Dean's Message

A Lenten Message from the Dean

I love cleaning.


Well, that may not be entirely true... But I do love being in clean and tidy spaces, and there are times that I quite enjoy the process of getting there. When I’m stressed, or procrastinating, or frustrated, or simply bored, there are few things I like to do more than some furious scrubbing or a deep spring clean. 

It feels good to bring order to chaos, and to find beauty beneath the layers of accumulated grime. It feels good when everything has its place, and the accumulated junk has been turfed out. It feels good to reclaim a sense of agency and to get the satisfaction of a hard day’s work. It feels enlivening to have things refreshed and renewed. 

I suspect that’s the reason I love Lent so much. It’s a sort of spring-cleaning for the soul. 

In Lent we are given the opportunity to put on the rubber gloves and start sorting out the mess. We reflect on our sinfulness, and the sorry state of the world. And we act. We deepen our faith through prayer and study, and we give alms to ease the suffering of others. In Lent we remind ourselves of the joy of simplicity by throwing away those things that might distract and distort; for that is what fasting is - Spring-cleaning for the soul. 

We live out this image of cleaning in our services. We begin our Lenten journey marking ourselves with an ashen cross. We begin our entry to the Great Three Days by washing our feet and stripping the altar. Even the cupboards are cleaned out as the reserved sacrament is consumed and the aumbry becomes empty. 

But this process of cleaning is not an imposed chore dictated from above. God isn’t telling us to clean our rooms. It is an invitation to rediscover the gifts we have been given, just as a good water-blasting reveals just how bright and beautiful the pavers once were. Lent is not a list of chores to begrudgingly work through, it is a sweeping away of the old, because New Life is bursting forth. 

Thanks be to God for the season of Lent, a spring-cleaning for the soul. 

God our inspiration, you call us in the midst of our lives
to reach out beyond ourselves to new possibilities and fresh hopes. 
In the journey of this season of Lent,
give us the openness to hear what you might be saying to us,
and the humility to be transformed into our truest selves,
loved from all eternity, in Jesus Christ our Lord.