Spiritual Formation

Mombinou Dorichamou is Assistant to the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (IFES) Regional Secretary for Francophone Africa and lives in Benin. Recently he discovered a book on meditative prayer.

Their droopy eyes told me we were in for a long and listless afternoon. I was studying the Gospel of Mark with a group of fifteen college students at Campus by the Sea.

A woman I know has a habit of naming her years. Come January 1, she’ll choose a word for the year ahead—something she’d like to be true of the coming months, such as community or adventure or love. If I were to go back and name the past ten years of my life, most of them would share the same few words: Judgment. Guilt. Fear.

As we mentioned last week, Lent begins with Ash Wednesday on February 13, the day after Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday!). All around the world, millions of Christians will participate in a church service or liturgy that somberly underscores our mortality as creatures and our sinfulness as human beings.