Once considered the liturgical purview of the Catholics, Lent – the 40-day period from Ash Wednesday to Holy Thursday before Easter – has become more and more embraced as a liturgical season with legs within the Protestant church. With the comfort level of spiritual practices on the rise in mainstream congregations for the past decade, progressive Christians now regularly claim Lent as a season for deep reflection, prayer, repentance, and overall spiritual growth. So the question is: How will you walk through Lent this year?
To help guide your journey, we’ll post a Lenten Question of the Week here on the blog, and on the Progressive Christian Facebook and Twitter pages, inviting your comments, and our bloggers’ responses. Every Friday morning, we’ll do a round-up of links back to related blogposts from the week, and highlights from your comments. It’s our hope that together, we’ll share and be inspired by a variety of responses to how a progressive Christian might walk through Lent this, or any, year.
With Ash Wednesday approaching, we pose two very general questions to launch our series this week:
- What does Ash Wednesday represent to you as a Progressive Christian?
- How might a progressive Christian approach Lent?
Your comments are welcome below.
To help get you started, Bruce Epperly asks “Can Lent be an embodied, rather than aesthetic season? Can we remember Ash Wednesday without the guilt?”
And Ragan Sutterfield talks about training for race day, as a metaphor for Lent and Easter, here.
Blessings on your Lenten journey, as we walk together toward the Cross.
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