us the grace of your Holy Spirit to amend our lives according to your word."

Lent is about repentance, forgiveness, and grace. Those are heavy subjects. However, the good news is that Lent is not an end in itself but an opportunity to prepare for Easter. During this season, we have the opportunity to focus on those parts of our lives that limit our ability to live as competely and fully as God desires. God has created each of us wonderfully and with a purpose that is life giving to us and to others. However, sometimes thoughts, actions, or other impediments limit our ability to live as God intends. We have this time of Lent to think about those impediments and, with God's help, to make some changes.

On Ash Wednesday, I talked about the three "Rs" of repentance - recognize, regret, and reorient. (I am grateful to Robert Voyle of Appreciative Inquiry Leadership Training for sharing these three aspects of repentance). First, we recognize that there is something in our lives that limits our ability to live as God would have us to live. Second, we regret this part of our lives by bringing to consciousness the cost to ourselves and others of our actions. Finally, we reorient ourselves by focussing not on what we don't want to do or be but on something positive. We have to replace the unwanted with something that is truly life giving. As Robert Voyle says, "Any "no" or act of self-denial in the spiritual life is only as helpful as the deeper "yes" that the no allows.

To what can you say "yes" during this season of repentance and preparation? Thank God that God's grace is abundance and that God longs for each of us to live into the richness and fullness of all that God has for us!