It's easy to fall out of good habits. April is, as Eliot suggested, the cruelest month when even the tried and true habits of early morning this late in Lent, well-practiced by now, give way to bird's song, or that prismatic coloring of clouds just before sunrise, or the suggestion of lilac in a sweet breeze, or writing about these things as I am now, while the stack of Daily Office readings stand waiting at my elbow.
And therein lies the problem: The Under-simplification of Lent. I do it almost every year: acquire so much Must-Do, Must-Read, Must-Write, Must-Pray-For, until the door to avoidance is not just ajar, it's swung off its hinges! I try not to look at the clock because I know it's going to start nagging me about being behind schedule. And when that voice starts rushing me through this time of quiet contemplation so treasured in those winter months when everything, including the sun was sleeping in, I may as well switch to NPR, a.k.a., no-praying-required.
If this is your plight as well, there is no shame in resetting to Lent Lite. Simply open The Book of Common Prayer to page 137, "In the Morning", and there you have on a single page all that's really needed to begin again. Over the years I've used these Daily Devotions for Individuals and Families more than anything else in the Prayer Book because beginning again , I have finally come to accept, is Not the exception but the only Rule of Life ever needed.
Bob Stephenson
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