February, 2008
Dear Friends:
The season of Lent has all but crept up on us and in a matter of days we begin what is in effect the most solemn season of the church’s year. It is an excellent period for reflection and growth. Most times people speak of giving up something for Lent: some vice or something that they feel the need to put a hold on for a while. What I would like for us in this parish to do this Lent is not to give up something but to take up a couple of things.
I want us to take up the habit of being more attentive to the study of scripture: not just hearing scripture read in church and reading it ourselves privately, but being more intentional in seeking to get behind the text and to see what it has to say to our particular context. This Lent we once again initiate our Lenten Study on Wednesday evenings 6.30 in Trinity Chapel. It will be an occasion to go more in depth into the lessons read on the preceding Sunday and also to share our own thoughts on these lessons. This is a Lenten discipline that will serve us well and I trust that we will make the effort to be there and to share so that we all may learn.
Secondly I want for us to take up the habit of constant prayer. The schedule this Lent affords us yet another opportunity of coming together in corporate worship as we introduce a service of Evening Prayer on Fridays. In addition to the usual Stations of the Cross we want to use our coming together as an occasion of prayer as we use one of the offices of the church to make our supplications known to God. Again I encourage your attendance. All of these are attempts to lift our spiritual lives in the context of this church and I trust that we will use this Lent as a season of spiritual growth and development.
Monrelle +