The Season of Lent
About
The name for this season of the Church’s year originally meant ‘spring’, deriving from the German root for ‘long’:
Lent is the time of the year when the days become noticeably longer.
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Lent lasts for forty days, which is a significant period in Scripture.
This is the length of the flood in Genesis and of Moses’s fast before he was given the Ten Commandments.
More importantly, it is also the length of Jesus’s stay in the desert before beginning his active ministry.
Lent is a time of awakening; an opportunity to ‘start again’; a chance for renewal and re-commitment.
Above all, it is a call to love in the way that Jesus loved the Father and each of us: continually, and through self-giving.
It is good to remember that Lent is a ‘sober’ but not a ‘sombre’ time.
Indeed, Lent can be a time of gladness when we focus on drawing nearer to God.
Traditional Lenten practices can assist us with this, and our Works of Love can take many forms.
Prayer, repentance and forgiveness, sometimes through the Sacrament of Reconciliation, lie at the heart of our faith.
Fasting can help us develop internal freedom.
Almsgiving may prompt us not just to give money, but also time, support and friendship –
and perhaps a listening ear to someone who needs it.
All of these are well-tried ways in which we can co-operate with God.
The season of Lent is also a special time to let God come close to us and let his Holy Spirit work within us:
• To help us examine the way in which we love;
• To touch our minds and hearts, and so help us live according to the values of Jesus himself;
• To reflect on Jesus’s boundless love for us, shown particularly in his Passion, Death and Resurrection;
• To strengthen our resolve to change our focus, putting the interests of others rather than our own self first.
To aid our reflections this Lent we are reproducing, with permission content from St Bueno's outreach.
If you would like to know more about them or access their guided prayer resources, 'prego', you can contact them via their website
The Woman at the Well
Today’s beautiful encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well is the one of four personal encounters with Jesus during Lent from John’s gospel – each showing a particular gift that he brings to us and written so that we, too, can engage in that personal encounter with Jesus that will reveal that gift to us in the way that God seeks to uniquely touch our own lives.
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We have a woman coming to the well at a time of day when there would be few people around in the midday heat. She is a Samaritan, and surprised that Jesus is engaging with her as a member of a group on the outside of society. A Jew would not be likely to talk to a Samaritan or be willing to share their utensils – so, in breaking these conventions, Jesus communicates powerfully that he has been sent for everyone.
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As one gazes into the depths of a well to draw water, the darkness of the walls of the well can seem overpowering. Dominating the view. Yet Jesus, in this encounter, stands alongside her looking into the depths of her being symbolised by the depths of the well. She finds the radiance of his presence meets her in the reflection that she perceives in the water.
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Yet this image of the well and its depth reveals so much more than it’s dark walls. The midday sun shining from straight from above would illuminate most of the water. Refracting light back up against the walls of the well showing up every detail and imperfection in them.
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The beauty of this passage in John’s gospel is what it shows us about growth and change on our spiritual journeys through open conversations and not feeling that we have all of the answers. To keep that stance of openness, rather than holding tight to specific convictions, allows those moments of profound revelation to happen in our own lives. It enables those free flowing conversations with others that help them to “come and see”. Her open response to what Jesus was speaking into her life allowed who she was to evolve into a person who was animated by knowing Jesus and transformed in how she viewed the reality of her life. As that animation grew it spilled out to those that God was leading her to that were open to change as well as she ran off to spread the word. And so the kingdom continued its growth just as it does today.
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Rev. Caroline - St. Margaret's Church, Prestwich
(extract from sermon)
Song of the Brightness of Water
From this depth
—I came only to draw water in a jug—
so long ago, this brightness
still clings to my eyes
—the perception I found,
and so much empty space, my own,
reflected in the well.
Yet it is good. I can never take all of you
into me. Stay then as mirror in the well.
Leaves and flowers remain, and each astonished gaze
brings them down
to my eyes transfixed more by light
than by sorrow.
Pope John Paul II (Karol Wojtyla)