Preparing for Lent

Liturgically, this Sunday is the last Sunday after the Epiphany, thus the final Sunday before Lent. So, if you still have them, please bring your palms from last Palm Sunday, as we burn those palms Monday and use the ashes on Ash Wednesday.

Tuesday is often called “Shrove Tuesday” (from the word “shrive,” which means “to confess,” also Marti Gras, or “Fat Tuesday,” because all of the fatty foods would be consumed before Lenten fasting). As has been our custom, on Shrove Tuesday we’ll have a pancake dinner put on by the youth group. The teens will be preparing and serving the food, and any money collected will go toward their summer trip, so please come, and be generous!

On Ash Wednesday we’ll have three services, one at 7:00 a.m., one at noon, and another at 7:00 p.m. The Ash Wednesday liturgy creates space for reflection on our frailty and our sinfulness, yet always reminding us that, in the words of the collect for Ash Wednesday, God “hates nothing [he] has made, and forgives the sins of all who are penitent.” Please make an effort to participate in one of these services as we begin our Lenten journey together.

Finally, beginning Wednesday, March 8 (a week from Ash Wednesday), we will begin a five-week Lenten reading group, discussing Tim Keller’s important book Generous Justice. We’ll begin at 6:30 p.m. in the Parish Hall, and will finish by 8:00 p.m.

I’m hoping and praying that this Lent will be a time in which each one of us can acknowledge our own frailty and sin, all the while experiencing the God who was pleased to take our sin and death on himself that we might have full, rich, abundant, and eternal life.

Peace,

Chris