First Sunday of Lent

Well, Ash Wednesday is behind us and the First Sunday of Lent is about to come to a close. We'll be singing Evening Prayer at 7:00 here: gathered around the Paschal candle we will make an offering of incense, our prayer rising in song and as a sweet fragrance before God.

How's Lent been for us so far?

Are you among those who have been faithful now for nearly four days to those exercises of prayer, fasting and caring for the poor?

Or did you have a good start that fizzled a bit by the time the first meatless Friday rolled around?

Did you not make it to church on Ash Wednesday and thus felt a little out of it at Mass this morning? Or did you miss this morning as well as Wednesday past?

The devil in the garden and the desert in this morning's scriptures would like nothing better than for you to give up on Lent just because the first few days haven't gone as well as you might have liked. Well, to hell with the devil! Start Lent now: right now!Find 10 minutes a day to sit still and remember that God is present... that's called prayer.
Choose some form of comfort (food or Southern?) whose absence for 40 days will create an empty space the Spirit might rush to fill... that's called fasting.
Reach out to the poor in some way available where you live, work and worship... that's called almsgiving...

For some years now, in addition to offering ashes which will be gone by the next morning, we also offer Lenten buttons with an image of an ashed Cross upon them:



This way the mark of Ash Wednesday has a longer shelf life for reminding the bearer of the season in which we live. (If you'd like a button, write me via snail mail and include a SASE for return mail.) Of course, a Post-It on your bathroom mirror with the single word LENT scribbled on it might be just as effective!

Lent is a spiritual spring time (whether you live above or below the equator!) and it's not too late to plant the seeds of Lent in our lives...

-ConcordPastor