If you're looking for some extra Lenten reading, I can recommend Philip Rosenbaum's Holy Week Sonnets (Posterity Press, © 2004, ISBN 1-889274-21-6). Philip sent me this collection of his poems some years ago, and it remains one of my favorite Lenten reflections. The elegant hardback collection of sonnets is a rare treat. Well-written formal poetry, complete with meter and rhyme, is like a swift breeze of invigorating air in a world that all too often scorns the riches of trad

This year, Ash Wednesday falls on Valentine’s Day, an interesting confusion of dates. The last time these two holidays converged was 1945. But perhaps the overlap is fitting, given that Valentine’s Day is typically a celebration of love and the Lenten season is a time for reflecting on God’s sacrificial love for us. I’d like to kick off the season by sharing with you George Herbert’s classic poem about God’s love. Herbert was a 17th century metaphysical poet who touched count

Many of us will be gorging on pancakes today as the result of an interesting cultural evolution. The Tuesday before Ash Wednesday is alternately known as Fat Tuesday, Shrove Tuesday, and Mardis Gras. In the Commonwealth countries and Ireland, it is even called Pancake Tuesday or Pancake day. Christians have a knack for taking secular objects and turning them into symbols that point to God, and we can even do that with a pancake. The pancake is said to symbolize the Christian