A Lenten Journey

Lent is a forty-day confessional. We are on the desert with Jesus. Lent is an intense period of Marking and Tracing -- preparing one to unite more fully with the Christ on Easter Morn. (Ann Ree Colton)

According to Wikipedia, the word Lent is derived from the German word Lenz and the Dutch word lente, and means spring-time. For those who live in the Northern Hemisphere, this word is appropriate in that it gets us in touch with the season in which Lent occurs. We start our Lenten journey at Ash Wednesday which occurs during Winter. We journey through the winter into spring and the emergence of new life, growth, and hope which we experience at Easter.

Lent is inherently a time of preparation. Jesus spent 40-days fasting and praying in the desert as preparation for starting the active phase of His ministry on Earth. Likewise, Lent is a 40-day preparation period to help enable the devotee to fully experience the resurrected Christ on Easter morning. Lent, marks a transition to a new beginning. For Jesus, this was his transition from his first thirty years of earth life as Jesus to his next three years of messianic ministry as Christ Jesus.

And he was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted of Satan; and was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered unto him. (St. Mark 1:13)

For the spiritual devotee, Lent marks the transition from who we are presently to the new person we are destined to become. If we have not emerged from Lent, spiritually strengthened, clarified, and opened, we have not truly entered into the Lenten process. Lent prepares us to experience the resurrection at Easter on a higher level and spiritual spiral. Through the Lenten journey, we are individually renewed as aspirants on the path, the ministry is renewed, and the world is capable of being renewed with new growth and purpose. And it all begins with our repentance on Ash Wednesday.

Repentance is a very deep, powerful word and that it is the first word you have offered to you as you enter the path. (Ann Ree Colton)

Lent is an individualized process. Jesus went into the desert alone to determine if he was ready to begin his ministry. And although we are surrounded by holy presences, Lent is our own individual process of soul seeking, retrospection and releasing. Yet in this individualized process is the archetypal format of Jesus’ period of 40-days in the desert.

Discipleship is an individualized process. No two evolve the same. Yet in this age there is a singular proven formula relative to all. (Ann Ree Colton)

The suffering and sacrifice that we feel at Lent is also more individualized. We are dealing with our own stuff; proving our spiritual dedication; and readying ourselves as an individual vessel to be used by Our Lord. And if we have done our own inner work during Lent, we qualify ourselves to enter into the crucifixion drama as a world service, shouldering some portion of Jesus’ burden in this age as intentional suffering and transenergizing world darkness into light. Jesus’ victory during Lent shows us the way and reinforces our own Lenten walk. Likewise, our deeply spiritual walk in Lent can support and reinforce others in their walk. While we each walk Lent in our own way, we are also all in this together.

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. (1 John 1:7)

With every step we take on our Lenten journey, we seek to make Lent holy. A holy Lent is a Lent free from cravings, free from sense distractions, free from competitiveness, free from non-loving, free from non-virtue. A holy Lent is a Lent where each disciple removes the garments of their past negativities in order to prepare their body, heart, mind, and soul for the seamless garment of the Lord Jesus. Each one of us must die to the old during Lent, that we may become something new in the Easter timing – a child of the resurrection. A holy Lent is one of spiritual freedom – the freedom Jesus experienced, which is available to all devotees who earnestly seek him.

Painting by Jonathan Murro: "And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not." (St. John 1:15)

During Lent (Poem by Jonathan Murro)

During Lent

we should repent

for every negative

feeling and thought.

During Lent

we should repent

for every sin

committed through lust,

anger, greed, pride, covetousness.

During Lent

we should repent

for our contributing to

the darkness in the world

through our sinning

and wrong willing.

During Lent

our time should be spent

in repenting and confessing,

rectifying and trying,

redeeming the time lost,

the grace forfeited.

We have paid a high price for our sins,

living in ignorance,

shut away from Heaven's Light.

During Lent, all can be restored

through the Christed Light.

All can be healed and made right.

And we can once again find favor

in God's sight.

Lent is the time to begin anew,

to become as a chalice

filled with God's Holy Light.

As long as the Risen Christ

remains our Lord,

we shall rise with Him.

Every thought of love,

feeling of love,

deed of love

will make us one

with God's Mighty Son.

Therefore, let us resolve

to never stray

into negation's way.

The time of redemption is now.

The time to love one another is always.

Redemption through Christ bringeth

the victory.

And love maketh thee one with God

forevermore.

– Jonathan Murro

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