Dear Friends

This year the season of Lent begins on 1st March, Ash Wednesday, and runs through until Maundy Thursday on 13th April. It is the time of year, as most of us know, when we remember our Lord’s time of temptation in the wilderness just before the beginning of his ministry. It was for him a testing time because the tempter offered him all the worldly forms of self-gratification on a plate. It would have been easy for Jesus to turn the stones into bread and satisfy his physical hunger instantly. It would have been simple for him to have jumped off the temple roof to test whether his Father loved him enough to catch him as he fell. He could have taken advantage of the devil’s offer of all worldly dominion and riches. He could have sat back and taken all the easy options.

We learn from this New Testament story that there is no growth without effort of will. Jesus rebuked the devil to the effect that life is more than physical satisfaction, God is not be put to the test, and that wealth and power do not answer all human problems. Although we can take these lessons on board most of us do not have our Lord’s will to resist, which means that much of what the tempter offers us does, in fact, become part of our own lives.

It is the acknowledgement of this weakness in our human nature that makes Lent a penitential season. Much as God loves us and wills our eternal welfare, we are unworthy before him. The church, therefore, uses Lent as a time to seek growth in the Christian faith and to encourage us to spend a little more time than usual to think about our beliefs and lives. Alongside this is the ritual of renouncing some habitual pleasure during Lent. My view about this is to say that if it helps, do it; if not, don’t worry about it.

Lenten penance can be taken to extremes. Some religious orders encourage mortification of the flesh, that is, the avoidance of pleasure by the experience of discomfort or even pain. Cold showers in winter, fasting, spartan living