Spring has been slow in coming, and even after a few days of milder weather I'm not counting my ice-encrusted chickens. I do see and hear that some birds are returning. Rivers and streams are opening. The snow in our yard is diminishing. These are all good signs. But slowly, lentement.
Duh. It had never occurred to me until last week that while the word Lent, from the Latin, means both lengthening and slowly, that the same word is likely the source of the French lentement or slowly. While this Lent has seemed draggy, a forced march, I need to reframe it and reclaim it, if it isn't too late.
I have loved the stories from the gospel of John this year in the lectionary cycle. They are lengthy and rather slow in the reading. They take us somewhere deeper into life with Christ. In a culture that seems to value speed above all else, lentement can be good.
Any comments, co-survivors of this Winter? Are you okay with the different pace and feel of Lent?
1 comment:
Holy week seems later this year, perhaps spring is just keeping up with the liturgical calendar. I too have been inspired by John's gospels. I have often wondered who John's audience might have been-Jews? Gentiles? Ordinary folk? Or biblical scholars? Society back then was as complex as it is today, it was not all Judah Jews, but many tribal/national groups, a multi-cultural society. Was not Paul a Greek-Jewish Rabbi?
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