Column: May you find inspiration, hope and wisdom in the world’s collective worship

For Western Christians, Lent began on Wednesday, March 5. For Eastern Orthodox Christians, Lent began on Monday, March 3. For Muslims, Ramadan began on the evening of Friday, February 29.

This means that just over half of the world’s population has recently been observing either Ramadan or Lent.

In a time of division, conflict and polarisation, there is something truly humbling about the idea of so many souls engaged in collective reflection.

It is human to seek companionship, to seek solace and to seek community in the most desperate of times.

During this season of internal reflection, I found myself reading the following passage in Night Prayer:

‘Is not this the fast that I choose:

to loose the bonds of injustice,

to undo the thongs of the yoke,

to let the oppressed go free,

and to break every yoke?

Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,

and bring the homeless poor into your house;

when you see the naked, to cover them,

and not to hide yourself from your own kin?’

Isaiah 58. 6-7

In this season, we are often asked to turn inwards, to understand ourselves more deeply.

Let us also turn outwards. Let us look for Jesus in simple, immediate, human relationship, perhaps especially when over half of our neighbours are observing a time of fasting, of prayer and of repentance.

The season of Lent reminds us to be humble, to remember that each of us is frail and each of us makes mistakes.

As a global Church, as creatures of faith and of God, we are reminded that we are but dust and ashes, dependent on God from our beginning to our end.

As Christians, we are called to cast aside sin and turn instead to Christ.

But we are not expected to be perfect. God embraces us in our entirety, including our flaws, and asks only that we forever strive to right our wrongs, to fix our mistakes and to learn from our failures.

The world faces conflict, strife, poverty and so many other woes, enough to make our hearts weary with sorrow and pain. So, in this season of expectant waiting and penitence, let us seek hope not only in ourselves, in our individual gifts and in our individual recreation in Christ but also in one another, in nature and within all of God’s innumerable creations.

As I write, the season of Lent draws towards its end and Christians prepare to observe Holy Week, journeying with Jesus through His passion and crucifixion.

In our celebration of Easter and the joyful promise of the resurrection, may you and your loved ones find inspiration, hope and wisdom in the world’s collective worship.