Prayer, Fasting and Almsgiving

N LENT we concentrate joyfully on Prayer, Fasting and Almsgiving. Prayer is my relationship with God, and it is scarcely possible to celebrate Lent without thinking about Prayer. Many parishes are hard at work on the 'Foundations of Faith' course: studying the Bible and Church teaching will surely lead us closer to God. Fasting, (my relationship with myself) and Almsgiving (my relationship with my neighbour) can more easily be overlooked.

Last year I wrote about the Lenten 'Spring Clean' and the Sacrament of Reconciliation. I hope that we continue to make progress in that rather neglected area of things. Reconciliation, of course, deals with our relationship with God, our relationship with ourselves and our relationship with each other. No wonder Reconciliation is at the heart of Lent. Forty of the parish clergy will have experienced a corporate Service of Reconciliation, during the Ebbsfleet Clergy Retreat at Walsingham in the first week of Lent. I hope that service as surely prepares them for the Lenten work of reconciliation as the renewal of vows at the Chrism Mass prepares bishops, priests and deacons for the great Easter renewal of Baptismal promises, made by the whole People of God.

'Giving something up for Lent' is what Fasting has come to mean. It is perhaps better to think of Fasting as spiritual warfare on a whole range of fronts. The waistline is important, but so is our getting to grips with such things as alcohol, scratch-cards &c, and tobacco. For others it will be tackling the time wasted watching junk on the TV or assessing the money wasted on 'retail therapy'. For most of us there is a need to think through and work at how we treat other people - family, friends, next door neighbours, work-mates. The feeling of getting better at dealing with some of these things can be very liberating indeed. I speak from experience!

Almsgiving - perhaps a better word might be 'Generosity' - is something we can do together. Every hundred pounds collected in a parish becomes £15,000 when we put the Ebbsfleet parishes together and ask our Christian Chancellor of the Exchequer for his contribution. This year we are collecting money especially for Ethiopia but parish priests are also writing to me to insist that we keep corporate count of giving to other established causes too. Lent is an opportunity for a special push on giving and the climax of Lenten almsgiving, liturgically, is Maundy Thursday when 'at the beginning of the liturgy of the eucharist, there may be a procession of the faithful with gifts for the poor', as the rubrics say.

May God's blessing be with you this Lent and as the glory of Easter dawns.

+ Andrew Ebbsfleet

The Bishop of Ebbsfleet
Bishop's House, Dry Sandford, Abingdon, OXON OX13 6JP
Tel: +44 (0) 1865 390746

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