And for heaven's sake, we should not praise God too much in this season! Even though praise and thanksgiving fill every corner of heaven, an activity by which we participate here on earth with choirs of angels and archangels, and even though "Alleluia" and singing God's praises is the way Christians over the centuries have lifted themselves from themselves to God into the heavenly places, we should bury the practice of Alleluias and set up liturgical guards to keep us from thanksgiving.

We'll call it a "fast of alleluias" so that we keep ourselves on earth so we don't miss heaven when it's offered to us in 40 days.

We can call this season "Lent" as a joke, because we know that this word comes from the Latin word for "spring." But we will make this a time of "winter" and a walking around the room this side of the door into Narnia. And for Anglicans, we will have to rewrite the prayer for Ash Wednesday - if God was to answer it and create in us new and contrite hearts, we would not be able to keep ourselves from blurting out from our heart of hearts, "Jesus Christ is risen today, Alleluia!" Thomas Cranmer meant for Ash Wednesday to lead us from guilt to grace to gratitude, but we have made this a season of guilt, with a "fast" of grace and gratitude.

"Almighty and everlasting God, You hate nothing that You have made, and You do forgive the sins of all them that are penitent; Create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we worthily lamenting our sins, and acknowledging our wretchedness, may obtain of You, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen."

Canon Chuck Collins is the author of Reformation Anglicanism: Beautiful, Generous, Beautiful. You can purchase it here: https://www.amazon.com/Reformation-Anglicanism-Biblical-Generous-Beautiful/dp/0986044148