A Word from the Rector…
Now let us all, with one accord,
In company with ages past,
Keep vigil with our heavenly Lord
In his temptation and his fast.
- Gregory the Great (540 – 604 c.e.)
Dear Friends,
Lent is a time to look at ourselves, and the world, with new eyes. Oftentimes we think of this season as a time to be endured (after all, who can really claim that he or she enjoys the lack of flowers on the altar, the solemn hymns or the lack of chocolate and sweets. More than once, I’ve heard it said that what someone plans to give up for Lent—is the season itself. Yet I encourage you to see this season, not simply as an endurance test for the liturgically literate—but an opportunity to look at yourself, and the world, through the eyes of someone engaged in spiritual discipline.
Sister Joan Chittister writes in her book The Rule of Benedict: Insight for the Ages: “Lent is the time for trimming the soul and scrapping the sludge off a life turned slipshod. Lent is about taking stock of time, even religious time. Lent is about exercising the control that enables us to say no to ourselves so that when life turns hard of its own accord we have the stamina to yes to its twists and turns with faith and hope…. Lent is the time to make new efforts to be what we say we want to be.”
In other words, Lent is a time to focus on what it means to be human. And so we give things up—and, the truth is, it hurts. But here is the good news. The goal of Lent is not to give things up only so that we get them back come Easter. We give things up so that we might realize that our real strength is found—not in what we possess, or what we enjoy. Instead, our true strength is found in God.
This Lenten season, I invite you to give something up….or, perhaps, take something on. Give up coffee or chocolate, the new pair of shoes or a weekend-getaway and take the money and put it toward something else. Donate to relief in Haiti, give to Episcopal Relief and Development, use the funds that you would ordinarily use to reward yourself to make a difference in someone’s life. And, here’s the wonderful thing, you might just find that by giving to ease someone else’s misery, your life has been made more joyful.
I look forward to seeing you in Church.
In the hope of a holy Lent,
Melanie†