Lent Is About Reconnecting

Today is Ash Wednesday and the start of the season of Lent.  The Ash Wednesday service includes the following prayer:

 

Dear People of God: The first Christians observed with great devotion the days of our Lord's passion and resurrection, and it became the custom of the Church to prepare for them by a season of penitence and fasting. This season of Lent provided a time in which converts to the faith were prepared for Holy Baptism. It was also a time when those who, because of notorious sins, had been separated from the body of the faithful were reconciled by penitence and forgiveness, and restored to the fellowship of the Church. Thereby, the whole congregation was put in mind of the message of pardon and absolution set forth in the Gospel of our Savior, and of the need which all Christians continually have to renew their repentance and faith.

 

The catechumens were preparing for baptism, the sacrament of initial wherein we connect with God, and by connecting with God, we also connect with our neighbors and ourselves.  Lent is about reconnecting.  It is a time when we examine those things which keep us apart from God, and from our neighbors and from ourselves.  The Church calls those things which disconnect us “sin.”  Sin separates us; sin isolates us.  Lent calls us to reconciliation and connection.  During Lent we shed ourselves of those things in our lives which keep us from being connected, those things that isolate us.

 

So, “I invite you, therefore, in the name of the Church, to the observance of a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God's holy Word. And, to make a right beginning of repentance, and as a mark of our mortal nature, let us now kneel before the Lord, our maker and redeemer.”

 

THANK YOU TO THE TAYLORS AND EVERYONE WHO MADE MARDI GRAS 2015 SO WONDERFUL, ESPECIALLY THE HIGH SCHOOL BAND FROM LA MARQUE! THE GOOD TIMES CERTAINLY DID ROLL!

 

CALENDAR REMINDERS

 

Ash Wednesday service with imposition of ashes and Eucharist at 6 PM tonight.

 

The Seaside Seniors meet tomorrow in Sutton Hall at 11 AM.

 

The Lenten Series begins next Wednesday, 25 February at 6 PM at Trinity Episcopal with Evening Prayer and Eucharist.  The speakers will be Fr. Peter and Br. Michael, Benedictine monks, speaking on the Rule of Life.

ESL every Monday, Wednesday and Friday evenings in Sutton Hall.

 

Please remember everyone on our Prayer List, especially the Coptic Christians who were killed this week by ISIS.

 

Your servant in Christ,

 

Fr. Chester J. Makowski+

St. Augustine of Hippo Episcopal Church

Galveston, Texas 77550