Have you looked in the mirror today?

If you went to church on Ash Wednesday you probably had the sign of the cross drawn on your forehead with the ash of last years Palm Crosses.

Is your Ash Wednesday ash cross still visible today, or has it disappeared? What if instead of ashes, the sign of the cross was made on your forehead with a special dye that lasted the whole of Lent?

Unusual insiders view for Lent

If you haven’t yet found a devotional course to help you get the best out of Lent, then it isn’t too late. You might have missed the thought for Ash Wednesday, but reading this might count instead – especially if follow up with the course it’s taken from.

‘A Lenten Hobo Honeymoon’ is one of the most unusual, concise and visually memorable Lent devotionals. Still available in time for the first full week of Lent, it’s a course that really is for those who get more from the journey than the destination.

Pilgrims homeward bound

To spend Lent as a honeymoon seems a contradiction, but the key is in the word 'Hobo'. Originally American slang for a migrant worker, Hobo is made from the first letters of the words homeward and bound. Originally referring to Civil War veterans working their way home, the word might also refer to agricultural casual workers, 'Hoe-boys'.

Today as then, Hobos being migrants on the move have ‘no place to lay their heads’, opening up a direct comparison with the central traveller on the Lenten road that leads to the cross and with all Christians on the restless journey of faith.

Toward the one who loves the best

'A Lenten Hobo Honeymoon' is a journey of love: travelling with no settled home but always moving on and closer toward the one who loves the best. Hobos are not ‘bums’, vagrants, scroungers or tramps: they are pilgrims working their passage home.

The surprising feature of this Lent course is that Hobos are not only travellers and workers, they’re also communicators and artists. Each day’s short reading begins with a hand-drawn Hobo Symbol like the one on the gate post in the cover illustration.

Secret symbols of the journey home

These drawings are Hobo icons to communicate what kind of welcome a town, home or individual offers to the Hobo in need. Chalked pictures indicate fierce dogs, handouts, good camps and kindly women. The symbols are like a secret code written and understood only by travellers – not residents.

Like Hobo symbols, says writer Edward Hays, the mark of Ash Wednesday is the symbol of the traveller not the resident. It’s a tribal badge that marks the Christian out from the world. If you want another Lent symbol to go with the ashes of Ash Wednesday, Edward Hays even tells you how to make and wear sackcloth!

Lent course for the Easter journey

So there’s your Ash Wednesday reflection - a little late, but if you type ‘Lenten Hobo’ into the search bar on any Eden.co.uk page you can order ‘A Lenten Hobo Honeymoon’ and qualify for free delivery, or you can choose the express option to get the most out of your Lenten journey home.

Edward Hays: Author snapshot

Born in Lincoln Nebraska, Edward Kay was himself a Hobo from an early age. Running away to join a Benedictine Abbey, he was ordained in 1958 and began an itinerant ministry to the travelling homeless. After a Hobo journey through the Near East, Edward Kay returned to direct the contemplative prayer community, 'Shantivanam', in the forests of Easton, Kansas. He still keeps his packed Hobo bag under his bed, restless to on the move again.