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Returning to the Sacred Presence
"One of the greatest theologians the world has ever known, St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430), wrote about his prolonged, drawn-out search for God and the revelation he finally had that God had been with him all along:
"I have learnt to love you late, Beauty at once so ancient and so new! I have learnt to love you late! You were within me, and I was in the world outside myself. I searched for you outside myself…. You were with me, but I was not with you."
Confessions, Book X.27, St. Augustine
"Waking to the reality of this very present Eternal Life, this "Beauty ever ancient, ever new," is a transforming experience. This life-giving Presence is always with us and within us. The problem, of course, is that we are often distracted by many cares and occupations that keep us far away from God and from ourselves. It is as if we spend much of our lives wandering "in a land that is waste," while God constantly calls to us to return–to ourselves, to our true life in God.
"The forty days of Lent serve as a time for Christians to return to the Sacred Presence, to the God who has never left us, even though at times we have been far away. Lent is a time to renew classic disciplines of prayer and reflection, as well as ancient practices such as fasting and Bible study. All of this is designed to renew a right spirit within us and to prepare us for the events of Jesus’ death and resurrection at Easter."
‐The Rev. Gary Jones
A Prayer for Entering Lent
By Kimberly Knowle-Zeller
God of mystery and wisdom, be with us this Lenten season. It’s been a long way, already sickness, worry, isolation, fear, waiting our hearts are heavy our souls are weary our bodies are hurting our hope is wavering yet, you are with us.
God of mystery and wisdom, be with us this Lenten season. Show us your grace in the small moments of silence the prayers offered in person or virtually the kindness of a stranger the lighting of a candle the listening to a friend the care of neighbors, you are with us.
God of mystery and wisdom, be with us this Lenten season. Settle our hearts revive our spirits increase our faith spread our love.
God of mystery and wisdom, be with us this Lenten season. In ashes and dust reading and listening wandering and walking praying and singing eating and fasting show us the way forward.
God of mystery and wisdom, be with us this Lenten season. As we walk to the cross keep our eyes fixed on you and your love – caring for others crossing boundaries reaching out to the poor taking our pain transforming death into life over and over again.
God of mystery and wisdom, be with us this Lenten season.
Arts and Faith – Lent 1, Year
Commentary is by Daniella Zsupan-Jerome, assistant professor of liturgy, catechesis, and evangelization at Loyola University New Orleans.
This scene of The Temptation of Christ is a 12th–century detail of the magnificent mosaic program of St. Mark’s Basilica in Venice. In its full context, it is situated in the barrel vault of the south arm of the transept. The temptation scene is right above the scene of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem.
On a golden background depicting the heavenly realm, the mosaic tells the story of Jesus’ temptation through a series of symbols. Moving from left to right, the figures of Christ and the devil repeat in a pattern. Each set evokes one of the temptations of Christ through key images: bread, the pinnacle of the Temple, and the mountain top with all riches of the world. The angels on the right who come to minister to Christ close the visual narrative, as the devil flees downward under them to escape the scene.
This presentation of the temptation story assumes that the viewer is familiar with it. Each of the symbols serves to jog our memory and help us recall the story we already know. In this sense, the mosaic relies on the viewer to be the real storyteller, while the artwork simply summarizes the highlights as reminders along the way. By casting the viewer as storyteller, the artwork invites us into the story in a special way, challenging us to share the Good News of it with others.
The figure of Christ in this mosaic sequence is unique—it is not the man who endured the desert for 40 days among wild animals, but Christ the Lawgiver, holding a scroll in one hand, strong, steady, and wearing dignified robes. Christ the Lawgiver reminds us that each time he rebuked the devil, he did so by referring to the written Word, the truth of God manifest in the Scriptures. Each time the hunger for food, for assurance from God, and for an easier way tempted him, Jesus found steady ground again recalling the Word of God—the source of where he came from and who he was called to be.
For people of faith encountering this mosaic within St. Mark’s Basilica, worship in this space was an occasion to find steady ground again, to become more fully who they were as Christians in Word and in sacrament. This mosaic spoke to them of this steady ground, but also invited them to be storytellers so that through them, others could find this steady ground as well.
“Letting Go” from the Diocese of Atlanta
This is Bishop Wright’s invitation to a Holy Lent and to participate in a 5-part Lenten teaching series. “Letting Go” is letting go of those things and ways that hold us back- weights, obstacles, and sin.
Bulletin, First Sunday in Lent, Feb. 18, 2024
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Bulletin, Ash Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2024
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Photos and commentary, Ash Wednesday, Feb 14, 2024
Almighty God, you have created us out of the dust of the earth: Grant that these ashes may be to us a sign of our mortality and penitence, that we may remember that it is only by your gracious gift that we are given everlasting life; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
We began our observation of Jesus’ death and resurrection by preparing for Easter with a season of penitence. Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent. We had 17 in attendance. Sally Hartman who did her vocational discernment at St. Peter’s and now is a Deacon was the preacher.
The church changes its look encouraging you to see things differently – purple on the altar, minimal flowers, pottery communion cup, a special red processional cross.
The liturgy provides words about the purpose of Lent. “I invite you, therefore, in the name of the Church, to the observance of a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God’s holy Word.”
It is all about reconnecting with God with by these specific activities and others of your choosing. Examine yourself to see what divides you from others, from the earth and from God, and repent from these divisive things. As the bulletin stated “only God can take away our sins, create clean hearts in us, renew a right spirit within us, and sustain us with God’s bountiful spirit.” The sermon enouraged us not to just give up but to take on new practices to do that and see other possibilities in the world.
Shrove Tuesday, 2024
Pieter Aertszen’s The Pancake Bakery, circa 1508
Great weather and 20 in attendance on this day before Lent begins:
Photos, Feb. 13, 2024
Sunday’s Thoughts Lent 1, Feb. 18
The SALT blog published this guide for Lent – “As Lent begins, this is the perfect week to reflect on the season and what it means in Christian life: an invitation to a 40-day journey of reflection, repentance, and preparation for the great mystery of the empty tomb. Now is the time to change our lives, to embark upon a kind of soulful spring cleaning. What in our personal and communal lives needs repentance or renewal, a “change of heart” or “change of life”? How do we need to be both humbled and strengthened? How can we better prepare for the radiant 50 days of Easter? Might a sojourn in the wilderness “with the wild beasts” be just what we need?”
Going further into the blog-“That is, the basis of Christian life is not our repentance, not our good works; rather, the basis of Christian life is what God has done and is doing, and our good works flow from the joyous, thankful recognition of that graceful liberation. True repentance — changing our lives and hearts for the better — flows from God’s activity in the world, not the other way around. In this way, Jesus’ sermon is a call not into anxious exertion, but rather into gratitude and joy.”
According to this, Lent should emphasize the positive moving forward and not gullies and valleys of repenetence. Moving forward is reconnecting to God, going deeper and expressing that in the world. We each need to consider our options. For me, it is looking forward to April 22 and Earth Day and collecting the excesses (plastic, trash) of our modern lives. It gets us outside as the days lenthen (Lent!) and promoges exercise. Stepping forward will be different for everyone. It’s finding that one or multiple things that will promote real liberation.
Lent does have a sense tension between the need for repentance and forgiveness and the sense of moving forward. We have a dialog between two priests from All Saints Episcopal in Frederick, MD about Lent from 2019 of also a tension they see in Lent.
As they noted, at the beginning we are reminded of our mortality by making the mark on our foreheads, a mark that come from the past – palms burned from last year’s Palm Sunday. They we come forward after a few prayers, celebrate and share communion and we are reminded of this everlasting life which moves forward. From we holding these two pieces in tension that we really enter into Lent.
On this Sunday, the children in God’s Children began learning the Lord’s Prayer. Jan and Elizabeth used a video method to teach the prayer through signing and then using a printed cross with the prayer printed on the cross’s arms so that the children could trace their way forard. They did very well and are well on the way to being able to say it in church
They moved foward, adding an addition connection in their church life. Learninig is a great practice for Lent. Coincidentally, this week, The Dean of Washington Cathedral in a meditation wrote that the Lord’s Prayer was the “perfect prayer.”
Art for Ash Wednesday
From the Loyola Press
Commentary is by Daniella Zsupan-Jerome, assistant professor of liturgy, catechesis, and evangelization at Loyola University New Orleans.
Art expresses the key themes of the season – conflict between secular and religious, the forces of temptation and selfishness affecting all of us, the importance of retreat, repentance, and conversion in this season. We have three pieces of art to view these themes thanks to the Loyola press
1. Pieter Brueghel the Elder, “The Fight Between Carnival and Lent,” 1559
Sometimes when the spiritual and the secular clash, we can see the hand of God at work. In Pieter Brueghel’s The Fight Between Carnival and Lent, there is a clash of contrasts happening in this 16th-century Dutch village. Near the center of the hustle and bustle a curious pair is ready to spar: “Carnival,” represented by a well-endowed man riding a barrel, wears a meat-pie hat and is ready for action with a spear loaded with roasted pork. “Lent” faces him, personified by a clear-eyed but gaunt woman on a spare cart, wearing a beehive and holding out two fish on a peel. She is surrounded by loaves, pretzels, and a basket of mussels.