the practice that makes lent for me

Eric Gill, "The Carrying of the Cross", 1926

I know some evangelical churches are beginning to practice Lent -- particularly Ash Wednesday and "giving up" something.  But the practice that makes Lent for me -- the sine qua non of Lent -- is the practice of the Stations of the Cross.

I didn't grow up in high-church liturgical environments.  My first exposure to The Stations of the Cross came as a seminary student, and it was eye-opening.  I found it profoundly moving.  And disconcerting.  I remember feeling shaken when the service ended with Jesus dead and laid in the tomb.  Ending on that somber note was extraordinarily powerful and profound.  I'd never been to a church service that ended in such darkness.  And then we did it again.   And again.  And again.  Each Friday of Lent my classmates and I would walk to Duke Chapel and go through the Stations of the Cross.

That repeated practice of visiting and walking the way of darkness marked me spiritually.  And emotionally.  Still to this day, it's Good Friday that's the hardest day of the Church Year for me.  Not given to bouts of emotional religion, that day is a day filled with tears.

In my experience, there's nothing really like this in low-liturgical Protestant churches.  And it makes those traditions poorer, spiritually, I think.

Because the one practice that marks Lent, that makes the season prior to Easter what it is in the Church's life, are these Stations of the Cross.