As a child growing up in a family that observed Lent I’ve been engaging in all sorts of “disciplines” each year during those forty days. One year I gave up soda, and when I was older one memorable Lent I gave up coffee, something that was never repeated. A few years ago I gave money to everyone who asked me, without questioning, a practice that has affected my life to this day. While Christians as a group generally observe Lent they almost never engage in exactly the same thing, as Muslims do when they fast during Ramadan. We’re encouraged to find whatever suits us best whether it’s giving something up or taking something on.
This year I invited some friends to join me in figuring out something that we would all do in Lent and commit to meeting once a week to discuss how it was going. We decided that each day we’d choose a name from among all those we know, pray for the person in the morning, and write a note to them in the evening. How we chose the names was up to us. I put each name of an index card and tossed them in a large envelope. Each morning I draw one out so it’s always a surprise.
We only met three times before we had to stop due to the coronavirus pandemic (in my wildest imaginings I never dreamed that everyone in the world would be experiencing the same thing!). But we talked about the kind of paper or note cards we used, how we chose the names, what kinds of things came up for us when we wrote. One of us wondered if we could write to someone who’d died, which prompted a discussion about grief. We talked about writing people we were distanced from or who had hurt us. And we called what we did a practice, not a discipline, because the word has a more positive spin.
Now we’re on the verge of Holy Week and most of my notes have been written. I wrote to an old friend to tell him how important he’d been in my life, to someone who works in an office whose cheerful demeanor always makes it nice to go there, to a plumber, one of my doctors, and a cousin. I didn’t write the notes expecting a response, but the responses I’ve received has made the whole practice immensely satisfying. I’ve received emails, phone calls, and hand written cards in return. It has been one of the best things I’ve ever done in Lent. It’s put me in touch with people throughout the country and over the span of my life.
We’re in the midst of extraordinary times when communication is more important than ever as we feel so keenly the loss of being with people, physically present to one another. But two lines on a postcard can make someone’s day, and the postcard or note, unlike an email that requires something electronic to be engaged, can be propped up in the kitchen or on a dresser and is a reminder of our care and thought. When I was active in parish ministry I wrote a column for the newsletter that was always called “Notes for the Journey”. But perhaps the cards I write now are the real notes for the journey that we’re all on together, bound together by the one Holy Spirit.
Blessings in Christ,
Anne +
