Here, in a nominally Catholic (but traditionally pagan) country like Bolivia, the only mention of Ash Wednesday and Lent I’ve heard has been in a conversation with a Lebanese priest – and that was because I brought it up. “No, we don’t have services here for things like Ash Wednesday” he told me. Whoa. He said he’d come down into the city to perform one for us, if we really wanted.
Not wanting – or needing – a priest to leave his impoverished flock just for us, my wife Anne and I decided we are going to do something special as a family (which has been our custom throughout our marriage and especially here, where liturgical worship is sparse, and many Christians – sadly – are wary of it).
Here’s the plan: having gotten home late from a trip (our first out of the country to another South American country, lovely Chile!), we are going to combine Shrove Tuesday – the not-so-rowdy Episcopalian (and probably Anglican, originally) tradition of pre-Lenten celebration with a pancake supper – with Ash Wednesday, all in one night. After some delightful “breakfast for dinner”, symbolic of using up all the goodies before beginning the season of Lent, we will move into a very brief Ash Wednesday service with our 4 1/2 year old daughter Avery. We’ll combine the Book of Common Prayer or a compline service from the Divine Hours (edited by Phyllis Tickle) with a reading from Come Worship with Me, a child’s introduction to the Christian Calendar. We’ll likely not have any ashes, but it’s the devotion of ourselves to the season of preparation, fasting and prayer that matters most for us (though I do miss the ashes!).
Looking forward to a time of setting ourselves aside and looking to the Master.
