A Walk to Remember

Our family is not Catholic. But every year, we join other members of Christendom to observe the season of Lent, with a series of special traditions that have become very meaningful to us.

Our tradition begins on the morning of Ash Wednesday. After breakfast, the children remain at the table while I gather slips of paper, pens, a metal bowl, and a lighter. The metal bowl goes in the center of the table; and paper and pens make the rounds.

We say a prayer, and then silently each of us writes down two things we vow to give up for Lent. One is something that is special or important to us that would be a sacrifice to do without. The second is something that is hindering our growth in the Lord, such as an attitude or tendency or bad habit.

Each person is then invited to share what they wrote with everyone, if they would like to (they always do). Then we pass the lighter around, and each one places their sacrifice in the bowl, and one by one, burns it to ashes.

Every year, the sight of the smoldering, grayish-white pile is a sobering visual reminder to us of a journey taken two thousand years ago, when Jesus walked the Via Dolorosa, carrying His own cross to Golgotha, His altar of sacrifice. Here he offered up not His craving for sugar, nor His love for computer games, but His life. Willingly, and completely, for a world that too often chooses to forget.

The curling, smoky flame…the charred remains…the fire and the light…they transported me back to another Walk. One that I took almost 15 years ago. A walk that changed me forever, and one that I will always remember…

…(to be continued)…

~ Posted by Betsy