Each year, hundreds of millions of Catholic and Protestant Christians around the world celebrate Lent. During his 40 days, from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday, the observer devotes himself to fasting, prayer, and acts of generous giving.
Many people who may not be as observant will also take this opportunity to give up something. Country Living has published a list of 32 things to cut down on in 2023, from ‘social media comments’, ‘road violence’ and ‘disregarding health’ to ‘speeding’, ‘snacking’ and ‘disposables’. I’ve created a list of ideas. plastic”.
For Lent 2024, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby has chosen British theologian Selina Stone’s new book as his annual recommendation. This selection, titled “Tarry Awhile: Wisdom from Black Spirituality for People of Faith,” speaks to the growing prominence of Black spirituality around the world, particularly with respect to Christianity.
By 2050, 40% of the world’s Christians will live in sub-Saharan Africa. As the 21st century progresses, Black spirituality will increasingly influence global Christianity. The archbishop’s selection of Lenten books focuses the attention of religious literature wholeheartedly on the influence of black spirituality in Anglican thought.
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But the most interesting thing about this choice is what, for many people, is a word that is rarely used in titles. To be late is to stay too long in anticipation of a person or event. In the Christian context, it is waiting expectantly on God.
“Talling gives us a chance to rest,” Welby writes in the foreword. “To see the reality of the world more clearly and to imagine more boldly what the world could be like.”
In his introduction, Stone says that this practice recognizes “the interdependence of the individual and the community for an encounter with the divine.” She invites readers to open up while longing for the justice and peace sorely missing from the world, whether being late as a tradition feels like home to them or something entirely new. I recommend that you do so.
Preserve Christian Tradition
The word “delay” is used at least 30 times in the Bible. In particular, as Stone emphasizes, it is a word used in the Gospel of Matthew (in the King James Version) when Jesus is in the Garden of Gethsemane with his disciples. Grief-stricken to the point of his death, he asks his disciples to “remain here and watch with me.”
In Biblical literature, “waiting” refers to an individual or community waiting patiently in anticipation of something in a certain setting or state. This can be a person, an event, or an act of spiritual or political liberation.
The concept of lag surfaces in the historical development of academic Christian theology. Although it remains popular among black Christians, it is not exclusive to this religious group. In fact, it is not even specifically limited to religious communities. This is a term used by philosophers, psychoanalysts, and religious leaders alike.
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In Black Christian spirituality, the concept of tally exists as a well-known and mature spiritual ritual that manifests itself in many different forms in practice. After a church service or event, worshipers may ignore social interactions and gather near the altar or remain in their seats and spend extra time in prayer. Encouraged by the Bible’s view that God responds favorably to those who spend time with him, Christians may sit lost in prayer alone in an empty chapel and communicate their needs and concerns to God. I don’t know.
Like meditation, being late favors mindfulness over laziness or indifference. It encourages us to live each moment with meaning.
Particularly in the Pentecostal tradition, being late is seen as a spiritual discipline. It helps pave the way for the presence of God to manifest in even the most mundane and worldly aspects of daily life. People who are late make it a priority to do so, but fail when the anxieties of daily life compete for their mental, emotional, and physical attention.
Religiously, delaying means replacing the attention-seeking anxieties of everyday life with a focus on spiritual, social, and relational things. Thali serves as an expression of love, devotion and desire. In a world where distractions are quicker and easier than ever, slowing down time is a choice to avoid one thing and do another.
Culturally, tardiness requires a rejection of the rat-race mentality characteristic of capitalist societies. In many ways, it is antithetical to the assumptions of modernism, which promotes the glorification of secular reason and the fetishization of production.
Thus, tardiness is clearly associated with Lent. Lent’s emphasis on fasting, prayer, ideological generosity and charity coincides with Thali’s emphasis on communal living.
Christians who celebrate Lent give with the expectation that their giving will make a positive contribution to the lives of others. In a world where we’re often encouraged to let go of relationships in order to be more productive, maybe we’d all be better off taking part in a slightly slower pace of daily life.
