As we journey through Lent it is good to reflect on where the English word Lent comes from: it comes from the Old English word “lencten”, which means “spring” or “springtime”. It refers to the season of the year in the Northern Hemisphere when the days begin to lengthen. The darkness of winter is going slowly, and the Earth is full of promise. The English word Lent ties us into nature and the seasons.
Spring is a time of renewal, we can see it all around us in the buds on the trees, in the spring bulbs beginning to flower. Nature is leading us into a time of renewal: a time to discover again the great love of our creator: who calls us by our name who, in the words of the psalmist, “knit me together in my mother’s womb.”
Our creator who loved us first, whose love holds us in existence, invites us to share more deeply in the life of the Trinity. In the words of the hymn based on the book of Hosea “long have I waited for you coming home to me and living deeply our new life.”
God’s love for us is always an invitation we can choose to accept or refuse, God waits for us in love. It is an individual invitation, we are unique: as our Founder said
“It is important that each person be himself; that he remain what God has made him to be, in order to achieve the goal that the divine Creator set for him” (PB Noailles) Yet so often we compare ourselves to others, maybe wish that we had their gifts, we find it so hard to believe that we are loved for ourselves.
Lent is a time to hear again, and to believe, these words from the Song of Solomon: “My love lifts up his voice, he says to me, ‘Come then, my beloved, my lovely one, come. For see, winter is past, the rains are over and gone.’ ” To trust and believe that we are loved. To have the grace to see that all is gift, to wake each morning and see the wonder of ourselves, each other, and the whole of creation.
Jesus said, “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly”. (John10:10)
May this Lent be a time of new growth for each of us.
Maureen Bowsley, Lay member
Rock Ferry