Lent in the In-Between
I've been writing, but I'm back!
Last we connected, I was sharing the little booklets I wrote for Advent that were just showing up. Well the little booklets I wrote for Lent showed up, too—but you didn’t hear about them here because they sold out too fast! It’s been humbling to hear from folks who are finding these little reflections and prayers useful.
Because these have been well-received, Ave has asked me to write next year’s booklets, so that’s what I’ve been up to since December. It’s been a fun project—lemme give you a sneak preview.
Next year’s devotional series (Advent 2024 and Lent 2025) will revolve around well-known hymns. Every couple of days, I introduce a new hymn and reflect upon the imagery in the verses as a way to open up new avenues of prayer. And the best part is that when they publish next year, the booklets will include links to a playlist so you can pick from several versions of a hymn to listen to a wide variety of artists, from the Hillbilly Thomists to Ella Fitzgerald to Elvis to Aaron Neville to Frank Sinatra to Celine Dion to the Irish Tenors to the Blind Boys of Alabama. It has been so much fun to comb through this music. I tend to write in the mornings, and after sitting with these songs, I found myself humming them long after—which is not a bad way to carry prayer through your day. I’m pretty excited to see these come out next year.
One song in particular stood out to me, and I wanted to share it with you as we get back in the swing of this newsletter—it’s a great fit for Lent. Here’s Johnny Cash singing “Were You There (When they Crucified My Lord).”
The song starts with Cash’s familiar rockabilly Gospel rhythm. He states the question of the Passion in his plain and honest baritone, and just when we realize we have no answer for it, the recording falls off a quiet cliff before June Carter’s voice rings out in a painful, eerie cry that seems to echo through an empty canyon.
It’s a great contribution to the tradition of this song to build in a call-and-response—one I’ve not heard from anyone else. As I listen in to this conversation, I find myself expanding into the quiet parts, which is a good magic trick for an artist to pull off.
I sang in a very good choir in college and the director composed many of the songs we sang for Mass. He said once that the purpose of music is to make room for silence. That’s some of what is going on here—the performance pulls us into the in-between, where there’s room to pause and ponder and feel. So much of the music and writing we encounter every day is functional and busy—great writing gives you room to breathe.
So that’s where I’m at this Lent—looking for opportunities to pray in the in-between.
What’s good
Check out the finalists in the Nature Photography Contest! The spotted owl is not impressed.
That is a great theme for Lent and Advent devotions!