Ash Wednesday and Lent: Beginning Again Always

Ash Wednesday signals the beginning of that season of the church year that is most commonly associated with penance. The scripture for the opening of Lent, Joel 2:12-18, takes us back to a time of great danger in Israel. We have refused for years, perhaps, to even think about renewing old commitments that we've allowed to go to dust -- spending time with the children, visiting our parents, exercising, taking time to read good books. We've refused to put the effort into reviving old spiritual practices like visits to church, meditation in the morning, the memorization of the psalms, that we allowed to die in our youth but failed to substitute for as we aged. Lent is the time to let life in again, to rebuild the worlds we've allowed to go sterile, to "fast and weep and mourn" for the goods we've foregone.