The title of this book ought to be The Great Little Book of Lent because here are wonderful reflections carefully chosen from Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican and Reformed writers on the spiritual life. They are linked to scripture readings and prayers for each of the forty days of Lent. Although some of the writers are still alive and some have died, all the reflections are from writers no earlier than the twentieth century. Christians sometimes assume that great spiritual writers are confined to early and medieval centuries. This anthology shows how mistaken that belief is and how lucky we are in our own age to have such profound insights on the Christian faith from a whole range of people who write out of their own deep encounter with God.
Christian spirituality is very much alive in the third millennium and is certainly not something restricted to monastic life. As Desmond Tutu puts it, ‘each one of us is meant to have that space inside where we can hear God’s voice because God is available to all of us’. Some of the authors will be very familiar, some not so. Canon Howells has managed to discover some nuggets of pure gold from a great range of writers who, in a few paragraphs, write clearly and insightfully on Christian living and believing.
Here is an anthology to be savoured and pondered, read and re-read, for the contents provide a helpful immersion into the thinking of those who have had the most profound of things to say about Christian living and dying in this century and the last.
This anthology is composed of extracts from several spiritual writers who have become favourites of mine and to whom I frequently return. As we make our journey through Lent I hope that these readings, together with the scripture texts and prayers which accompany them, may encourage and challenge us and that through them God will speak to us.
There are many ways in which this book may be used. For most readers it will provide that little ‘extra’ to their daily Bible reading during this season. Others may find it helpful to meet with a friend or neighbour each day, spending some time pondering over the readings, sharing insights, listening to each other and simply being quiet before God. One of the effects of such listening is that we begin to appreciate that no two people pray in the same way and that the text or reading has a different message for each person. Then we may begin to appreciate that God has something to say to us through the insights of others.
It is my privilege to dedicate this small book to Graham Chadwick. He was a Welshman, born in 1923 and ordained in the Diocese of Swansea and Brecon, where he began his ministry as curate of Oystermouth, Swansea. He subsequently served as Diocesan Missioner in Lesotho, then as university chaplain at Swansea and in 1976 was consecrated Bishop of Kimberley and Kuruman in the Province of South Africa. In 1982 his opposition to apartheid and vigorous support for his clergy, many of whom were tortured or imprisoned, led the civil authorities to expel him from the country. He returned to Wales, becoming assistant to the Bishop of St Asaph and subsequently to Bishop David Sheppard in Liverpool. Throughout this period he immersed himself in supporting and teaching those who felt called to accompany people on their prayer journey, especially by promoting the Ignatian Exercises, and travelled far and wide teaching and lecturing on the elements of prayer and spirituality. At the age of seventy-two, in 1995 he was appointed the first Director of Spirituality for Sarum College – a post he held for three years until his retirement, when he continued to exercise the role of spiritual director until his death in 2007. As well as being a skilled counsellor and teacher, he was a friend and encourager to many.
I am most grateful to Andrew Lyon of William Collins Publishers for all his help in getting this anthology published, to Rhona Bennett for editing the prayers and providing such valuable suggestions, and to the Archbishop of Wales for agreeing to write the foreword.
ARTHUR HOWELLS
A PRAYER AT THE BEGINNING OF LENT
Dear Lord Jesus,
Tomorrow the Lenten season begins. It is a time to be with you in a special way, a time to pray, a time to fast, and thus to follow you on your way to Jerusalem, to Golgotha, and to the final victory over death.
I am still so divided. I truly want to follow you, but I also want to follow my own desires and lend an ear to the voices that speak about prestige, success, human respect, pleasure, power, and influence. Help me to become deaf to these voices and more attentive to your voice, which calls me to choose the narrow road to life.
I know that Lent is going to be a very hard time for me. The choice for your way has to be made every moment of my life. I have to choose thoughts that are your thoughts, words that are your words, and actions that are your actions. There are no times or places without choices. And I know how deeply I resist choosing you.
Please, Lord, be with me at every moment and in every place. Give me the strength and the courage to live this season faithfully, so that, when Easter comes, I will be able to taste with joy the new life which you have prepared for me.
Amen.
THE ROAD TO DAYBREAK HENRI J. M. NOUWEN
ASH WEDNESDAY: THE FIRST DAY OF LENT
For Reflection
Brother Alois succeeded the late Brother Roger as Prior of the Taizé Community in 2005. He wrote a series of meditations for the daily newspaper La Croix during the year 2008–2009. This meditation was composed for the beginning of Lent.
Lent: Turning to God Lent first directs our thoughts to the image of the desert, the one in which Jesus spent forty days of solitude, or the one that God’s people crossed by walking for forty