{"id":39,"date":"2011-03-09T09:14:36","date_gmt":"2011-03-09T09:14:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/christianityfortherestofus\/2011\/03\/ash-wednesday-lent-begins.html"},"modified":"2011-03-09T09:14:36","modified_gmt":"2011-03-09T09:14:36","slug":"ash-wednesday-lent-begins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/2011\/03\/ash-wednesday-lent-begins.html","title":{"rendered":"Ash Wednesday: Lent Begins"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A poem to begin your Lenten observance from one of my favorite Anglican poets. &nbsp;May you hunger and thirst this season for a closer connection with God and a deeper love of neighbor. &nbsp;<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;Lent&#8221; by Christina Rossetti (c. 1886)<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>It is good to be last not first,<\/div>\n<div>&nbsp;&nbsp; Pending the present distress;<\/div>\n<div>It is good to hunger and thirst,<\/div>\n<div>&nbsp;&nbsp; So it be for righteousness.<\/div>\n<div>It is good to spend and be spent,<\/div>\n<div>&nbsp;&nbsp; It is good to watch and to pray:<\/div>\n<div>Life and Death make a goodly Lent<\/div>\n<div>&nbsp;&nbsp; So it leads us to Easter Day.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A poem to begin your Lenten observance from one of my favorite Anglican poets. &nbsp;May you hunger and thirst this season for a closer connection with God and a deeper love of neighbor. &nbsp; &#8220;Lent&#8221; by Christina Rossetti (c. 1886) It is good to be last not first, &nbsp;&nbsp; Pending the present distress; It is&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":66,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity","category-holiday"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Ash Wednesday: Lent Begins - Christianity for the Rest of Us<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/2011\/03\/ash-wednesday-lent-begins.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ash Wednesday: Lent Begins - Christianity for the Rest of Us\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A poem to begin your Lenten observance from one of my favorite Anglican poets. &nbsp;May you hunger and thirst this season for a closer connection with God and a deeper love of neighbor. &nbsp; &#8220;Lent&#8221; by Christina Rossetti (c. 1886) It is good to be last not first, &nbsp;&nbsp; Pending the present distress; It is&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/2011\/03\/ash-wednesday-lent-begins.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Christianity for the Rest of Us\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-03-09T09:14:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Diana Butler Bass\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Ash Wednesday: Lent Begins - Christianity for the Rest of Us","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/2011\/03\/ash-wednesday-lent-begins.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Ash Wednesday: Lent Begins - Christianity for the Rest of Us","og_description":"A poem to begin your Lenten observance from one of my favorite Anglican poets. &nbsp;May you hunger and thirst this season for a closer connection with God and a deeper love of neighbor. &nbsp; &#8220;Lent&#8221; by Christina Rossetti (c. 1886) It is good to be last not first, &nbsp;&nbsp; Pending the present distress; It is&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/2011\/03\/ash-wednesday-lent-begins.html","og_site_name":"Christianity for the Rest of Us","article_published_time":"2011-03-09T09:14:36+00:00","author":"Diana Butler Bass","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/2011\/03\/ash-wednesday-lent-begins.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/2011\/03\/ash-wednesday-lent-begins.html","name":"Ash Wednesday: Lent Begins - Christianity for the Rest of Us","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-03-09T09:14:36+00:00","dateModified":"2011-03-09T09:14:36+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/#\/schema\/person\/af0e5483b7a3dbedba88a766dea6dbe2"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/2011\/03\/ash-wednesday-lent-begins.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/2011\/03\/ash-wednesday-lent-begins.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/2011\/03\/ash-wednesday-lent-begins.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Ash Wednesday: Lent Begins"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/","name":"Christianity for the Rest of Us","description":"Christianity for the Rest of Us","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/#\/schema\/person\/af0e5483b7a3dbedba88a766dea6dbe2","name":"Diana Butler Bass","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/be3\/be314a8e22e069cf178a04394ae14af2x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/be3\/be314a8e22e069cf178a04394ae14af2x96.jpg","caption":"Diana Butler Bass"},"description":"Diana Butler Bass is an author, speaker, and independent scholar specializing in American religion and culture. She holds a Ph.D. in religious studies from Duke University and is the author of seven books including A People\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s History of Christianity: the Other Side of the Story (HarperOne, 2009) Her best-selling Christianity for the Rest of Us (2006) was named as one of the best religion books of the year by Publishers Weekly and Christian Century, won the Book of the Year Award from the Academy of Parish Clergy, and was featured in a cover story in USA TODAY. Diana regularly consults with religious organizations, leads conferences for religious leaders, and teaches and preaches in a variety of venues. She regularly comments on religion, politics, and culture in the media including USA TODAY, Time, Newsweek, The Washington Post, CNN, FOX, PBS, and NPR. From 1995-2000, she wrote a weekly column on American religion for the New York Times Syndicate. She has written widely in the religious press, including Sojourners, Christian Century, Clergy Journal, and Congregations. From 2002 to 2006, she was the Project Director of a national Lilly Endowment funded study of mainline Protestant vitality\u00e2\u20ac\u201da project featured in Newsweek, U.S. News and World Report, the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times. Diana also serves on the board of directors of the Beatitudes Society. Diana has taught at Westmont College, the University of California at Santa Barbara, Macalester College, Rhodes College, and the Virginia Theological Seminary. She has taught church history, American religious history, history of Christian thought, religion and politics, and congregational studies. She lives in Alexandria, Virginia. She is a member of the Episcopal Church of the Epiphany in downtown Washington, D.C.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/author\/dbbass"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/66"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}