Reflections

Many Christians around the world will celebrate Ash Wednesday this month on February 13. Ash Wednesday begins the roughly 40-day period known as Lent that leads up to Easter. Lent is traditionally a time of reflection and preparation, and has often been observed by fasting, devotion to prayer, repentance, moderation and spiritual study.

Lent and Ash Wednesday figure more prominently in some denominations. I didn’t grow up observing Lent, except for a couple of years while I was in college and denied myself desserts for a little over a month. Looking back, foregoing desserts was not much more t...