new life bursting through death

this is a great video of rowan williams, archbishop of canterbury, discussing lent.
it's not about gloom but 'new life bursting through death'.

a lenten theme song: 'dead & gone'

i keep hearing 'dead & gone' by t.i. & justin timberlake on the radio. it is officially my lenten theme song for 2009:

Ohh, I've been traveling on this road too long
Just trying to find my way back home
The old me is dead and gone
dead and gone

i don't really care too much for christian music. i tend to not really care for the music itself and alot of the lyrics seem to, in some way, have already arrived...

i definitely feel like my christianity is still seeking.
yet even now, i am so different from who i used to be...

I turn my head to the east
I don't see nobody by my side
I turn my head to the west
Still nobody in sight
So I turn my head to the north,
swallow that pill
that they call pride
The old me is dead and gone,
The new me will be alright

the lenten disciplines

it's funny - many people participate in keeping a lenten discipline almost to the point that one might consider it a secular endeavor. how do i keep my lenten disciplines holy? how does one observe a meaningful lent?

how does one even begin to prepare their hearts for the journey towards easter? how can one make lent meaningful and transformative in their life?

it's days after ash wednesday and i am not entirely satisfied with my lenten disciplines. i have renounced alcohol and verbal obscenities. but somehow it doesn't seem enough. for now, those are the very specific disciplines i have decided to keep.

also, i've decided to lessen. to spend less. eat less. entertain myself less. all in an effort to make my life a little smaller so that i might possibly see more of God in it. honor Him more through it. and perhaps even participate somehow in Christ's temptation in the desert.

somehow i still feel as if i should include something - add something additional to my plate.

i've started reading alexander schmemann's great lent journey to pascha to help me get some bearings on Lent and how to truly take advantage of this season of 'bright sadness'.

the lenten prayer of st. ephraim the syrian

O Lord and Master of My Life!
Take from me the spirit of sloth,
faint-heartedness, lust of power, and idle talk.
But give rather the spirit of chastity,
humility, patience and love to Thy Servant.
Yea, O Lord and King!
Grant me to see my own errors
and not to judge my brother;
For Thou art blessed unto ages of ages.
Amen
Great Lent: Journey to Pascha, Alexander Schmemann

Ash Wednesday

"Memento, homo ... quia pulvis es, et in pulverem reverteris"
"Remember, man, you are dust and to dust you will return."

archbishop of canterbury: the waterless pit

i so enjoyed the archbishop of canterbury's sermon at york minster..

"That's the waterless pit indeed - where we struggle ceaselessly, unrelentingly, to make ourselves more right, and to lay hold upon our future. We lay upon ourselves a heavy yoke, from which only the grace of Jesus Christ can deliver us. In a nutshell, we lay upon ourselves the yoke of desperate seriousness about ourselves."