Lent begins on Feb. 14, the 40 days that take us to Easter. It seems to always sneak up and want more of us than we ever gave during Advent. I suppose that makes sense. We are, as you know, walking with Jesus to Jerusalem to see him suffer and die. 

Lewis writes of Easter to his friend Don Giovanni Calabria on March 27, 1948. It’s a good reminder as we start this season.

“… we shall celebrate the glorious Resurrection of Christ. I shall be remembering you in the Holy Communion. Away with tears and fears and troubles! United in wedlock with the eternal Godhead Itself, our nature ascends into the Heaven of Heaven. So it would be impious to call ourselves ‘miserable.’ On the contrary, Man is a creature whom the Angels – were they capable of envy – would envy. Let us lift up our hearts! ‘At some future time perhaps even these things it be a joy to recall.'”

The quote Lewis ends with comes from Virgil’s Aeneid and is an apt way of projecting the approaching future of Jesus coming again and settling all things by his justice and grace. I encourage you to think about getting Preparing for Easter: 50 Devotional Readings from C.S. Lewis as a guide through Lent. Each day also offers a reading from Psalms and the New Testament. Over the next few weeks, I’ll also cite some of these readings here.