I. These two petitions offer yet another Lenten opportunity to face the darkness and the self-delusion that we carry with us. To greater or lesser degrees, parts of the two petitions inhabit each of us.  Facing darkness and self-delusion requires acknowledgement and examination and what Samuel Shoemaker, the Episcopal priest and spiritual father of AA, Alcoholics Anonymous (whom the church celebrates on January 31) calls “looking inside oneself.” It is what we might call “coming out of hiding” with our sins and our guilt.

II. Many of us may have a family member, relative, or friend, who is in AA. Shoemaker said over and over again that facing behaviors—what he called “character defects”—like those identified in today’s petitions, requires rigorous self-examination and brutal honesty in order to tell the truth to oneself, to one’s family and friends, and to the community at large. For AA members, the truth leads to forgiveness for harm done to oneself, and restitution and reconciliation with those who we have harmed. This AA truth invariably leads the person back to God, who we have pushed aside, sometimes unintentionally.

III. The ways of Lent, i.e. scripture, worship, reading, meditation, study, and especially prayer, can lead us back to a commitment to an everyday life where “everything happens” and God is present, even when we think God isn’t with us. The prayer of Lent in this time of Covid-19 asks us to go into silence to find the prayer of solitude we need to really “look inside” ourselves to see what and who is actually there.

IV. Perhaps this is what Lent is all about: finding ourselves so that we can change the way we lead our lives as children of God.

—Father Peter Kountz

About Lenten Reflections

Throughout Lent, Father Peter and Suzanne Glover Lindsay will reflect on some of the petitions of confession, repentance, and resolve from the Litany of Penitence, available to download below.