The presents have been wrapped and unwrapped, the feast prepared and consumed, the guests come and gone, and the Christmas music that filled us with joy a few days ago has turned to noise in our ears. A sense of general ennui now fills the air, as the holiday that was filled with so much … Continue reading Beginnings (A Christmas Reflection)
In honour of it being the last week of Lent, I decided to explore a classic lenten practice this week, fasting. There are many different approaches to fasting, from total abstinence from food on certain days, as is common in some evangelical circles, to the giving up of a favorite food during the season, which … Continue reading Fasting
This week was the first full week of Lent, and so I wanted the practice for this week to be a specifically Lenten practice. And, since I first encountered it twelve years ago, no practice has jumped out at me as being ‘more’ Lenten, than the Lenten Prayer of St. Ephrem the Syrian. The famed … Continue reading Lenten Prayer of St. Ephrem the Syrian
[Originally posted two years ago on my old blog] Those of you who know me undoubtedly know my deeply ambivalent feelings about Lent, or more accurately, about how Lent tends to be celebrated. Too often this season of penitence is defined by external things, like the lack of flowers on the altar, or depriving oneself … Continue reading A Bright Lent
At the start of this season of penitence we remind ourselves of our smallness and impermanence. Over and against the ego's instinct to puff itself up in the face of these simple realities of existence — like a house cat arching its back and raising its fur at the sight of its reflection in a mirror — we instead lean into our smallness and impermanence and remember that we are crafted and sustained by the love of an infinitely creative God.
Matthew Root 