Adult Formation

Special Lenten Series

All of Us Are Guests of Life

A close reading of the Liturgy of Ash Wednesday

Thursday Evenings: 7:00 PM

March 20, 27, April 3, 10

Peter Vanderveen

There are two principal expressions in the Ash Wednesday liturgy: 1) the priest’s invitation to a holy Lent, and 2) the recitation of the Litany of Penitence. It’s easy to think of these as little more than our extended request of God for forgiveness, which, once asked, can be forgotten as we all swing back into the usual habits of our week. This leaves holiness and penitence largely unexamined and unemployed. We are poorer for this.

Holiness might best be thought of, not as a crimping moral purity, but as the conscious decision to shape our lives by the conviction that we are all guests. This lends an immediate grace to everything. And Penitence isn’t, then, simply our admission of guilt (what good does this do?); it’s rather our intentional marking of how we belittle life by claiming it too much as our own. We spend a huge amount of time and energy trying to make the most of our selves, and in the process, lose sight of our souls. We base our lives on desire rather than hope, on what is transient instead of what endures. Again, we are poorer for this.

These four evenings will be conversations guided by the rich language of the liturgy, which deserves our explication and contemplation. This will make Lent a gift.