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“The
sacrifices of God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite
heart you will not despise” Psalm 51 verse 17.
I write as we begin the season of Lent
which continues throughout March leading into the celebration
of Easter at the beginning of April. The sentence from one of
the Psalms is used as we begin our Ash Wednesday service
reminding us that God loves the humble and contrite - as
opposed to the proud and arrogant of spirit. The introduction
which follows in the service explains the meaning of Lent , as
follows:
“Since early days Christians have
observed with great devotion the time of our Lord’s passion
and resurrection. It became the custom of the Church to
prepare for this by a season of penitence and fasting.
At first this season of Lent was
observed by those who were preparing for Baptism at Easter
and by those who were to be restored to the Church’s
fellowship from which they had been separated through sin. In
course of time the Church came to recognise that, by a careful
keeping of these days, all Christians might take to heart the
call to repentance and the assurance of forgiveness proclaimed
in the gospel, and so grow in faith and in devotion to our
Lord.
I invite you, therefore, in the name
of the Church, to the observance of a holy Lent, by
self-examination; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by
reading and meditating on God‘s holy word.”
These words summarise how the season of
Lent was first used by the Church in Baptism and restoring
those who had been excommunicated (!) and how it was
recognised that it would be beneficial for all to observe a
holy Lent. So it is not so much a time of giving things up but
much more a time of taking things up! Of spending more time
focussing on God through prayer, fasting and reading and
meditating on the Bible. The Lent courses that we run in
Nailsworth facilitate these objectives and also give rise to
discussions about all sorts of things.
It’s snowing outside but the snowdrops and
daffodils are gamely catching up from there slow start as they
were affected by the bitter spell we have had. Nature has a
wonderful way of compensating for adverse weather conditions.
The new growth of Spring always cheers me up no end as we look
forward to warmer weather and a burst of colour in our
gardens. Lent has the same effect in our spirits if we use it
in the right way and try to get our spiritual lives back on
course. I hope we all have a “good Lent” and use our time in a
different way to our normal pattern trying to spend a little
more time focussing on God and the things that will draw us
closer to Him.
With Love,
Stephen.
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