Lenten plans

I have been considering what I want to do to bring the season of Lent closer to my mind and heart this year. It is far too easy in a nondenominational setting to just let the liturgical seasons fly by unnoticed.

From my public school days, I remember classmates who were 'giving up chocolate' or 'giving up the radio' and I never could figure out why. Our mainline denomination basically had more music rehearsals for Palm Sunday Easter music. And that was all I really remember, liturgically speaking.

This year I have the happy task of taking my last classes for my M.Div. and (hallelujah) only have a few thousand pages of intensive reading left. So I knew anything I did would not be along the lines of reading a book. My spiritual formation partner and I are going to read the daily offices for Lent. (They are online here should you like to read along.) I'm looking forward to that.

But the dilemma remains... what should I do or not do as part of the next forty days of Lent? That's what I'm pondering.

Weather permitting, I hope to get in a Silent Retreat on Ash Wednesday at Dayspring Retreat Center near me. Perhaps God will crystallize for me what it is that I can do to bring home the Passion and the Cross.

Still pondering this one...