We are now in the season of the church year known as Lent. I find this the most difficult season to understand and it occurred to me yesterday that that is the reason why I have not been eager to post. What to say? How does Lent translate into my life, or the musical life of the church?
There is one more or less obvious answer, musically speaking, to the question which is the title of this post. When we hear, "What are you giving up for Lent?" often the response is something like: sugar, chocolate, coffee, etc. As a church musician, my response is, "I'm giving up Alleluias for Lent." The word 'alleluia' (from Greek) or 'hallelujah' (from Hebrew) literally means 'praise Yahweh'. Some say that the angels in heaven use alleluia as their refrain of praise around God's throne. Maybe a reader can think of scripture that backs this up. In a way, it's the ultimate word of praise and as such is considered inappropriate during Lent, a season of reflection and penitence.
I think there are other good reasons to refrain from singing alleluia for a few weeks. It is good spiritual discipline. Denial is part of our Christian walk. When we 'do without' for awhile, we appreciate all the more when Easter morning comes, and we can again sing out with great joy, "Christ the Lord is risen today! Alleluia!"
2 comments:
Ever since I announced I was "giving up" Twitter for Lent, I've had some strange reactions ranging from "but you're not Catholic" to "wow, you must be really addicted to it." Sigh.
I have suspended my Twittering for the Lenten period for some very specific reasons:
1 - I wanted to take the opportunity of a pre-defined period of time (Lent, though Advent would have also worked) to reflect daily on my Faith.
2 - Twitter is something I use several times a day - but I don't HAVE to - unlike Facebook which has become my telephone.
3 - My giving up of Twitter is no more than an intentional reflection trigger... every time I am "tempted" to Twitter, I reflect on my Faith instead.
Colin, thank you for your comments. After reading what you wrote, I was wondering, when we give up something, such as during Lent, do we always purposefully fill that void? Or is choosing to replace the 'thing' also a vital part of the discipline?
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