5 Ways to Practice Lent:
The season of Lent before us is a brief forty days. We are given a few short weeks to prepare ourselves – in body, mind and spirit – to receive and then proclaim the astounding good news of the resurrection of Jesus, that ‘the Lord is risen’.
For centuries, Christians have used this time to take on certain spiritual practices: prayer, worship, study, fasting, giving. The hope is – whatever practice you choose – that during this Lenten season, the Spirit will be at work in you and with you to clarify and bring to light in some new way what is most important and what – frankly – is not. Lent is a season of sifting the wheat from the chaff in each of our lives.
If you like, you can think of these coming forty days as a gift for you. Take time. Give yourself permission. Recall that the Spirit is at work in you. Find time to know this in some new way.
Here are five ways to begin sifting the wheat from the chaff this Lent:
- Be Faithful in Your Daily Prayers. Use a devotional or prayer guide found in the Café or Narthex.
- Come to Church on Sunday mornings or join us on Wednesdays at noon for Eucharist with Prayers for Healing.
- Learn the Word of God’s Love. Sit on the Gospel with Bob on Sunday mornings. Listen to Lenten Speaker Series on Wednesday evenings. Read A Season of the Spirit by Martin Smith.
- Make a Fast. Learn to Wait. Fast one day a week in Lent. One way to break your fast is with St. Mary’s parishioners on Wednesday evenings at the simple Lenten supper.
- Give for Others. Set aside something of yours for someone else.
We hope the Spirit of the living God will guide each of us, and make of this brief time, a holy Lent, that prepares us for the joy of Easter morning.