A Lent message from Bishop Harold
Here we go again: Lent begins for another year, and most of us arrive at the gate to Lent without having really thought through how we might approach it. Having said that, Fasting is (dare I use the word) kosher again. Why? Because of the popularity of ‘The Fast Diet’ It’s on the TV, in the Radio Times, the Daily Mail, and lots of other places, and at least one person in this house (nameless) is on it.
But the key factor is this: We are now being told what we should have known all along: Fasting is good for you! The reality is that we don’t need three meals every day to survive and our muscles will not waste away if we don’t have them. The Church of Ireland has always believed that Fridays and the forty days of Lent are to be observed as days of abstinence and denial. Isn’t it weird that the world is telling the church that fasting is good for us. It should be the other way around.
I suggest we all do a bit of fasting this Lent, and if we are on the Fast Diet, that we pray while we are fasting. Not to make us feel better, or just to lose weight, or even to save money, but the kind of fasting where we open ourselves to God, spend time with him, and, without the comfort of food, come face to face with ourselves in his presence. That is the kind of fasting which will transform us and our churches to be the presence of the Lord in the world of today.
Have a happy, serious and life–changing Lent. Start now!
See Bishop Harold’s suggested reading for Lent here.