Greetings! 

Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of church's most intentional and reverent season.  Please attend one of the Ash Wednesday services at Christ Church, at 8 AM, Noon or 7 PM.  If Christ Church is not convenient, certainly attend a church near your work or home with services tomorrow.

Lent, which lasts 40 days, is a season of intentional spiritual practice, a season in which we are called to live a more intentionally holy life.  Our Presiding Bishop, Katherine Jefferts Schori,

Presiding Bishop Lent Message 2011

To live an intentional, holy Lent requires discipline; discipline strengthens discipleship.  If we follow the discipline that Jesus asked of his disciples, the better disciples of the Risen Christ we will be come Easter on April 24.

So, part of Lenten practice should be intentional fasting and self-denial.  Here is a very important point: we don't choose a fast or an act of self-denial because we are bad, but because we want to intentionally live a 40-day period of time as Jesus did.  From the discipline comes our discipleship.

So, make a commitment to your Lenten discipline today, and start tomorrow.  Here are some suggestions:   

1. Give up something you truly crave that may have more power over you than you think.  Chocolate and sweets, okay, but maybe alcohol would be a more substantial choice.  Are you addicted to nicotine?  You may not be able to quit smoking in Lent, but make a commitment to reduce your intake 10% each week.  By Easter, you'll be down 40%.  Pornography on the internet?  Here's the chance to break that which abuses both you and the person in the photo.  Give up sex?  Why not?  Is 40 days really that long?  You should pick a sacrifice that is hard at which you might fail.  If you do, start again.  Pray that God fill the empty places your act of self-denial opens within you.
2. Fast one day a week.  It's easier than you might think, but you need to plan.  Pick one day a week to eat only half of your usual caloric intake.  Eat some in the morning, and then wait until dinner to eat again, and have that dinner be simple and meatless.  Calculate what you are saving, and donate that money to Philabundance, or to parish's relief fund for the people of Haiti.  You may find that fasting more than one day a week, or changing the nature of what you eat to food less expensive, gives you the opportunity to confront hunger in other people's lives.
3. Pray everyday, either when you first wake up, or when you go to bed.  Say the Lord's Prayer quietly to yourself during the day.  Get out your Book of Common Prayer (or purchase one in the Tower Room shop), and put it next to the television remote, promising yourself to say a prayer before turning on the tube.
4. Set aside a three hour slot, get out the Bible, and read either the Gospel of Mark, Matthew or Luke its entirety.
5. Be in worship every Sunday, or every Wednesday at Noon.

For five Wednesday evenings in Lent, beginning Wednesday March 16, we will gather at the church to support you in your Lenten journey and to help with Lent's intentional spiritual practices.

At 6 PM, a simple supper of hearty soup and bread begins.  At 6:30 PM, we will take seriously the Lenten discipline of "reading and meditating on God's holy Word," by exploring the King James Bible in this the 400th anniversary of its first publication.  Our goal, through its classical language and historic cadences, is to experience scripture in a new way, as well as to understand the revolutionary power of scripture that was unleashed in the English-speaking world when the King James Bible first appeared.  At  7:30, we will gather in church for our Lenten prayers, and be on our way home by 8 PM.

It's important for planning to know if you're coming, so please email Cecilia now, or call the office at 215.922.1695.