Lent, a Liminal Space, a Place for Transition

I was raised in a traditional church, a liturgical church in which the seasons of the church year were practiced: Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter, Pentecost now termed Ordinary Time. The altar and pulpit were draped with cloths representing the colors of the seasons: blue or purple for Advent, Green for Epiphany, purple for Lent, Red for the day of Pentecost and green again for that long period of time from Pentecost to Advent. White adorned the altar on through the seasons of Christmas and Easter.

While the observance of these ‘seasons’ may be unfamiliar to many readers, the ebb and...