Weekly Reflection, Friday, February 12
By: David May, Rector
I invite you therefore in the name of Church to a Holy Lent.
In September 2020, members of the vestry met by Zoom call with many of the ministry groups of our parish. All together, we think the vestry met with probably 80 to 100 parishioners over a two-week span. In addition to time just to catch up with one another, each ministry group had been asked to think about two questions: ‘what are you/we learning in these strange times?’, and ‘what do you want to do about that?’ What people shared with each other was so rich and often very personal. We saw again that so often what we think of as most personal is often something that we all share in common.
After all those conversations, four themes seemed to emerge: the gift of our own humanity, a clearer realization that we live in ‘a fallen world’, the gift of community, and the hope for a new creation. You could hear these themes as people talked about what they were discovering matters most. You could hear it as we talked about the brokenness in our world and in ourselves that this pandemic has laid bare. You could hear it as people wondered about how we could be different going forward.
By the mercy of God, we will come back together over the course of this current year, 2021. And as we come back together, we have the opportunity to return changed by what this long, long season of absence has taught us.
The people of St. Mary’s have helped create a beautiful Lenten Daily Devotional Booklet for this season. This booklet is an invitation for this season of Lent to look back and consider what we are learning about ourselves and our world. And it is an invitation to look forward with fresh vision about what kind of a church God is calling us to be at this time and in this place.
May the living God draw near to you in this holy season and guide and strengthen you as we journey to the Cross and Resurrection of Jesus.
St. Mary’s created a Lenten Daily Devotional Booklet
The people of St. Mary’s have created a beautiful Lenten Daily Devotional Booklet. In this six-week Lenten offering, you will find reflections written by 30 parishioners – children, young people, and adults – on the themes that emerged from the vestry zoom call meetings. We invite you to pick one of these up to consider, think, journal, reflect, and pray about what kind of church God is calling us to be.
Download the electronic version. Or pick one up at the Church Office.