Many churches use the forty days before Easter as a special time for self examination and reflection. They also encourage people to be ‘penitential’. In other words, we are expected to think about our ‘sins’ and pray to God for forgiveness. This season is known as Lent and is followed by many Christian communities, including the Church of England.

A long time ago Lent was very different. In the early days of the church most people were baptized as adults, and were also baptized on Easter Day, as a way of identifying with the death and resurrection of Jesus. Those who wished to be baptized had to give in their names at least forty days in advance. They would then appear before the Bishop at the beginning of Lent with their sponsors so that the he could examine the evidence of their conduct and behavior. If they satisfied the Bishop they would be enrolled as ‘applicants’ for Christian Baptism.

During the next forty days the candidates would be required to attend daily classes of Christian instruction, covering theology, morality and aspects prayer and worship, including specific instruction about the Creed and the Lord’s Prayer.

The handing over of the Lord’s prayer was a particularly important part of the process, mainly because it was kept secret! You may have heard people complain today that very few people know the Lord’s Prayer ("Our Father...") by heart. The Christians of the early Church had no such concerns. they regarded it as being a special secret that should only be known by the most committed members of the baptized community.

In fact, before you could be baptized you would have to serve a two or three year ‘apprenticeship’ during which you could only attend the first part of the service. You would therefore hear only the readings and the sermon, before being asked to leave. You might not have heard the Lord’s Prayer until a few days before your baptism.

This was all a long time ago, of course, and we don’t do things quite like that anymore. Can you imagine trying to keep something like the Lord’s Prayer secret today? It wouldn’t be long before one of the Sunday Papers published an exposé - Ten things you didn’t know about Christians, with an eight page analysis of the text...

On the other hand, it is worth remembering the original purpose of Lent. This year, many people will use this as a time to dust off their diet books and deny themselves little pleasures like Chocolate (In some early churches people would be asked not to bath between Ash Wednesday and Maundy Thursday - that would be a sacrifice!)

In many ways it would be better to use Lent as a time to stop and think about our lives. Are there things we could be doing that we have been putting off? What could we do to positively improve ourselves or benefit other people? Perhaps, like the early Christians we could look for new opportunities to learn? Perhaps you might like to see this Easter as a chance to make a fresh commitment to God?

Whatever you choose to do, let me wish you every blessing throughout Lent and Easter...

Tim