Lent 2024
Every practicing Christian should embrace the devotions of Lent: ritual, study, and change of life. For ages and ages, we have begun a Holy Lent with the imposition of holy ashes. This is an outward sign of our limitedness of life and limitedness of the power to change ourselves on our own. We welcome all persons who love Jesus to begin a holy Lent on Ash Wednesday and to continue to find opportunities of spiritual practice through the season. You are welcome to join us.
Shrove Tuesday Pancake Dinner
February 13, 6:30 PM
Holy Ashes On Your Way
February 14, 7 – 9 AM
Ash Wednesday Liturgy
February 14, 12 PM & 7 PM
Lenten Wednesdays
6:30 PM, Mussleman Hall
2/21, 2/28, 3/6, 3/13, 3/20
Living Well Through Lent
Lent is a time for introspection and self-reflection, a time to reflect on the core of what it means to live a Christian life in the midst of great change and uncertainty. When facing change and uncertainty, practicing forgiveness becomes more central to that life so that we are freer to both receive and share the healing love of God. This year’s Forward Movement LWTL theme is Practicing Forgiveness with All Your Heart, Soul, Strength, and Mind with devotions to help prepare for the new life of Easter. Limited hard copies of the booklets are available to pick up at the church or download this PDF.
What is Lent?
Early Christians observed “a season of penitence and fasting” in preparation for the Paschal feast, or Pascha (BCP, pp. 264-265). The season is now known as Lent (from an Old English word meaning “spring,” the time of lengthening days) has a long history. Originally, in places where Pascha was celebrated on a Sunday, the Paschal feast followed a fast of up to two days. In the third century this fast was lengthened to six days. Eventually, this fast became attached to or overlapped, another fast of forty days, in imitation of Christ’s fasting in the wilderness. The forty-day fast was especially important for converts to the faith who were preparing for baptism, and for those guilty of notorious sins who were being restored to the Christian assembly. In the western church the forty days of Lent extend from Ash Wednesday through Holy Saturday, omitting Sundays. The last three days of Lent are the sacred Triduum of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday. Today Lent has reacquired its significance as the final preparation of adult candidates for baptism. Joining with them, all Christians are invited “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” (BCP, p. 265). – Episcopal Dictionary of the Church