This Sunday is the Last Sunday after the Epiphany, the last Sunday of this chunk of ordinary time.
With Ash Wednesday this week, we will begin a new season – the penitential season of Lent.
Lent is a solemn and self-reflective time. I love it. I need it. It makes the celebration of Easter all the sweeter.
I hope that you have found a good Lenten practice or practices for yourself to be able to engage deeply in this time of preparation—something to give up or take on to help reorient your relationships with God, yourself, the earth, and others.

The rhythm of our liturgy will shift as well for Lent to help us remember that we are in a different season with a different tone and purpose. 

One small but noticeable change is that during the season of Lent, there is a tradition of giving up the use of the word “Alleluia.” We fast from it. (We are singing a bunch of alleluias this Sunday to tide us over until Easter when we will use it again with wild abandon.)

That might seem silly, but words are powerful. ‘Alleluia’ is a deeply joyful and celebratory word, and we put it aside for this time, so that it will be all the more jubilant at Easter. We also put it aside so that we can focus on other, powerful words and ideas in our prayers – “create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me,” “Lord, have mercy. Christ, have mercy. Lord, have mercy.”

Liturgy – our prayers – shape who we are. How and what we pray changes us. I pray that this Lent, we may experience the gift that this penitential, self-reflective and solemn season has to offer us as we walk with Jesus through the wilderness, to the cross, and ultimately to the joy of the resurrection.

Thanks be to God!

 

CG+