Ash Wednesday -聖灰節

今天是ASH WEDNESDAY。是LENT(四旬齋)的開始，一共四十天，紀念耶穌被聖靈引到沙漠中禁食，接受魔鬼試煉的四十晝夜。（馬太福音4：1）） 

我去年的選擇是放棄巧克力四十天。今年我會放棄巧克力+所有我喜歡的蛋糕點心糖果四十天，並時常默念我們真正的快樂所在，重溫耶穌為我們受的苦難，以及尋求和神更親近的機會。我會學習默想詩篇的經節並禱告。 

下麵是有關LENT的一些資料和Anthony B. Robinson （senior minister at Plymouth Congregational Church: United Church of Christ in Seattle.）寫的”The meaning of Ash Wednesday”, 供感興趣的朋友參考。

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The Season of LENT (starts Feb 25, 2009)

Lent is the period of 40 days preceding Palm Sunday (the Sunday before Easter – i.e. the start of Holy Week). It is a subdued time of repentance, reflection and discipline that commemorates Jesus’ 40 days of fasting and trial in the desert (Matt. 4:1ff).

Since at least the third century AD, it has been traditional to give up something pleasurable that is part of our everyday lives. It is often a food or activity that we enjoy regularly. It is also common to fast during Lent. The purpose of giving something up is to :

Teach ourselves self-control and to free our minds and hearts from material things,

Remind us of Christ's sufferings and where our true pleasures are as His followers.

Show repentance for our wrongdoings.

By giving up something we regularly enjoy, we remind ourselves of how easily we become attached to pleasure, and we have the opportunity to re-focus our lives on God. The intent is not to "score points" with God but to seek Him actively as a replacement for the pleasure we are missing. Therefore, every time our habits remind us of what we have given up, we can take time to remember God and draw closer to Him. Monks of the Franciscan order call this 'detachment' – the idea that the less that 'stuff' preoccupies our lives, the more room there is for God (and for ourselves and others).

Ideas for celebrating Lent:

 Give up something you eat/drink (meat, pizza, chocolate, pop, …

 Give up a time-waster (e.g. TV, Music) or take on a good-deed (e.g. hosting your neighbours for a meal, visiting the sick or elderly, etc)

 Fast one day each week from sundown to sundown (e.g. Thursday 6.00 pm – Friday 6.00pm).

 Read a chapter of the Gospels each day (You can read the whole of Mark and Luke in 40 days doing one chapter a day).

 Pray through some of the Psalms or memorize a favorite (e.g. Ps 1, 8, 23, 25, 42, 84, 103, 121, 139, 145, etc)

 Participate in all the special services at UC from now until Easter Sunday. (e.g. Ash Wednesday Service – Feb 5th at 7.30 pm – and all-night Concert of Prayer – Friday Feb 27th from 10.00 pm)

The meaning of Ash Wednesday

Friday, March 9, 2001

By ANTHONY B. ROBINSON

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER COLUMNIST 

It seems odd, in a way, that in all the Fat Tuesday, Mardi Gras, postmortems -- radio talk shows, news conferences, editorials -- few have thought to note the obvious. Fat Tuesday is not a stand-alone event. Once known as "Shrove Tuesday," it is as yin to the yang of Ash Wednesday. 

Ash Wednesday will not, as Seattle's Mardi Gras did, have sponsorship from Heinekens or promotion by radio stations, like KISS, that target adolescents and that urged their underage audience to come out for the melee. 

But it may be that the truths of Ash Wednesday are what need to be heard in the wake of the ugliness and the tragedy of Seattle's Mardi Gras. The essential truth, and gift, of Ash Wednesday is its call to come to terms with ourselves before God. Ash Wednesday says what so much of modern culture denies, namely that we human beings are forever deceiving and justifying ourselves. 

For those familiar with Alcoholics Anonymous and other Twelve Step programs, Ash Wednesday is a like a giant, pull-out-all-the stops Step Four. We "made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves." 

This, of course, is different from what has gone on in the wake of Seattle's Mardi Gras. Mostly we busied ourselves examining others, and trying to assign blame. Blame African Americans, said some. Blame the police, said others. Blame the mayor, the City Council, the merchants, the media and the man in the moon. So Mardi Gras gave way not to Ash Wednesday but to a riot of accusation, complaint and counter-complaint. 

I believe it was C. S. Lewis who said something like, "Hell is a place where everyone has a complaint and makes it ceaselessly." If he is right, much of talk radio can be considered a foretaste of hell. 

The invitation of Ash Wednesday is a different one. It is to fast from our self-justifications, complaints, blame and accusation of others and take a good, hard, honest look at ourselves. This is as difficult as it is odd in contemporary culture.

We are fluent in the language of complaint, but not in the language of confession. We know far better how to play the blame game than how to practice the art of apology.

The writer Janet Malcolm observes, "We are all perpetually smoothing and rearranging reality to conform to our wishes; we lie to others and ourselves constantly, unthinkingly. When occasionally -- and not by dint of our own efforts but under pressure of external events -- we are forced to see things as they are, we are like naked people in a storm." 

Malcolm is right. We are all "smoothing and rearranging reality to conform to our wishes." Ash Wednesday says, "Give it up. Tell the story truthfully. Name your part in the evils you deplore. Take responsibility." In Seattle, it seems that the only ones we expect to take responsibility are our chiefs of police. 

Ash Wednesday is not only a day for searching self-scrutiny on the part of individuals, but for us as a community of people. What we have most in common as human beings is our sin, our failure to be who we have been made to be and called to be. What we have most in common is our need for mercy. 

Of course, a lot of people don't agree with this. Many think that our problem is insufficient self-esteem. We need to think more highly of ourselves, love ourselves more. Personally, I think we have gone about as far down that road as we can go. I'm in favor of thinking less of ourselves. Oh sure, that too can be overdone. But just now that doesn't seem to be our problem. 

You would think that we might have gotten that this year especially. On Ash Wednesday, a pretty convincing call to attention was sounded at around 11 a.m. in the Pacific Northwest. When we clambered out from under our desks and door frames, one clear lesson was that we were all in this one together. The earthquake didn't single out one racial, ethnic, gender, age, economic, ideological or occupational group. No, it was an equal opportunity event. A reminder that we're all in this together, and that no one gets to point the finger or to distance themselves and say, "That's about her, not me; about them, not us." 

Over the years I have noticed a university professor who always makes it to Ash Wednesday services every year, even though her Sunday attendance is sporadic. Finally, I asked her, "I see you really make a point of getting to Ash Wednesday. What's the deal?"

"It's the one day of the year," she said, "when we really get it right, when we tell the truth, a truth that's not told at the university. We're a mess. We need help. If it's all up to us, we're doomed." 

Of course, confession, apology and remorse are possible and make sense only when we believe it is not all up to us.
________________________________________

Anthony B. Robinson is senior minister at Plymouth Congregational Church: United Church of Christ in Seattle.

 

[盈袖2006]

回複苗青青的評論:
你比我有信心啊，“每天”我怕自己做不到，我的教會甚至提供了一份每一天推薦讀的段落，如果你感興趣，我可以打出來給你。

放棄的一般是自己喜歡的東西，可以是食物，也可以是愛做的事情。

[盈袖2006]

回複爾爾的評論:
是啊，我有時還是比較縱容自己，尤其是聖誕期間。你一點都不吃嗎？也趕緊佩服一下：）

[苗青青]

我想每天早起床， 有時間清晨讀一章聖經，禱告。

再想想放棄什麽。。。

謝謝介紹這個節日， 以前還真不太熟悉。

[爾爾]

"我去年的選擇是放棄巧克力四十天。"--Gosh, you're still eating 巧克力? 趕緊佩服一下!