From the Chaplains

This week we enter into the space of Lent in many Christian traditions. This begins with Shrove Tuesday – or Pancake Tuesday – where many will have pikelets or pancakes for breakfast as a religious or fun observance. Shrove comes from shrive, referring to the confession of sins as a preparation for Lent, a practice dating back to the Middle Ages. Although the day is still used for self-examination and reflection, Shrove Tuesday through time has acquired the character of a carnival or festival.

Eggs, sugar and fat were commonly forbidden during the Lenten fast, meaning they were all used up for pancakes on Shrove Tuesday so that they would not go to waste.

I Corinthians 3:16 speaks of how we are a temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in us. I often use this image when I engage in centring prayer as a spiritual practice. It calls the mind and heart to pause and centre on God, not unlike the dinner table conversations (Word of the Week, Contemplative Outreach, Feb 19) we have with our children when we put our devices aside. We are enriched by focusing on God’s presence and then taking the love we have experienced into the world – our world.

As we continue to remember the people of New Zealand following a series of natural disasters and those in Türkiye and Syria and other places around the world, as well as families we know who are grieving the loss of a loved one, we consider the invitation to sit awhile and take time to reflect, renew and respond in love to ourselves and one another. May you have a blessed Lent if you are observing, and for our Orthodox families a bit later, but for all a time of drawing closer to God who longs for our company.

“To practice Centring Prayer is to descend into the furnace of divine love. Christ turns up the thermostat to burn away our undue attachments to life in this world and to ourselves … The heart (understood as the inmost centre of our being) contains the Spirit as a living flame of love … We enter contemplative prayer to access this flame and to allow it to intensify … We carry this flame into everyday life, where it transforms our intentions and actions into the appropriate response to the now of each passing moment … God in us loving God in everyone else.”

– Thomas Keating, Reflections on the Unknowable

Reverend Punam Bent

College Chaplain