Happy Pancake Day

Happy Pancake Day everyone!

Or if you’re a little more traditional, happy Shrove Tuesday. Today is in the Church calendar, the last day before the season of Lent begins. Today is a day of feasting before the beginning of what is traditionally a season of fasting. In some parts of the world (including where my beautiful wife comes from in England) it’s known as Pancake Day because it’s tradition to eat pancakes on the last day before lent. Pancakes are chosen because they contain, sugar, butter, eggs and fat – the types of foods that were traditionally fasted from during the Lenten season. The English pancake is more like a desert crepe than the traditional North American breakfast staple – but I’m looking forward to having some with my family tonight.

 But of course the point of Shrove Tuesday is to remind us that Lent begins tomorrow. Lent is a season that in many ways in analogous to Advent – a season of preparation before a season of celebration, but unlike Advent it has been largely marginalized and consequently forgotten by many evangelical church traditions. Lent traditionally is counted as the 40 days between Shrove Tuesday and Good Friday (not including Sundays) and it is a season of confession, penitence, fasting, and preparation. I've made it one of my personal goals to rediscover the disciplines of Lent in my own life and I've made it my pastoral mandate to live them out publicly to bring increased awareness to this season and its importance in the life of the Christian.

Last year you may recall that I journeyed through lent by blogging and divesting of many of my prized collectibles – my Transformers. And through that journey, not only did God really work in my heart, but he gave me the opportunity to have many important conversations about Lent with my readers and parishioners. This year I’m going to be blogging through Lent again, but the discipline will be different – instead of giving something up, I’ll be taking something up – namely a pattern of prayer.

This year my Lenten commitment is to pray the “hours” through the season of Lent and reflect through this blog what the experience is teaching me. As a resource I’ve followed a number of recommendations and picked up a copy of Eastertide: Prayers for Lent Through Easter from The Divine Hours, a compilation of prayers put together by Phyllis Tickle that will give me a guide to praying at morning (which I am setting for my own purposes at 6:30am) and Midday (which I am planning to do at 1:00pm) and for Vespers (evening prayers) which I’m hoping to do sometime at night – I’m still trying to decide on the best time to make this prayer time happen. Along the way I’m going to be blogging about the experience and what I feel God showing me through the season.

This Sunday I’ll be giving a message that encourages the hearers to consider the season of Lent in a way that will draw then closer to Christ and prepare them for the celebration of the season of Easter as we look at the parable of the soils (Mark 4:1-20). My prayer is that however the Lord leads each of us to observe this season – that in our lives it will not be wasted. I don’t know what will come of my own journey – but I do know that the Lord wants to speak and I’m going to make myself ready to listen to what he says.

Good Lenting, and go eat some pancakes!

Chris