A Lenten Rite of Passage

Four online evenings leading up to Easter

March 3, 17, 31 and April 14

18.30 – 19.45 GMT; 19.30 – 20.45 CET

‘…How, while keeping it unaltered, do you transform (grass) entirely?

Remaining grass it is light, and yet Light is not grass…And the grass

becomes light; it is transfigured yet unchanged” 

(St. Symeon the New Theologian, 949 – 1022)

The name Lent is an Anglo-Saxon word meaning ‘lengthen’ and originally referred to the time in the year of lengthening daylight, in other words, spring. In the Christian calendar the theme of light also has significance as we symbolically align ourselves with Jesus’ rite of passage through death into a fuller, transformed life. Icons and paintings convey his ‘risen body’ to us as a body of light.

Traditionally, this passage through our own ‘dying’ in Lent, as we surrender to the divine presence within us, is seen as a preparation for Baptism at Easter, through which we ‘rise again’ (resurgere, Latin, to rise again) in union with Christ.

In these four evenings we will have the opportunity to explore what Lent means or could mean to us personally in our own life and experience, through an unfolding sequence of lectio divina, visio divina, silent meditation and sharing from the heart.

It is designed as a sequence through which participants are invited to create their own rite of passage in the ‘wilderness’, over these weeks, using the creative arts and time in nature. However, it is also possible to participate without attending all four evenings. Everyone is very welcome!