Gone Lenten

Over these days of Lent I am blogging day-by-day, meaning some days I will post and some, like yesterday, I won't. Over the course of this holy season I hope that I am able to write and share some things that are useful to anybody who reads these pages. It will be interesting to see where this wait-and-see attitude will lead.

In his book Living Prayer, Metropolitan Anthony Bloom, writing about leaving slavery for freedom, using the Exodus of Israel from Egypt to explain, wrote: "They had to take risks, because no one is ever freed by a slave owner, and they had to cross the Red Sea; but beyond the Red Sea it was not yet the promised land, it was a burning desert and they were aware of it and knew that they would have to cross it in the face of great difficulties. And so are we when we decide to make a move that will liberate us from our enslavement: we must be aware that we shall be attacked by violence, by beguilement, by the inner enemies that are our old habits, our old craving for security, and nothing is promised, except the desert beyond. Beyond that is the promised land, but far beyond, and we must accept the risks of the journey."