Through the fire.

A blessing for your Lenten journey

Ceramic plates waiting to be burned in the wood fire stove at the pottery at St Johns monastery. (c) A. Furchert.

Dear fellow pilgrim,

Lenten has become the season of giving up things. Coffee. Cookies. Often something we usually should not have in the first place. I am not a friend of Lenten-givings-up for the sake of giving up.

But I understand where people are coming from. Originally these practices were meant as a practice of detachment. To let go of something which is important to us. To practice letting go instead of holding on.

And thus the practice of detachment can look different for different people just as we cherish different things.

You might feel your soul is stretched out, already thin, or in need of a truckload of ashes in order to lament the state of our world. You might have become as weary of Lenten-givings-up as you are of New Years resolutions. So have I. What could we even give up which would matter in the grand scheme of things, would matter to the child clinging …