PRACTICING THE LENTEN SEASON
Time is something that we often take for granted. Though the Church used to keep time through daily, weekly, and seasonal practices, we are now are driven by a different time keeper: “Our world continues on, faster and busier, and we are reminded that our souls were not created for the kind of speed to which we have grown accustomed. Thus, we are a people who are out of rhythm, a people with too much to do and not enough time to do it” (Rich Villodas). In this way, keeping the liturgical calendar of the church is a defiant way of reclaiming the sacredness of time. As Tsh Oxenreider writes: “Liturgy is an invitation for the people of God to participate in the work of God."
Join us as we seek God together, trusting in His goodness, beauty, and truth.
Lent is a season in the Church calendar in which we are called to stop whatever we are doing, no matter how important it might be, and enter more intentionally into the disciplines of prayer, self-examination and turning towards God...
Unfortunately, the practice of entering into the Lenten season has often been reduced to the question: ‘What are you giving up for Lent?’
This is a fine question, but it can only take us so far. The real question of the Lenten season is: How will I find ways to return to God with all my heart? This begs an even deeper question: Where in my life have I gotten away from God and what are the disciplines that will enable me to find my way back?~Ruth Haley Barton