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The Gift of Lent

by The Right Reverend Dean E. Wolfe on February 24, 2023

Lent is intended to be a gift. We often approach it with dread, but it’s a season given to us as an opportunity for spiritual growth.  It’s a time we can use for prayer, meditation, worship, spiritual reading, fasting, and other spiritual practices.  It’s a time when we can take a closer look at our lives and to ask ourselves what should we be doing more of... and what should we be casting away.  

During Covid, Lenten disciplines seemed redundant. We were already living lives of greater inward searching and denial. Restaurants and theaters were closed.  Friends and family were kept at a distance. We were forced to “fast” from many of the things that occupied our lives. Covid gave us time to explore our interior selves and to discover what is most important and most real.

The Ash Wednesday Invitation to the observance of a holy Lent (found on page 264 of The Book of Common Prayer) explains Lent like this,

“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. This season of Lent provided a time in which converts to the faith were prepared for Holy Baptism. It was also a time when those who, because of notorious sins, had been separated from the body of the faithful were reconciled by penitence and forgiveness, and restored to the fellowship of the Church. Thereby, the whole congregation was put in mind of the message of pardon and absolution set forth in the Gospel of our Savior, and of the need which all Christians continually have to renew their repentance and faith.

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.”

Lent is intended to be a gift... a gift I invite you to receive, not as an onerous duty, but as a fresh opportunity to create a new relationship with God. Look over the myriad opportunities for education, worship, and service at St. Bart’s and give yourself the gift of deepening your relationship with God.

Faithfully,

The Right Reverend Dean E. Wolfe
Rector

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