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Thought for the Week

Clifton College's Chaplain, Kim Taplin, brings us his 'Thought for the Week'

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Ashes to Ashes

On Ash Wednesday, the Taplins attended Holy Eucharist in the Eastern Crypt (Jesus Chapel) of Canterbury Cathedral. It was a memorable experience receiving the bread and the wine in a world-renowned place of pilgrimage, just a few metres away from where the tomb of St Thomas Becket had once stood. The sign of the cross in ash (from last year’s burnt Palm Sunday crosses) was marked on the forehead of each worshipper as a symbol of repentance and mortality.

Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent. This period is often regarded as a time of self-denial and self-discipline expressed in fasting or, more popularly these days, with the idea of ‘giving things up’. Understandably, this notion can appear quite negative.

However, by contrast, the weeks leading up to Easter are designed to provide the opportunity for positive spiritual growth; candid self-appraisal is the intention. There is great benefit in being realistic about ourselves and accepting responsibility for our own failings and shortcomings. In Lent, we hold up a mirror to our souls, we embark on an inner journey of discovery, and from this honest self-evaluation, we emerge, hopefully, as more whole and rounded people.

22 February 2010

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