Lent

Robert Herrick

Is this a fast, to keep the larder clean?
And clean from fat of veals and sheep?
Is it to quit the dish of flesh,
Yet still to fill the platter high with fish?
Is it to fast an hour, or ragg'd to go,
Or show a downcast look and sour?
No, tis a fast to dole thy sheaf of wheat,
And meat unto the hungry soul.
It is to fast from stife, from old debate
And hate
To circumcise thy life.
To show a heart grief-rent,
To starve thy sin
Not bin,
And that's to keep thy Lent.

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"Lent is the most important time of the year to nurture our inner life. It's the time during which we not only prepare ourselves to celebrate the mystery of the death of Jesus, but also the death and resurrection that constantly takes place within us. Life is a continuing process of the dealth of the old and familiar and being reborn again into a new hope, a new trust and a new love. The death and resurrection of Jesus therefore is not just an historical event that took place a longtime ago but rather an inner event that takes place in our own heart when we are willing to be attentive to it. True repentance is an interior attitude in which we are willing to let go of everything that prevents us from growing into spiritual maturity and there is hardly a moment in our lives in which we are not invited to detach ourselves from certain ways of thinking, ways of speaking, ways of acting that for a long time gave us energy, but that always again needs to be renewed and recreated."

Henry Nouwen