Entering Lent: Guidance for the Season

Dear People of God,

This week, we walk into the desert with Jesus. Jesus went to the desert immediately after his baptism. It says in the gospel of Luke that the Spirit drove him. The Holy Spirit wanted Jesus to fast and pray and to be tempted by Satan.

Why would the Holy Spirit want us to be tempted? It is in fasting, in refusing to fulfill our every desire, that we liberate the spirit from the body. In other words, so long as we are driven by impulses to consume, buy, eat, we will never be able to align our values with our behavior.

During Lent, Christians all over the world fast. View the webpage Lent and Easter for some suggestions for how to approach fasting. Remember that Lent is a forty day fast, and that Sundays are NOT included in the fast.

The worship at the Cathedral changes during Lent. We move into a quieter season, with more silence. We say we are sorry for the things we have done wrong and we sing different music, music that is more reflective and somber.

This Lent, our theme at the Cathedral is Wrestle. Just as Jesus wrestled with the devil, so we must wrestle with so many things: with difficult decisions, with our own inadequacies, with the violence and injustices of the world. This Lent, we want to equip you to wrestle with strength and dignity and to emerge stronger, just as Jesus did. When Jesus walked out of the desert, he knew who he was and what God was asking of him.

Each week, the clergy will wrestle with a difficult topic from the pulpit. And each week, we will print a question on the front of the bulletin, a question designed to make you reflect upon your life. We will also include this question in the E-Eagle each week. This coming first Sunday of Lent, the topic is Sacrifice and the question is:

           Is there a time when you made a sacrifice, and how did it impact you?

At the end of the announcements, you will be given an opportunity to share your answer to this question with another parishioner.

Lent is a time to move deeper in your relationship with God so that you become stronger, wiser and more capable of joy.

Join me.
Kate+