Late winter snow is falling past my office window. For some - like me who have always loved it - it is a welcome sight. For others it is a further sign of the closed-in nature of winter. For all of us here in New England,however,the days are already lengthening and the promise of spring is real.

The Anglo-Saxon word "lenct", which survives in our word "lengthen", names the liturgical season of Lent in the Church. This is the time of getting ready for the celebration of our deliverance out of death into life. In the parallel to the Passover and Exodus story