SPIRITUAL GUIDANCE:

Lent 2008 has begun!

Lent is a “springtime” of spiritual tithing: 40 days is about 1/10 of our leap year.

For Christians, Lent is a time for pilgrimage focused on preparing to enjoy new life that Jesus’ resurrection opens to all.

It is good to have a plan and a pattern to follow faithfully — or maybe not so carefully — one we intend to make our own.

Lent gives us opportunities to think about what we are, and are not, as human beings.

Lent is time for getting back to basics; time to “make time” for God; time to s-l-o-w-d-o-w-n a bit our frantic pace of pursuing, perspiring and protecting over possessions, power and prestige; time to strip away the masks behind which we live daily and come face-to-face again with who we really are — with Whose we really are; time to be silent, time to reflect.

Lent is a time for “spring cleaning;” time to “take out the garbage” and start fresh; time to “let the sunshine in” to some of the dark corners of our lives; time to rid ourselves of some of the “clutter” and “trash” filling our spiritual lives; time to “open the windows” of lives too often shut tight to God and to neighbor and let the breath of God’s spirit breathe “fresh air” in and through us.

Lent is time for “spring planting;” time for “the tough plowing” to break up the clods and open the ground for the seed of God’s Word; time for “receiving the seed” and letting it establish itself deep within us, develop tenacious roots, be nourished, grow, and produce that for which it was made.

During Lent, this “spiritual springtime,” make an extra effort: to build time into each day for prayer and meditating on God’s Word; to gather regularly for worship and camaraderie with others on journeys similar to your own; and to do some “spiritual housecleaning” and “spring planting” that you might be refreshed and renewed as a beloved child of God.

Lent excludes Sundays, which are feast days, always the “Day of Resurrection.”

PETER D. HAYNES is the Very Rev.’d Canon of Saint Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church in Corona del Mar.