I know I haven't blogged in an age, maybe to get back into the discipline I ought to add it to my Lenten practice this year. Perhaps if I do I will continue to do so after Easter.

Funny thing, that. We pick up good habits during Lent, and then drop them after Easter, as if the season that is greatest in the Christian faith is the one in which we are the least worried about the quality of our soul! How many times do I ask people to consider giving up something for Lent with the intention that after Easter they would continue the good or healthy practice...I'm not sure to what avail I have done so.

On another related theme, however, my Bishop recently reminded us that in these times of economic hardship people tend to seek out the church. He is right, of course. People come not only for concrete help in meeting their financial obligations, but even more importantly for a sense of security when all that they had depended on seems shaken. This is a good thing, and the churches should be ready for this. But will it just prove to be a typical Lent in which as soon as the driving fear is asuaged the felt need for a good relationship with God will disappear into the panacea of an economic upturn? Or will people find that the purifying experience of having their economic world shaken will resurface truer and nobler priorities that will then hold sway?

Time will tell, but in one sense the misfortune of the many may prove to be an opportunity for goodness--again!