Le mercredi des Cendres, juste après avoir reçu le signe des cendres sur notre front, nous prions : « Accomplis en nous, ô Dieu, l’œuvre de ton salut. » Le salut est l’un des mots que les chrétiens entendent et utilisent fréquemment. Qu’entendons-nous par là ?

Pour beaucoup de gens, le salut semble signifier une sorte d’état futur où l’on est heureux, où l’on est au ciel, où l’on ne souffre plus. C’est là une description du salut en termes largement négatifs, qui met l’accent sur ce qu’il n’est pas plutôt que sur ce qu’il est. Entrer au ciel est une sorte d’assurance contre l’incendie, un sursis aux souffrances de l’enfer. Ainsi, de nombreux chrétiens se réfugient au ciel. Ils sont tellement préoccupés par le fait de s’éloigner de l’enfer qu’ils finissent par trébucher en arrière et tomber au ciel.

On pense que pour obtenir son billet pour le paradis, il faut croire en quelques définitions obligatoires, se comporter d’une certaine manière et suivre les règles qui nous sont imposées. Nous avons tendance à comprendre le péché essentiellement comme une désobéissance, une transgression d’un commandement. Comme nous risquons d’être punis pour cela, nous devons l’éviter et le regretter. On est loin de comprendre la repentance comme un mode de vie.

Le salut que proclame l’Évangile, pour lequel les martyrs sont morts et que l’Église enseigne depuis ses débuts, n’est pas un moyen d’atteindre une fin, une façon d’éviter la souffrance. C’est la fin elle-même. C’est la vérité de ce que nous sommes vraiment et de ce que nous pouvons devenir. Le salut est un trésor inestimable, une perle pour laquelle nous sommes prêts à tout abandonner. C’est un don de vie.

Le salut nous rend aujourd’hui la vision de Dieu, le don de la présence de Dieu, dont nous sommes censés jouir à chaque instant de notre existence. Le salut est simplement la participation à la vie de Dieu.

Le Carême peut nous aider à voir que le péché dont l’Esprit « convainc le monde » (Jean 16, 8-11) est bien plus que toute faute spécifique que nous avons commise ou que nous pourrions commettre, ou même que la somme totale de toutes ces fautes. Le péché est la condition humaine, l’état de séparation d’avec Dieu.

La repentance est une grâce de Dieu, un don du Saint-Esprit, quelque chose que nous ne pouvons pas « accomplir » par nous-mêmes. Pourtant, nous devons aussi faire notre part, nous devons y travailler, aussi dérisoires et insignifiants que nos efforts puissent nous paraître. Nous pratiquons une mort quotidienne, mourant à nous-mêmes afin de ressusciter avec le Christ pour une vie nouvelle. Nous ne pouvons pas le faire d’un seul coup. Mais nous devons pratiquer la mort et la résurrection à chaque instant de notre vie.

Lorsque la repentance devient pour nous une attitude spirituelle incessante, une façon de vivre avec Dieu, elle devient aussi notre façon de nous préparer à la mort. « Souviens-toi que tu es poussière et qu’à la poussière tu retourneras . » À ce moment inconnu et mystérieux où nous sommes appelés à franchir la frontière entre le temps et l’éternité, entre le ciel et la terre, et à rencontrer enfin le Christ, notre Dieu et notre Juge, que pouvons-nous faire d’autre que nous repentir ? Notre pratique quotidienne et patiente du repentir nous aura appris qu’en présence de l’amour infini de Dieu, nous n’avons rien d’autre à faire que de nous en remettre à sa miséricorde. Nous aurons appris que nous tous, saints et pécheurs, ne pouvons entrer au Paradis que comme le Bon Larron, par la miséricorde du Christ.

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As the Anglican Communion’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Jarvis works to create partnerships between churches and UN teams as they respond to conflict, climate change and forced movement of people. Jarvis has also facilitated church-led peacemaking in South Sudan and Mozambique. Throughout it all, she’s seen nothing that compares to the power of people coming back together after conflict, and ultimately, coming back to faith through Jesus.

This resource will be available for download or send a subscription request to receive it as a free daily email message throughout Lent.

https://alongsidehope.org/lent2026/

On March 7, the Anglican Fellowship of Prayer is also presenting this online Lenten lecture

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River Through the Desert was first developed by Dean Richard Sewell and the staff at the college during the pandemic when travel was restricted and is now being re-issued for this Lent when the situation in Israel-Palestine is still uncertain. The six-week study of readings, reflections and videos was intended to provide a taste of the beauty, wonder and inspiration of the Holy Land. The videos take viewers to the sites of some of the most significant moments in Jesus’s life with reflections from Dean Sewell.

It is available on the diocesan website as a free resource. Donations to the Canadian Campaign for St. George’s College Jerusalem will be gratefully received.

Related story: 

Archbishop, dean share views from Jerusalem in online fundraiser for St. George’s College

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I like to spend some time in Lent reading familiar books that have helped shape my spiritual life and that have given me insights into how Christ is present in my life. I have always had a deep love and devotion to Jesus in the Eucharist, and while sorting through the cards and letters that accumulate on my desk I found a lovely card from Fr. James Koester, Superior of the Society of St. John The Evangelist, a religious community with a long history in Canada but now based in Cambridge Mass. The following quote on the card, from the writings of the founder of SSJE, Fr. Richard Benson, caused me to pause:

“Each communion should be, as it were,

Adding some fresh point to the image of Christ within our souls.

As each touch of the artist adds some fresh feature

To the painting, so each communion is a touch of Christ, 

Which should develop some fresh feature of His own perfect likeness within us.”

This wonderful image is a simple but profound insight into the beauty and gift of the Eucharist that Christ has given to His Church. 

One of the fruits of the liturgical renewal in the Church over the last 40 years is the return of the Eucharist as the focus of our life as parish communities. It is a rare event in the Church that is now not gathered around the altar or that is finding inspiration in the themes of the Eucharist. This development brings both joys and difficulties to our spiritual lives. The frequency of the celebration of the Eucharist and receiving of Holy Communion can lead to a loss of a deep sense of wonder at encountering Christ in such an intimate and personal way. 

Fr. Benson’s image of Christ as the artist who in Holy Communion brings forth the beauty and goodness that is our life in the Risen Christ is key to renewing our love of the Eucharist. 

The Eucharist is both the intimate communion of the individual soul with Christ but also of drawing the Body of Christ into one: “We, being many, are one body for we all share in the one bread.”(BAS p.212) The Body refers not to just to the local community at a particular time and place, but of the whole Communion of Saints on earth and in heaven. The prayer “therefore with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven…” attempts to capture the truth that the Eucharist is in time and out of time, of earth and of heaven. In light of the breadth and depth of the Eucharist, we do well to prepare ourselves to receive such a gift as St. Paul writes: “Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.” (I Corth.11:27) To receive unworthily means without due consideration of what we are sharing in, of the awe and wonder at God’s grace be offered to all of us, of not coming with an open heart and mind to hear Christ as he speaks to us as individuals and as parish communities.

I too often have been guilty of rushing in and finding a pew at the last minute, without making time to be still before God and acknowledging my need for healing, forgiveness and renewal. There is only great benefit to our souls if we carve out a little time in preparation as we come to worship the living God and to be nourished by the Body and Blood of Christ. 

We can help others by creating a peaceful space in our Church before the services, by avoiding unnecessary chat until the coffee time after the service. Reading over the scripture lessons of the day or praying over the prayer requests in the bulletin are only a couple of ways to intentionally create an atmosphere of prayer and peace.

I pray that this Lent, all of us may deepen our faith and trust in Jesus Christ and find fresh joy each time we receive Him in our Holy Communions.

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Subscribers will receive a daily email with a reflection from Dr. Keesmaat, “on what health, well-being and good living require of us in our lives and our relationships with one another, with creation and with God. As you will read, things begin to break down when human beings separate themselves from creation, exploiting it as a com-modity, or separate and exploit one another. In so doing, we separate ourselves from the Creator.”

Dr. Keesmaat will guide meditations and [offer] lessons in repair and restoration that are both profoundly ancient and current.”

The resource will also be available as a free download on the PWRDF website, so parishes may use it as a Bible study.

www.pwrdf.org/lent2024

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Let Me Go There: The Spirit of Lent

by Dr. Paula Gooder

Lent Fast for the Earth

Anglican Diocese of Toronto

https://www.toronto.anglican.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Lent-Fast-2022.pdf

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