Email from Church of the Redeemer

Morning Devotion for the Season of Lent

February 14, 2024

Invitatory

The Lord is full of compassion and mercy: O come, let us adore him.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son: and to the Holy Spirit: as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen.

Invitation to a Holy Lent (from the Ash Wednesday liturgy)

Dear people of God: the first Christians observed with great devotion the days of our Lord’s passion and resurrection, and it became the custom of the Church to prepare for them by a season of penitence and fasting…I invite you, therefore, in the name of the Church, to the observance of a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God’s holy Word.

Meditation - Winnie Smith

Happy Valentine’s Day! No, that’s not right - Happy Ash Wednesday? Blessed Ash Wednesday? Today marks the start of the season of Lent, and I always find myself tripping over the right way to characterize this season. It is a time of preparation, as many of your children will note (purple for preparation!) It is a time of reflection, of prayer, and perhaps of self-control and limitation. It is a season that anticipates the most glorious celebration of our church year. We live in the season, but always with an eye to what it points to.

This invitation to a Holy Lent is given at the beginning of the Ash Wednesday service. Early Christians celebrated a short season of fasting leading up to the Paschal feast (Easter). Over time, the fast lengthened and eventually became attached to a separate fast lasting forty days, meant to imitate Christ’s fasting in the wilderness. Often the Lenten period of forty days serves as a time of preparation for adults preparing for baptism. But for all Christians, it is meant to focus us on the sacrifice of Christ and our own need for self-examination and repentance.

Repentance, I think, tends to get a bad rap. Images of people beating their chests and threats of God’s wrath come to mind. In reality, repentance is quite simple: it is an invitation to turn. To turn from prior behavior and turn towards God. It is about locating once again the path that God has laid out for us, which recognizes our weakness and the inevitability of mistakes, but still allows us - encourages us, even - to grow into deeper relationship with God. You may recall from one of Rebecca Northington’s meditations that in the Diné language there is no word for “I’m sorry.” Instead, what is expected is that the person who has erred will change his or her behavior. Apologies among the Diné people are about looking forward rather than backward. This is how I see repentance, too. And this is what Lent encourages us to do: acknowledge our sinfulness, that we deviate from the path God would have us follow when we put our own needs and desires before others and before God, but then look forward. Amend that behavior. Refocus our lives on those great commandments to love God and love others. That is meaningful repentance.

I wish you all a meaningful and life-giving Lent.

A Prayer of Self-Dedication

Almighty and eternal God, so draw our hearts to you, so guide our minds, so fill our imaginations, so control our wills, that we may be wholly yours, utterly dedicated to you; and then use us, we pray you, as you will, and always to your glory and the welfare of your people; through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.