This past Wednesday was Ash Wednesday, when Catholic people receive a cross of ashes on their foreheads put there by a priest. The cross symbolizes our limited lifespans and asks repentance for sins.  It marks the first day of Lent.

Growing up in New Orleans, the big event wasn’t Ash Wednesday, but the week leading up to it that is memorable. To a little kid like I was, Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday, involved making floats and throwing beads before Lent began.  Beads back then were made of glass, and we had a blast as kids stringing them for a person on a float to throw while they rode the brightly colorful and creative boxes on wheels that would be the podiums that had lively-colored doubloons or coins for each parade thrown from the float and into the crowds.  Mardi Gras was a day of joy. People were happier than they generally were, but also did things they generally would not have done.  Large, rich dinners  were held nightly and are even more decadent on Mardi Gras.  People also got a little drunk, even more on Mardi Gras.  The aim was to indulge before the fasting period of Lent, which lasted these 40  days until Easter.

Lent has been kept yearly since 325 AD to recall Jesus’ 40 days in the wilderness, where he fasted and resisted temptations from Satan. Satan tempted Jesus three time in those 40 days. Traditionally in the first through sixteenth or seventeenth century it was thought that if one sat with a demon for forty days, it left you, particularly if you isolated, fasted and prayed.  The demon on the 40^th day would give up and die. Supposedly before this, the demon could jump from one person to another, so it was best to set off to yourself. Lent’s duration and the word “quarantine” both originate from these 40-day periods.  But are we as Quakers going to give up something for Lent?  We have 35 more days.

Quakers don’t specifically celebrate holidays. Instead, we emphasize daily actions that reflect our faith, such as silent worship instead as communion, or baptism of the spirit rather than emersion. It isn’t that Quakers don’t celebrate communion or baptism, or Lent and Easter.  Some do and some don’t. We don’t get our faces smutted usually either. Rather than observing Lent, Quakers might focus on ongoing acts of service or reflection.  It is important to reflect deeply on something and what needs to be done — One might decide to give up chocolate for 40 days, or after reflection, one might also do something for the children who pick the cocoa beans.   Instead of just giving up cursing, one might consider why we even curse at all.  Did my parents do it? Do I not feel heard?  Do I think it makes me look bolder?  What’s at the root cause? 

Lent is seen as a time to rid oneself of bad habits and grow closer to God. Could we use these 35 days left before Easter for us to become more spiritually connected to ourselves, to God, to each other? Reflecting during Lent can help us become aware of our spiritual needs, like finding quiet spaces for prayer or identifying things habits we need to give up that get in the way between us and worship.  Maybe we add a walking prayer each week to our workout routine. Regardless of how we let us become more spiritually whole, Lent is a chance to deepen our prayer life and respond thoughtfully rather than reactively.

If self-discipline is like a muscle that gets stronger with proper usage, then we are in the best gym we could have asked for in 2025.  The government alone has given us enough of a workout routine. More than daily, we can find a reason to pray, or someone or something to pray for, whether it is  prayer for those who are laid off, to those who are homeless, to the children with measles to the starving children in other countries dependent on our aid.  We can pray for peace and justice in war torn areas. During these trying times, we can strive to bring peace and unity to a divided world, maintaining integrity and truthfulness in our communications, being the source of peace in the room.  The only one person we can control is ourselves, so how are you living the SPICES.  How are you living more simply?  How are you living with more equality?  Does your giving show good stewardship?  We can choose one letter in the SPICES and all month long focus on making it more of a reality in our lives.

There are many queries that could be placed here.  But you have to fill in the blanks and come up with ways to serve Love better in your own lives.  You can choose to work on it for 35 days or it can be a time when you don’t need 35 days to know you would be better off without.  Maybe you might want to use this Lenten period to build self-discipline and spiritual growth, responding with love in everyday opportunities. We can be sources of good in this world, showing gentle kindness still exists the next 35 days and 330 after that as well.