Last week I wondered if we really needed another “Lenty” Lent focused on repentance and mortality. Surely, I thought, the last two years have given us enough time to embrace our frailty and need for grace. I was hoping we could spend this Lent celebrating glimpses of beauty and not dig so deep into the pain of the season.
Then Russia invaded Ukraine.
We are broken people. All of us. Our need for God’s grace cries out in every news bulletin, live stream video, air raid siren, and press report. Our mortality and sin are on full display.
Even as acts of bravery and beauty bring us to tears, we are reminded again just why we need Lent—the kind of Lent that starts with ashes and ends up at the cross. It’s not the end of the story, but it’s the chapter we find ourselves in right now.
a writing prompt for Ash Wednesday
Write in response to the question: What’s underneath the ashes?
an Ash Wednesday poem by Ann Weems
On the edge of war, one foot already in, I no longer pray for peace: I pray for miracles. I pray that stone hearts will turn to tenderheartedness, and evil intentions will turn to mercifulness, and all the soldiers already deployed will be snatched out of harm’s way, and the whole world will be astounded onto its knees. I pray that all the “God talk” will take bones, and stand up and shed its cloak of faithlessness, and walk again in its powerful truth. I pray that the whole world might sit down together and share its bread and its wine. Some say there is no hope, but then I’ve always applauded the holy fools who never seem to give up on the scandalousness of our faith: that we are loved by God…… that we can truly love one another. I no longer pray for peace: I pray for miracles.
seven writing prompts for Lent
I’ll be sharing a weekly Lenten writing prompt here and in my Wednesday emails. If you’d rather download a copy now of the full set of seven brief prompts, you can click below. I’d love to know if you use the prompts this Lent.
