ONE Shrove Tuesday, when I was a curate, a priest friend took me out to lunch – a sort of pre-Lent lunch I suppose or to put it another way, the last bash before the ash.

I reminded her of a conversation she and I had had some years ago just before she was ordained.

That original conversation went a bit like this... After a bit of hedging round the subject my colleague came clean and admitted that she found Lent rather difficult.

She found the language rather harsh - all that stuff about being wretched miserable sinners.

And then there are all the ought to’s – we ought to feel miserable and beat ourselves up, we ought to give up this and give up that.

And our liturgical expression of Lent – oh yes, it’s that season when we don’t have flowers in church and purple or violet is the colour of our furnishings.

And we don’t use that word... you know the one, the A word – Alleluia.

Just as I thought the conversation was about to turn to a different subject, I thought that I’d got away with it.

We were hurtling towards a new subject and then bang; crash it came like a well-aimed arrow... although I’m sure it wasn’t meant to... I was faced with that unavoidable question, a question whose directness even the most skilled politician could not side-step, a question that would make any spin-doctor reel.

Yes, you’ve guessed it – So what have you given up for Lent?

That question caught me slightly off-guard and left me stumbling.

It left me stumbling because I was forced to admit that I hadn’t really given up any of the usual things.

So, I gave what I hoped would not seem a flippant reply – "I too find our narrow expectations of Lent rather difficult and I’ve given up feeling guilty about not being completely miserable and giving up a whole host of things that are, in a sense, a projection of the expectation of others."

After our conversation had ended, I gave the subject of Lent some more serious thought and realised that our view of this season is in danger of becoming rather narrow and if that is the case then we develop tunnel-vision and run the real risk of missing the point of Lent.

Might we also be called to take something up – as an example, might we be called to start buying fairly traded goods, (and I hesitate to mention it) chocolate included, as a sign of our solidarity with our sisters and brothers in the developing world?

Lent is when we can really concentrate and take our bearings and continually reorient ourselves Godward.

I wish you not a miserable Lent, yes we need to acknowledge and repent of both the causes and effects of sin, but I wish you a happy and fulfilling Lent as God’s holy people, as you continue on your pilgrimage towards him.

Rev Matthew Tregenza