Ash Wednesday is nearly upon us and with it begins the Season of Lent. Each year it seems Lent finds many of us contemporaries unprepared; without having considered what our Lenten disciplines ought to be, how we are to fast, what we are to read and how much and to what cause we might give alms (these being the 3 traditional Lenten disciplines of fasting, study and alms giving). The ancient Church can teach us a good many things about preparing for the season then. In Orthodox churches for instance, there are several weeks of preparations undertaken to get one’s soul and one’s home ready for the rigors of Lent.
The Orthodox do not begin Lent on Ash Wednesday as we do in the Christian West. They begin rather the Monday of the first week of Lent, also known as Clean Monday. This is the day to not only make sure that you begin your fast in earnest but also to make sure that your home is de-cluttered of all the temptations that might lead one away from keeping a Holy Lent. One spiritual author, Fr. Edward Hays muses that one might also refer to it as Clear the Decks Monday. As a ship is preparing to enter into battle, the captain will often give this command to clear the decks. This is the signal to get everything out of the way that might otherwise hinder the crew in the oncoming battle. The image is an apt one as we contemplate preparing for the spiritual conquest of our sinful flesh during the season of Lent.
This same idea appears in the Anglican tradition of Shrove Tuesday. Shrove is the past tense of an old English word shrive, which means to obtain absolution (i.e. for sin through confession and penance). In earlier times one was expected to prepare for Lent by making sacramental confession in the days leading up to Ash Wednesday. The day has also become known as Pancake Tuesday which, in the English speaking world was a day for one final feast of cakes incorporating fat and eggs and other foods which were proscribed during the Lenten observance. Consequently, this same idea is found in the French Mardi Gras.
What are we then to take away from these older, wiser traditions? I would urge us all to take Monday and Tuesday as days of preparation. De-clutter your life. Consider before the Lord what your fast needs to look like this year. Traditionally Lent was a season of ascetical fasting – meaning that one did not abstain entirely from food but rather simplified and downsized the food that was eaten during the season. Consider turning out of your home or work place anything you need to get rid of to keep you from being tempted away from keeping a Holy Lent.
Consider praying through the 10 Commandments or the Litany of Penitence from the Ash Wednesday liturgy (p. 267 of the Book of Common Prayer) on Tuesday in preparation for the season. Fr. Steve+ will be offering sacramental confession after the early morning liturgy and before the evening liturgy on Ash Wednesday for those who do want to begin Lent with a more formal and personal form of confession. Whatever the Lord leads you to do in preparation, clear the decks, empty the larder and prepare for the spiritual battle at hand!
