Drawing Students Toward Their Creator

The seasons bring a needed rhythm into our lives here in McLean, Virginia. Now that March is almost here, our students have fresh enthusiasm for the passing of winter and the arrival of spring. 

In the same way, the church calendar offers rhythm to our spiritual lives. Here at Ambleside, teachers and students have embraced this season of Lent and are looking forward to the celebration of Easter.  

Why Lent

The early church saw the time leading to the celebration of Christ’s death and resurrection as a time to return to the basics of faith. This season became known as Lent and has been a hallmark of Christian spirituality for centuries. 

Lent is a 40-day journey of preparation, self-denial, repentance, and renewal. It begins on Ash Wednesday and continues until Easter Sunday. The Lenten journey echoes Israel’s 40 years in the wilderness and Jesus’ 40 days of testing in the wilderness. The wilderness has a way of softening our hearts and quieting the noise outside us and within us. It’s an opportunity to come back home to God, to deepen our attentiveness to Him. 

It isn’t for the spiritually self-satisfied—quite the opposite. Every ordinary disciple of Jesus is encouraged to set aside this time to fan the flame of God’s grace in our hearts, no matter how low the ember has burned.*

Lent at Ambleside

Here at Ambleside, we invite students and teachers each morning to ask God to “create in us a new heart.” We have a morning call and response taken from Psalm 51, and together we sing some of the traditional hymns of the Lenten season. 

In this simple daily practice, we remember together that we have been bought with a price and we stand in a place of grace; we acknowledge our journey from darkness to light and from death to life.  

With young people, it is the rituals and traditions we practice—with or without their buy-in and with or without their understanding—that draw them toward their Creator. The morning greeting of each student is a ritual that reminds them that each day is a new start. Likewise, the simple prayers of confession and Lenten hymns of suffering through common worship in the classroom are meaningful traditions that, over time, imprint a memory of God.  

Children, like their parents and teachers, are painfully aware of their shortcomings and sin.  They need to be assured that there is a Savior who looks at them again and again with compassion and grace, and believes in the person they are right now and the person they are becoming. 

We all need fresh hope, second chances, and renewed commitment. The practice of Lent is a simple way to remind all of us of the resurrection hope of Easter. 

* These words are attributed to Reverend Dan Claire, Rector of Church of the Resurrection, Washington, D.C.