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Lenten Reflections

 

Dear Friends in Christ:

 

Once again, we enter the season of Lent hearing the Church's invitation to us to make it an intentionally holy time. Basically, that means a consecrated time, time set apart, and dedicated to the work of deepening our relationship with God.

 

There are many ancient spiritual practices associated with this season, to assist us with that work. One of them is the practice of disciplined and prayerful reading of Scripture. With that in mind, I want to invite you to make the Bible Challenge the focus of your Lenten discipline. About one-third of all active adult members of the congregations of this diocese have embraced this Challenge to read the Bible through together in a year. We have been doing it for about a month now, and we have been blessed by this fresh encounter with important foundational stories of our faith, with profoundly moving and powerful Psalms and with the important witness of the Gospels. Everywhere I have been in this diocese in recent weeks someone has thanked me for making this Challenge. It has been hard work, and will get harder, but it has been deeply nourishing to the spiritual life of many of us.

 

My counsel to you about making good use of Lent is this: embrace the Bible Challenge. Use this time to start, if you haven't yet; catch up, if you need to; go deeper with it through prayer and study and conversation with others, as you are able. Use the reflection questions. Extend the circle of your prayer and meditation. Look for connections in the news of the day, and the events in your life. And in all these things, make yourself available to God for the gift that God wants to give you.

 

This Lent, let us not try to do more. Instead, let us try to make better use of the things we already know to do by way of meaningful spiritual practice. I expect that your practice includes time with Scripture, and I hope that you will make use of the Bible Challenge.

 

In whatever you choose to make the focus of this season, I pray God's blessing upon you that you will find this Lent to be a time of increasing spiritual strength; may it be a time when your experience of God's love for you is greatly enriched.

 

Yours in the love of God,

 Bishop's Signature 

 

Ps 119:97-120 Jeremiah 8:18-9:6 Romans 5:1-11  John 8:12-20

 

PREPARATION FOR EASTER

 

Childhood memories of my family preparing for Easter made a deep and lasting impression upon me. I continue to re-enact many of those preparations in my home today.

 

I established my first home as a single woman following college graduation and was eager to start my own preparation for Easter. The first step was a Shrove Tuesday Pancake Supper for 5 dear friends. What fun we all had as we enjoyed that simple supper and decided what each of us would "give up" for Lent. We still talk about those Shrove Tuesdays we shared together!

 

The second step was the cleaning, from top to bottom, of my little abode. While doing so, I recalled many years of doing the same with my mother, daddy and brother. I remember those times as fun and cheerful rather than dull and boring. My favorite job was to polish the silver until I could see my own reflection!

 

Five years later, I married and moved to a larger home. My husband was keen on the Shrove Tuesday pancake with friends but, not so on the top to bottom cleaning of our home.

Three years later, our daughter was born, followed by our son the next year. They were included in the Easter preparation at an early age. They loved the Shrove Tuesday suppers (they each invited a friend) but, like their daddy, were not keen on the cleaning! Cleaning was followed by the decorating of eggshells. I treasure those eggshells so carefully emptied and decorated with paints, paper, ribbons, etc.

 

During the Shrove Tuesday suppers, home cleaning and eggshell decorating, we always talked about Easter and all that the season represents to us as individuals and as a family. Three of those words we spoke resonate with me today. Those three words are faith, hope and love.

Peace,

Wanda  Halkett

St. Luke’s, Calistoga

Ps 95, 88 Job 19:21-Hebrews 4:2-16 Romans 8:1-11

 

 “Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same intention (for whoever has suffered in the flesh has finished with sin), so as to live for the rest of your earthly life no longer by human desires but by the will of God.”  1 Peter 4:1-8

 

One of my favorite TV programs ends with a segment during which members of a panel are asked, “What did you learn today?” As Lent begins to draw to a close we might each ask ourselves the same question, “What did I learn during this time of prayer, reflection, study and fasting?” I always hope that I will learn that giving up some human desire – watching TV, eating favorite foods, shopping, sleeping in – is well worth the spiritual gifts that come from turning my attention and focus to more worthy pursuits. Throughout Lent my desires and my conscience often play an unfriendly game of tug-o-war as I seek to move from time spent in human pursuits to finding more time for studying scripture, quiet meditation, and prayer. It is not that this is hard to do; it is just that the heartbeat of willingness is faint, erratic and has no steady rhythm unless I consciously surrender to the will of God.

 

Each Lent I am reminded again that it is worth learning to “let go and let God” for within that choice lays the secret to my serenity and peace. Living into “Thy will be done” is a daily practice that requires regular engagement with scripture, prayer and quiet time with God. When I maintain that practice it becomes a steady drumbeat of spiritual joy. What do I learn each Lent? That the Passion (pain, suffering and despair) always gives way to Easter (joy, peace and renewal), and it is willingness and obedience that makes this truth self-evident.

 

What have you learned? What impact has the Lenten experience had on your life? What will you do with this knowledge? What changes are you ready to make as you live into “Thy will be done?”

Pamela Moore

St. Luke’s,

Calistoga

 

 

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