How to Keep a Good Lent (3)

by Peter J. Gomes — third of four parts.

A Routine for Practical People

How should the time be organized? I suggest that every alternate day serve as the occasion for your Lenten disciplines. For example, devote Monday to silence, Wednesday to study, and Friday to service. Or, if you wish, try a Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday schedule. Use the off-day for reflecting upon what you have done or are about to do, perhaps by keeping a record of your thoughts in a diary or journal, or in the form of a letter to yourself or to someone else. If you spend a little time in recording your thoughts about the process you will have the added benefit of charting your journey. Be sure to record your failures and low thoughts as well as your successes and ambitions.

Remember to Take Sundays Off

The Sundays following Ash Wednesday and through Palm Sunday are Sundays in Lent and not Sundays of Lent, and from ancient times each of these Sundays has been intended to be a Sabbath from the rigours of the Lenten discipline. Provided that you keep a week-day Lenten discipline such as I have proposed, you will need a Sabbath, a rest, and Sunday is it. Thus, you should endeavour to come to church every Sunday in Lent as reward for your labours, encouragement in the effort, and preparation for the week ahead. You should keep that Sabbath as a holy day along with your fellow Lenten pilgrims: This is another essential aspect of the public nature of Lent. You will need help in your Lenten work, all the help you can get, and you will find it here on Sunday mornings.

Prayer

Lord Jesus Christ, you took upon yourself the form a servant, humbling yourself and accepting death. May we also be ready take upon ourselves the life of humility and service that with you we may attain to the power of an endless life.