A cake to mark our Mardi Gras, the last, as tomorrow marks Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent. 

Lent a period of abstinence that culminates in the celebration of Easter, the event that was to change the course of the world for good. The day that gives hope and meaning to life, Christ’s resurrection. 

There are lots of images and ideas associated with the season of Lent, some of them very heavy sounding, guilt laden, severe and demanding.

However, I approach the season with a sense of anticipation and embrace its challenges as a gift, an opportunity to intentionally pray, reflect and examine where I’m at with my life and faith. It’s a season to declutter and detox, to be reminded of the things that really matter in life. It might involve some renouncing and repenting. Another heavy sounding word, ‘repentance’ has heavy connotations but in reality it’s an invitation to turn and re-orientate one’s life in the direction of God and the ways of his kingdom. Lent is a season to focus, break habits or compulsions, to re-focus and reorder our lives. It is a time to lay aside what can easily become a distraction or diversions from the things that really matter: “to love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and to love our neighbour as we love ourselves”.

I find it helpful to give up certain things for Lent and so, not for the first time, I will be coming off social media and this will be my last blog until Easter. 

However you choose to live and prepare for Easter may you be blessed and may all our hearts be inclined towards the One in whom we live and move and have our being.