The Rhythm of Lent

The Season of Lent invites us into a new rhythm, a new way of engaging our faith. For those who attended worship at Christ the King this past Sunday, you may have been thrown off by the way we began. Instead of being greeted with words of welcome and announcements, we were asked to kneel down and join in the biddings and petitions of the Great Litany…not to mention that we were doing all of this with one hour’s less sleep!

Those at the 10:30 service likely noticed the shift in rhythm into which the Rite I language invites us. We have to slow down a bit because Elizabethan English doesn’t flow off of our tongues as easily as our familiar contemporary language.

 Those of us who attend the daily Morning Prayer service at Christ the King have also been presented with a new rhythm during Lent – Rite 1 language, opening the service with the Prayer of Confession, and reciting the penitential Canticle 14 after the first reading each day. It feels and sounds different from our usual pattern to which we have grown accustomed.

 In fitness training, it is good to “confuse your muscles” from time to time. That is what allows them to grow. And the same goes for worship and prayer. Familiar rhythms and patterns are a hallmark of the Anglican liturgical tradition – it is a pillar upon which we stand. But even those patterns need to be shaken up so that we can re-engage our prayers and liturgy with curious, open minds.

I invite you to engage in this and all of the other rhythms that the season of Lent invites us into – particularly the rhythms of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. And may we all be blessed by these holy, sacred, ancient rhythms.

Lenten blessings and peace,

Richard+