This year Ashley and I are living the liturgical calendar for the first time. We are using a calendar that we found @ Salt of the Earth. This calendar is not laid out in the normal fashion of weeks within months of the year, but is laid out in a way that you have weeks within the liturgical seasons. Through this experience it has allowed us to not just notice that changing of the months and the changing of the seasons from winter to spring, but to also see how God moves among us throughout the year.
As we have recently moved from Epiphany to Lent through the celebration of Ash Wednesday and the remembrance of the temptation of Jesus, we are encouraged to become more selfless by denying one's self and to turn that attention to God. Lent is not about giving up Facebook or twitter just to suffer, but it is to deny yourself of something that will allow you to become closer to God.
Lent is a time to remind us all that we, the human race, will eventually return to the dust from which we originally came. This is a hard concept for our post-Christendom secular society that has the tendency to deny that they will die. Alexander Schmemann touches on this issue in his book Great Lent: Journey of Pascha. Schmemann teaches us that the Lenten season is meant to kindle a "bright sadness" within our hearts. Its aim is precisely the remembrance of Christ, a longing for a relationship with God that has been lost. Lent offers the time and place for recovery of this relationship. The darkness of Lent allows the flame of the Holy Spirit to burn within our hearts until we are led to the brilliance of the Resurrection.
As Ashley and I move further into the Lenten season we have been able to focus on this painting by Linda K. McCray "Dust to Dust."
Please join Ashley and me in our journey of selflessness and self denial through this Lenten season to remember that without Christ we are nothing and that one day we will become dust again!
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