Dear Friends,
This Lent has truly been joyful thus far. It is fascinating how setting boundaries, being disciplined, and even fasting and abstinence can engender a sense of well-being. So many parishioners are engaging with our Lenten program this year and it truly feels as if the pandemic is no longer dominating our lives as it was three years ago.
The word Lent means spring. I grew up with some old Yorkshire traditions and routines; in particular, bed-linen was always washed on the same day every week, and my mother had one of those early 1960s ‘twin-tubs’ called a Hoovermatic. It was considered quite advanced for the age – one tub for washing, and the other for spinning that required a very heavy rubber device to weight the washing down (my grandmother still used a hand-operated mangle). My mother always hung the sheets outside to dry regardless of which season we were in. She had an extremely long washing-line that ran the length of the garden; it was so long that it needed very tall wooden ‘props’ to hold it up in the middle. The only time that the laundry did not go outside on the line was when it was raining, and then it was draped all around the house and around the coal fire, and on a wonderful contraption that hung from the kitchen ceiling above the coal-fired boiler. Of course, she did not have an electric dryer – it was the early 1960s after all. I have to say, that I was never convinced about putting the laundry outside when it was the depths of winter, though my sister and I delighted in watching my father’s face when our mother brought in the laundry completely frozen! It was quite comical – you could hold a towel at the bottom and it stood up all on its own, and the sleeves on the clothes looked quite ridiculous, as if the people wearing them had just vanished into thin air.
Another routine was the annual spring-clean of the whole house. Now, my mother was a hoarder, and was even more of a compulsive hoarder as she grew old, so spring-cleaning was quite a big thing in our house. Cleaning, mind-you, not throwing things out “that might have a use one day” as my dear old mum would say with a cheerful smile. The most exciting thing to do, though, was beating rugs. At a time when there were no computers, mobile phones, and not even television in the morning or during the night, it is surprising how novel and entertaining such a thing could be. Now, we did not have many rugs because my mother had also discovered fitted carpets made of that amazing post-war discovery ‘nylon’. The carpet seemed indestructible and probably had a shelf-life to rival that of plutonium (yes, that particular carpet was still there under a SECOND carpet when she died and we cleared the house), but it could also be quite lethal – causing my sister, our friends and me many carpet burns from vigorous play! Anyway, the few rugs we had were taken to the same very long washing-line and my sister and I were ceremoniously and solemnly presented with tennis racquets to beat the dust out of the rugs. I am not sure that it did the rugs any good, but it was very good aerobic exercise all the same.
I guess few of us spring-clean any more, and the old routines have all but disappeared in the automated world that we all inhabit. Communication seems to have changed beyond belief, and sometimes I am not sure that we are all the better off for it. Yes, for business and urgent things, instant communication is very useful, but most of us are bombarded morning, noon, and night by trivial communication and all manner of things designed to titillate. Gone are the days when one would mail a letter and wait patiently for the reply. Even photography has changed; do you remember that delicious feeling when the film you mailed away to be developed dropped through the mailbox and then, and only then, did you discover what you had taken photographs of? When was the last time that you walked in Central Park and noticed the emerging spring bulbs, or the buds on the trees starting to burst? Lent can be a time to do something radical, such as taking a walk! Or to simply stop…for a brief moment. Archbishop Rowan Williams once said that we need to engage the whole of our humanity, and become more attentive to the world around us and, in turn, to ourselves relating to that world.
Lent is a time for spring-cleaning and for reflecting. It is a time to step back from all that we now take for granted, and to slow down the pace of life just a little. It is a time for silence and solitude as well as reading and prayer. My friends, we are on our Lenten journey, and this Sunday is only the third Sunday in Lent – we are not halfway through yet – so there is plenty of time to engage with our Lenten program, and also to sit for a little while and think about spring-cleaning your life. Every Saturday, a priest sits in the Resurrection Chapel. Sometimes, it can be a lonely 45 minutes! At other times, as on Ash Wednesday, people are waiting patiently to share their stories or to say sorry to God for something they regret. Take advantage of this season to sift through the clutter of your life. My old mother was right, of course, much of it might have a use, but so many bits of clutter can become burdens later on in life, and Lent is a good time to spring-clean, and to rid oneself of burdens.
Affectionately,
Your Priest and Pastor,
Carl
