PARISH OF LLANDUDNO, NORTH WALES
February 2008
In recent weeks there has been an advert on T.V. which
shows a woman trying to change her lifestyle but failing miserably
because she tries to do too many things all at once. She messes up
everything she’s taken on and just ends up exhausted and defeated. But
then she’s told ‘Just take on one thing at a time’. And we see her
choosing one thing and making a real go of it.When we want to change our life or take on new things and feel very enthusiastic, it can be really tempting to try to do everything at once and to get to end of the journey almost before we’ve taken the first step! Now, it’s certainly good to have long term goals in life and to be keen to achieve them, but we all need to learn to get there slowly but surely.
Sometimes this temptation to change everything at once can occur in Lent. We want to make a real effort in this special season; we want to grow closer to Our Lord and to be a more faithful disciple. So we construct an elaborate Lenten rule of life setting ourselves a strict routine of prayer, bible reading, service to others etc. Not surprisingly we often fail to live up to this rule because we’ve taken on too much all at once and have relied on our own strength and not on the grace of God. Then we feel guilty that we have failed Christ and wasted another Lent.
Alternatively, having had this dispiriting experience in the past we don’t bother to do anything special at all in Lent, except perhaps attending the odd extra service or event and also end up feeling that somehow we have wasted a time of real opportunity to grow in our faith.
But what if we were to put the advice of that advert into practice when it comes to our Lenten observance? What if we were to take on just one thing for the Lord this Lent? Maybe, just maybe it might work, with the help of God. So I invite you to consider taking on just one special thing this Lent. Certainly not something too easy - it should be a real commitment. But it should also be something which you have a fair chance of actually be able to do.
What might that one thing be? Well there are endless possibilities, I will mention just one. Those who came to the services for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity in January will remember that the theme for the week was ‘Pray without ceasing’, based on St Paul’s appeal to the Thessalonians in his first letter to them (see 1 Thess 5:12-18). Of course, St Paul didn’t mean by this that we literally ought to be praying at every moment of our lives. That would surely be impossible! He meant that our lives ought to be punctuated by prayer at frequent intervals. There should both be special times of prayer and we should also learn the art of ‘practising the presence of God’ at intervals throughout the day. In this way we gradually learn to make a real space for God in our lives.
So maybe the one thing we do this Lent could be attending to our prayer life and seeing how it could grow. There are various events this Lent which might just be able to help. Under the auspices of Cytûn Llandudno there will be four ‘prayer workshops’ entitled ‘A Pilgrimage of Prayer’ which will deal with meditation; we will have our Quiet Day at Loreto next month; and I will make a number of books on prayer available for anyone wanting to borrow them. I am also willing to give private counsel on prayer to anyone who wishes it. I don’t claim to be an expert on prayer, far from it, but as a fellow Christian pilgrim with some experience I could possibly help you, so do ask.
Whatever you do this Lent the most important thing is to realize that we won’t actually accomplish anything at all unless we stop relying on our own strength and open ourselves up to the grace of God. Have a joyful Lent 2008!