Taking A Pilgrimage This Lent
Lent is a 40 day season of fasting and prayer in the Christian calendar and is observed by many mainline denominations in the Western Church as well as the various traditions of the Eastern and Oriental Church. The general purpose of observing Lent is to prepare a Christian – through prayer, penitence, fasting and almsgiving – for the commemoration of the Holy Week that culminates in Easter Sunday.
For churches that follow the Gregorian calendar, Lent starts on Wednesday, the 25th of February, this year. This is usually referred to as Ash Wednesday – a day of penitence to clean the soul before the Lent fast. In some congregations, special services are held on Ash Wednesday at which worshippers are marked with ashes as a symbol for death and the sorrow of sin.
My congregation of Bangsar Lutheran Church will be hosting a district wide Ash Wednesday service at 8.00 pm for the Kuala Lumpur district of the Lutheran Church in Malaysia and Singapore. If you’ve never joined one before, you’re warmly invited to join us. Details are available here.
I will also be participating in Christian Aid’s virtual pilgrimage to Jerusalem this Lent which will begin near Jericho at the Mount of Temptation (the place in which tradition places Jesus when he was tempted by Satan during his 40 days in the wilderness). From there I’ll be taken on a virtual journey through the Holy Land where there’ll be stories, podcasts, photo galleries and videos every day to bring this region to life.
Visiting places such as Bethlehem, Nazareth, Gaza and Jerusalem, I will get to meet the local people, – both Israeli and Palestinian, Jewish, Muslim, Druze and Christian – see the pilgrimage sites, hear from Christian Aid’s partners and learn more about Israelis and Palestinians who are working hard for peace and justice.
This seems like a good way to spend Lent, particularly after my small involvement with COMPLETE‘s campaign to support a ceasefire in the recent Gaza conflict and promote a just and lasting peace in the Holy Land (at least that’s the interpretation of my involvement).
I will also be joining other Christians from the Lutheran Church in Malaysia and Singapore in observing Lent by reading and meditating on a series of Scripture readings as part of our 40 Days Walking With Jesus in Lent project. At least, I hope I’ll be able to stick to the discipline. Perhaps one way is to blog about it along the way?
If you’ve always wanted to visit the Holy Land and Jerusalem, but have never had the chance to, why not join me in this virtual pilgrimage? You can find out more by visiting this blog run by Christian Aid.
