Ash Wednesday and Lent

This year Lent begins on February 17^th and continues through Easter on April 4^th. Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the season of Lent. We will hold an Ash Wednesday Service online on February 17^th at 7:00 PM. Lent starts with us confronting our human frailty, our limits, our mortality. “From dust you have come and to dust you shall return.” It is a time of reflection about our lives. For many, it is a time of special efforts at personal devotion and piety. We mark 40 days; symbolic of the forty days Jesus spent in the wilderness fasting. Many people choose to use this time to fast, or abstain from some food or habit. Some people choose, instead of not doing or eating something, to take on some added practice of kindness, generosity or good. Instead of giving up something, they give away something in the form of goodness.

In some ways Lent offers us the chance to realize how much we need God’s help, how dependent we are of Christ’s grace. When we consider Jesus’ who was tempted, but without sin, we realize how much we fall short of his standards. It is made painfully clear that we are human. And so, as we begin this Lenten journey, the first step is to admit our imperfect humanity.

This year, since we cannot gather inside for worship, we will offer a Lenten practice outside for members and neighbors to take part in our Lenten “Weeping Willow” In the side yard of the church (along Highland Avenue) will be a tree set up where you can write prayers, thoughts, and laments on ribbons provided in a mail box containing markers, ribbons and instructions. After you write your prayer, tie the ribbon to the tree as a community expression of our need for God. Each week we will share photos as the tree “grows” with the prayers of the community.