Well Lent begins on Wednesday February 22 and I am so looking forward to going to the Ash Wednesday Service at St James Cathedral here in Seattle (http://www.stjames-cathedral.org). While in the previous congregations I served as senior pastor had several Ash Wednesday Services, the congregation where I am currently serving as an interim associate pastor does not have an Ash Wednesday service. So I look forward to being able to begin the Lenten Journey again this year at St James. Again, Father Michael Ryan is one of the finest priests I have known and he preaches the Gospel with such clarity and especially in Lent articulates such a powerful vision of the Cross of Jesus Christ for which I am so grateful. Also during this season I am teaching a class at WestSide Presbyterian Church on "Why Jesus? A Reaffirmation of the Lordship of Jesus Christ through the Barment Declaration" and am looking forward to how we will engage this incredible witness of Christ and its continuing meaning for us today.
So as we enter this season again, no matter what Christian tradition, other faith tradition or no-faith tradition you may be, may I invite you to explore the question "Who is Jesus Christ for me today?" I would also love to hear how you are celebrating Lent this year...(please post or email me)
And finally a word of invitation to celebrate Lent 2012 from Pope Benedict XVI:
“To stir a response in love and good works”: these words of the Letter to the Hebrews urge us to reflect on the universal call to holiness, the continuing journey of the spiritual life as we aspire to the greater spiritual gifts and to an ever more sublime and fruitful charity. Being concerned for one another should spur us to an increasingly effective love which, “like the light of dawn, its brightness growing to the fullness of day,” makes us live each day as an anticipation of the eternal day awaiting us in God. The time granted us in this life is precious for discerning and performing good works in the love of God...Sadly, there is always the temptation to become lukewarm, to quench the Spirit, to refuse to invest the talents we have received, for our own good and for the good of others. All of us have received spiritual or material riches meant to be used for the fulfillment of God’s plan, for the good of the Church and for our personal salvation. The spiritual masters remind us that in the life of faith those who do not advance inevitably regress.
Dear brothers and sisters, let us accept the invitation, today as timely as ever, to aim for the “high standard of ordinary Christian living”… In a world which demands of Christians a renewed witness of love and fidelity to the Lord, may all of us feel the urgent need to anticipate one another in charity, service and good works.”
Pope Benedict XVI, Lent 2012
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