Ash Wednesday, Feb. 18, marks the beginning of the liturgical season of Lent. In the church calendar, Lent is a season of reflection, repentance and preparation for Easter. There are many ways Calvin students can enter into and participate in Lent amidst the busyness of academic life.
Beginning Wednesday and continuing until Easter, students will have the opportunity to walk through the “Stations of the Cross,” as depicted by artist Scott Erickson at the Calvin Ecosystem preserve. These opportunities for prayer and reflection depict Christ’s journey to the cross, from temptation to crucifixion. According to the Calvin events website, the stations center around John 16:33: “I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
In addition to the prayer walk, a new temporary Tuesday acoustic chapel series is being added to the chapel schedule. According to Worship Pastor Paul Ryan, the new format will include simple instrumentation, reflective handouts and a chance for more contemplative worship this Lent. The structure of the five-week series will be based on the song, “My Worth Is Not In What I Own,” by Keith and Kristen Getty. The weekly themes will follow the lines of the song, “My Worth Is Not In What I Own:” “not in skill or name,” “not in fame,” “youth or beauty,” “not in wealth, might or wisdom,” and “the tension of human worth and unworthiness.”
Pastor Mary Hulst will continue her chapel series through the Apostles’ Creed, with a particular Lenten focus on Christ’s suffering. These themes, including Christ’s crucifixion, death and burial, move towards Holy Week.
In reflecting on Lent’s place within the Reformed tradition, Ryan contrasted historic skepticism towards routine or “ritual habit,” with a modern effort in the Reformed tradition to recover more embodied practices [of worship, reflection, prayer, whatever]. According to Ryan, modern perspectives tend to “view the Christian faith as primarily intellectual,” or, as he put it: “thinking right thoughts,” which can lead to missing out on the “embodied practices” that help Christians live out a Christ-like life.
Ryan also reflected on how the church calendar can help redeem time. “Our calendars shape us as students and faculty and staff, and we’re largely shaped by an academic calendar. … The beautiful thing about the Christian calendar is that it shapes us to be like the person of Jesus Christ very strategically.” Seasons, like Lent, cultivate spiritual rhythms in unique ways.
Students are invited to view Lent as a season to “go back to the basics,” according to Ryan. Beginning with self-examination, practices like fasting, prayer and intentional reading of scripture can center and reorient our habits toward Christ.
This Ash Wednesday, chapel will usher students into Lent with the opportunity to receive ashes on the forehead or hand as a reminder of our “mortality and creatureliness,” stated Ryan.
