Vigils Reading
March 27
THE SPIRIT OF LENT
From a meditation by Dom Alban Boultwood
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In Chapter 49 of the Holy Rule, “On the Observance of Lent,” St Benedict
begins by saying that the spiritual man ought really to be living at all times in the
spirit of Lent, that is, in wholehearted conversion to God. Our frailty causes us
to fail often in this, but if we do not try to live in this spirit during the holy season
of Lent, when shall we ever do so?
St Benedict sees the spirit of Lent not as one of unhappiness, but rather as
a spirit of free and joyful oblation: “so that everyone of his own will may offer to
God, with joy and the Holy Spirit, something beyond the measure appointed to
him”. The Church herself has been preparing us for this, first by drawing us and
inspiring us by the sublime glimpse of divine love unveiled at Christmas, and
then by summoning us to hear the Savior’s call as he manifests his divine
mission and power after the Epiphany. And now we are called to follow him, in
the work of his oblation and redemptive sacrifice which he now so lovingly takes
up. Our Lord calls us to unite ourselves with him in his oblation to his Father’s
will, for this is his mission.
Our response to this divine invitation has led us to the “oblation” by which
as [monks] we offer ourselves wholly to God, and it seems specially fitting for us
during Lent, to renew, solemnly, sincerely, reflectively, our formal [offering] of
ourselves to God through the Rule of St Benedict. It is true that our [offering] is
really made once and for all but the point lies in the renewal of the spirit of our
[offering]. It is not enough to set up a religious program in our life, Even in the
monastery itself, where the vows and the whole rule of life establish a wonderful
religious machinery to guide and speed us towards God, yet these things still
5 Alive to God [Benedictine Studies VII], Baltimore-Dublin, 1964, pp. 72-75.11
remain in themselves just the machinery of our life; and we soon find, here too,
precisely that tendency for things to become mechanical in the bad sense. And
so we are always having to renew our spirit, deepening, clarifying, purifying,
reaffirming, our interior [offering], as the years bring us the daily opportunities
of fulfillment.
We must go forward in faith and in hope and in love, one step at a time,
trying to be ready to recognize God’s will as it comes to us day by day, and trying
to give ourselves to it with all our heart. As occasion arises, the “instruments of
good works” [which St Benedict mentions] will be offered to us; so many
spiritual tools, yet all but a part of the first great one to love the Lord with your
whole heart.