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Theme for the Week: Lent
Lent
The term 'Lent' gets its name from an old word meaning 'to lengthen.' The days are lengthening, in the forty days from Ash Wednesday to Easter. These days are kept by many
Christians as a time of self-discipline - examining their habits with a view to amending where needed; giving up personal indulgences so that they may be masters over their
desires and appetites and tempers; seeing how things can be used unselfishly; remembering also the practice of prayer and worship.
Christians link this with Jesus fasting for 40 days and nights in the wilderness, at the end of which he was tempted by the devil.
In the Wilderness
Not in the lightning's flash, nor in the thunder,
Not in the tempest, nor the cloudy storm,
Will I array my form;
But part invisible these boughs asunder,
And move and murmur, as the wind upheaves
And whispers in the leaves.
Not as a terror and a desolation,
Not in my natural shape, inspiring fear
And dread, will I appear;
But in soft tones of sweetness and persuasion,
A sound as of the fall of mountain streams,
Or voices heard in dreams.
He sitteth there in silence, worn and wasted
With famine, and uplifts His hollow eyes
To the unpitying skies;
For forty days and nights he hath not tasted
Of food or drink, His parted lips are pale,
Surely His strength must fail.
Wherefore dost Thou in penitential fasting
Waste and consume the beauty of Thy youth?
Ah, if Thou be in truth
The Son of the Unnamed, the Everlasting,
Command these stones beneath Thy feet to be
Changed into bread for Thee!
Christ replies:
'Tis written: Man shall not live by bread alone,
But by each word that from God's mouth proceedeth!
H. W. Longfellow from 'The First Passover' | |