Why Lent?

John Armstrong's weekly Act 3 articles are always thought-provoking, and this week's is no exception. Below I have posted a small portion of his article; you may read the entire thing at Act 3 Ministries. In the long version, he addresses whether Lent is a Biblical practice, the historical background of Lent, and the idea of asceticism. It's a great read, but if you only have time to read a smidge, then read what I've posted below, which is the concluding section of the article. Enjoy!

Lent This Year

Brennan Manning writes: "You see, the older I get, the more I ask myself, 'How is my life unfolding in terms of my primary goal of living with God forever?'" This is what has been dominant in my Lenten reflections this year. My regret is that it took me so long to see this picture of how my life was unfolding before God. It didn't need to be this way, I am now convinced. I don't blame my evangelicalism for this, but I do not think it helped me at this point either.

Lent, this year, is forcing me to take this question to heart on a day-to-day basis. If my goal is to be more like Christ, thus to see him and be satisfied with him, and him be satisfied with me, then this is the question to be asking right now.

What does Lent have to do with this question you ask? Well, it takes me out of my routines and raises all the right questions on an annual basis. There is an admonition that goes this way: "A Lent missed is a year lost from the spiritual life." I do not fully believe that, but I understand why it is stated that way now that I understand Lent better.

Emilie Griffin, in her new Lenten book, Small Surrenders (Paraclete Press: Brewster, Massachusetts, 2008) states this better than I can when she writes:

Lent has been marked out by the church as a time to ask oneself the big questions: What am I doing with my time? What am I doing with my life? How well am I expressing the imprint of Christ upon my heart? How deep is my charity? How deep is my love? How devoted is my service? How is my life unfolding in terms of my primary goal of living with God forever" (22)?

Griffin's title captures it for me. As an evangelical I was taught that there was really one great surrender, the one when I accepted Christ as my Lord and Savior. Then there was a "second surrender" when I came into a deeper life of total commitment, or something like that. But "small surrenders" were not part of my framework. I think what I missed was huge now. "Lent," says Griffin, "is a time of benchmarks."

I find Lent to be a very evangelical experience. It reminds me that what I am, what I am becoming, is what allows me to become a "little Christ" and thus to become an expression of his life to others. Am I full of hope? Do I rejoice in suffering? Do I care about the needs in the lives of those around me?

Lent is coming to the question, intentionally and annually: "How am I doing?" An accurate answer will often elude us since sin blinds us even to ourselves. This is where spiritual friendship, godly counsel and the season of Lent all come to our aid. Authentic friendship and a non-showy pursuit of spiritual formation and personal transformation is what it is all about. Ideally, we all ask these questions throughout the entire year. Lent is, however, a wonderful reminder that we can use this forty day journey to intensify the question, thus we can pursue more directly more "small surrenders."

The Patron Saint of Christian Artists

(This last one has been my one and only wallpaper on my laptop -- I still love looking at it five years later -- it's such a wonderful depiction of "The Resurrection," only mine is much brighter).

I opened my usual Saint of the Day e-mail this morning, wondering who this Blessed John guy was, only to discover a tribute to my favorite artist, Fra Angelico. Below you will find the entry from AmericanCatholic.org, and I hope that you enjoy these works of my favorite artist. (You knew that my favorite artist would HAVE to be medieval, right????) Some of these are not very saturated colors because the frescoes are fading rapidly after nearly 600 years, but they are still stunning to this closet medievalist.

February 18, 2008

Blessed John of Fiesole

(c. 1400-1455)

The patron of Christian artists was born around 1400 in a village overlooking Florence. He took up painting as a young boy and studied under the watchful eye of a local painting master. He joined the Dominicans at about age 20, taking the name Fra Giovanni. He eventually came to be known as Fra Angelico, perhaps a tribute to his own angelic qualities or maybe the devotional tone of his works.

He continued to study painting and perfect his own techniques, which included broad-brush strokes, vivid colors and generous, lifelike figures. Michelangelo once said of Fra Angelico: “One has to believe that this good monk has visited paradise and been allowed to choose his models there.” Whatever his subject matter, Fra Angelico sought to generate feelings of religious devotion in response to his paintings. Among his most famous works are the Annunciation and Descent from the Cross as well as frescoes in the monastery of San Marco in Florence.

He also served in leadership positions within the Dominican Order. At one point Pope Eugenius approached him about serving as archbishop of Florence. Fra Angelico declined, preferring a simpler life. He died in 1455.
*****
I hope that you have enjoyed this Lenten inspiration painted by a holy monk who gives us a slight taste of heavenly glory as he used his brush to meditate upon the life, death, and resurrection of Christ our Lord. Whether it be via the brush or the pen, the camera or textiles, music or dance, or however God has gifted each of us, may we each bring glory to God through our artistic expression as Fra Angelico has shown us. I wish a blessed and holy Lent to each and every one of you, in the Name of our Saviour.

The Second Sunday in Lent

On this Second Sunday in Lent, I thought I'd share a little from my daily devotions with you. I'm also thrilled that an unspoken prayer of mine was answered so beautifully today at church. Lake Murray recently switched their pew Bibles from old New King James Version (NKJV) to the English Standard Version (ESV) as the latter is more accurate as well as more easily readable. Since the change, I've been wanting to read our daily Scripture in our homeschool from an ESV Bible, but I didn't have one. (Our old NIV is falling to pieces, and I prefer the accuracy of the ESV.) Anyway, today at church ESV Bibles were being given away for free! I took two, one for our school table and one for E whose NKJV is falling apart as well. Prayer answered and money saved! Thanks be to God!

Here is today's Collect for the Second Sunday in Lent from the 1928 Book of Common Prayer:

Almighty God, who seest that we have no power of ourselves to help ourselves; Keep us both outwardly in our bodies, and inwardly in our souls; that we may be defended from all adversities which may happen to the body, and from all evil thoughts which may assault and hurt the soul; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Psalms for the Seventeenth Morning in the 1928 BCP Psalter include Psalm 86-88; Psalm 86 especially caught my interest on this Second Sunday in Lent. Here follow a few passages from Psalm 86:

Be merciful unto me, O Lord; for I will call daily upon thee. Comfort the soul of thine servant; for unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul. For thou, O Lord, art good and gracious, and of great mercy unto all them that call upon thee. Give ear, Lord, unto my prayer, and ponder the voice of my humble desires. In the time of my trouble I will call upon thee, for thou hearest me. (verses 3-7)

For thou art great, and doest wondrous things: thou art God alone. Teach me thy way, O Lord, and I will walk in thy truth: O knit my heart unto thee, that I may fear [respect] thy Name. I will thank thee, O Lord my God, with all my heart; and will praise thy Name for evermore. For great is thy mercy toward me; and thou hast delivered me from the nethermost hell. (verses 10-13)

But thou, O Lord God, art full of compassion and mercy; long-suffering, plenteous in goodness and truth. O turn thee unto me, and have mercy upon me; give thy strength unto thy servant... because thou, Lord, hast holpen [helped] me, and comforted me. (verses 15-17)

I wish you a Blessed Lord's Day and a Holy Lent!

My Lenten Rule

Father Acker sent out a guideline for writing our own Lenten Rule of Life, rather like the Holy Rule of Saint Benedict, but directed to this Lenten season. I know that we're rather far into Lent at this point, but I thought I'd post his ideas, just in case you might want to "tweak" your Lenten discipline or even start something if you haven't started practicing Lent yet:

Lenten Rule of Life
Lent is a time to regain that love for Jesus Christ which we had when we first believed. On Ash Wednesday, we set out to renew our love of our Lord in rededication to live in Christ. Our journey is to come to our heavenly home. At times the trip seems long or we get distracted or lose the passion of our earlier love of God. During Lent we rekindle that love of God in our daily living. Pre-Lent is the time to plan for keeping a Holy Lent by writing a Lenten Rule of Life.

A rule of life is the structure that we give to our daily living in Christ. Writing out the ways in which we bring Christ to the foreground of our lives, helps us to see how in Him we “live, move, and have our being.” So often we let our daily living in our Savior be a mental note, a “memo to self”—Remember to pray more often; Visit Bob/Sue who’s been ill; Read a bible chapter each day. Our rule of life gives us balance and a measurable standard for living in Christ. Tests given in school are not the achievement of knowledge and understanding, but they are the means by which we measure our progress toward greater knowledge. We need to mark our progress in Christ Jesus.

A rule of life should include prayer, study, works of mercy, and fellowship in Christ. First and foremost is our principle act of worship—Holy Communion. It is our obligation to be with the Body of Christ to “do this in remembrance” of our Lord each Sunday, the day of His Resurrection. Make each Sunday Eucharist part of your Lenten commitment to live more closely with Christ as Lord, Savior, and King. If you are at each Sunday Eucharist, you may find your life with Christ strengthen in coming an extra time during the week to “do this in remembrance.” Weekday communion has a different quality of personal devotion and presence with our Lord.

Prayer is to be part of our daily walk with God, to talk with Him about those things going on in your life and to listen to God speaking to us. Daily prayer should be part of our Rule of Life. Daily Morning and Evening Prayer may not be part of our lives, but we can start in that direction. Find a time when you can consistently take ten minutes every day. For you it may be the time while the coffee is brewing or before getting dressed, while waiting for the Nightly News. Writing it down makes it measurable. If the time isn’t working change it to one that does work.

Reading of God’s Word is essential if we are to hear what God desire for us. In the calendar for Lent, the weekdays have a bible reading listed for each day. This is from the regular cycle of lessons for the Daily Office. You can start with this single lesson. When you have the one lesson a regular part of your life you can add the others.

The daily devotion some find helpful. It is like a short little sermon for the day. It should help us to understand scripture and our daily living.

During Lent we are reminded of our personal need to pray for forgiveness. Penitence or Confession is a necessary part of our prayer life. We need to specifically ask for God’s forgiveness. Jesus’ dying on the Cross was for our sins. We need to ask for them to be forgiven. Christian living is personal. We need to ask our Lord to forgive us. We begin with Ash Wednesday as a public sign of our need to repent, but it needs to be carried into our daily life. It is part of the Daily Office. It is part of weekday Mass. And we have the Sacrament of Confession given to us because we really do need the grace and assurance of God’s forgiveness in our lives.

Acts of Mercy are doing things for others in the Name of Christ. Feeding the hungry, visiting the sick, and assisting those in need. When we do it to the least of these, we do it unto Christ. It may require asking whom you might visit. If you can’t get out very easily, it may be praying for those in need from our Intercession list.

Fasting and abstinence is what most people remember about Lent, the giving up of something. Fasting (not eating) or abstinence (doing without something) has been to remind us of what Christ Jesus has done for us. When we fast on Ash Wednesday until our simple evening meal or on Good Friday when we fast until 3 PM when we remember our Lord’s death upon the Cross, it is to bring to mind what a sacrifice God has made for us. During Lent we abstain from eating meat on Wednesdays in addition to our normal Friday abstinence. There are many who abstain from meat all forty days of Lent. It the past the abstinence from meat was to not eat flesh meat (beef, pork, chicken or lamb). Fish was excepted, as it was “a poor man’s meal.” Perhaps eating lobster or crab legs may not be much of an abstinence in devotion to our Lord.

Start by writing it down. Make it specific. You can change it. But be specific. Be realistic. This is a life change we’re looking for, not a miracle. The miracle has already been given us in our Lord.

**********
So here's my Lenten Rule, based on the above ideas:
Prayer and Scripture: MORNING: I will pray the Morning Office from the 1928 Book of Common Prayer (BCP),(focusing on adoration and intercession), including the Lectionary Readings and the Psalter Readings for each morning. (The Psalter is at the back of the BCP and divides the 150 Psalms into readings for the seventh morning, the twenty-third evening, etc., for thirty days' worth of morning and evening readings of the Psalms.) I will also pray each morning's prayer from The Diary of Private Prayer along with the day's reading from My Utmost for His Highest and One Year Book of Hymns which I work into the Morning Office.
NOON: Bible Book Club readings (reading through the Bible in three years (see Blogs of Interest in sidebar) and prayer; I'd like to learn the Scriptural Anglican Rosary -- all Scriptures.
EVENING: Evening Office in 1928 BCP (focusing on confession and thanksgiving), including Psalter readings, which means that I will read the entire Book of Psalms 1.5 times during Lent. I will also pray the evening prayers in The Diary of Private Prayer and read the day's selection in The Contemplative Reader.

Worship and Study: Will attend weekly Eucharist services at Alpine Anglican Church of the Blessed Trinity(Friday mornings) and weekly worship services at Lake Murray Community Church (Sundays). I will also attend Lake Murray Bible studies: One Anothers (Sundays) studying St. Matthew's Gospel and Lady Bereans (Tuesdays) studying St. Peter's Epistles. I also am planning to attend the Anglican Lenten study of C.S. Lewis' The Screwtape Letters (Wednesdays). In addition, I will attend Ash Wednesday Liturgy at Alpine Anglican as well as the Stations of the Cross at least once, and sacramental confession once during Lent.

Self-Denial and Service: I will do oatmeal fasts (as I cannot fast completely for health reasons) on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. Throughout Lent (not including Sundays which are not part of Lent) I will fast from all refined sugar and gluten foods, and I also will exercise three times a week in order to build my health for service to God. I also will visit Fern, my chiropractor's wife, and perhaps take care of her on days when Dr. Burns must go into work.

Therefore, with the help of Christ my Saviour, I hope to keep this Lenten Rule for His glory and pleasure, and for my growth in discipline as well as knowledge and love of my Lord. Signed this fifth day of February .... Susanne.

Our Little Adventure...

Well, we finally got home just before 5 PM tonight. Where were we? That's our little adventure.

Yesterday morning we woke up to a rainy day for St. Valentine's Day, and it was also Class Day. So the kids and I were out the door just before 9 AM, driving down the hill in the rain, looking forward to the sunshine promised by noon by several online and radio weather gurus. Keith left the house shortly after we did to go to work. As is family tradition, we were planning to take the kids to my parents' place so that Keith and I could go out for a Valentine's dinner and movie. My brother brings his kids also (and so did my sister when she and her family lived in the area), so the cousins get a fun evening together with a special Valentine's dinner and dessert, plus the chance to make Valentines, too. My mom especially enjoys having all her grandkids around her on Valentine's Day as it's also the anniversary of her father's passing.

Well, since we weren't planning to be home until around 10 PM that night, we put Dash, our mini shorthair dachshund, outside in his kennel in our yard, making sure that he had a nice warm comforter to snuggle under in his little doggie house so he'd be warm and dry enough despite the rain. With the promise of weather clearing by noon, we thought he'd be fine.

The letup in the rain never happened, though. Instead, the temperature dropped steadily all day, with serious downpours and hail throughout the morning and afternoon. After Class Day, I drove the kids to a couple of errands and then down to my parents' home in Pacific Beach, then drove back to Keith's office in El Cajon where we left my car before driving over to the mall to see National Treasure 2. As we were standing in line to buy our tickets, my dad called and said that he heard that Interstate 8, the major east-west corridor in San Diego that is also our route up the mountain to get home, had some problems. We didn't think much about it, and not only watched the movie but also went out to dinner at our favorite Mandarin restaurant in Mission Valley, about halfway to my parents' place from Keith's work.

After dinner we heard that it had been snowing up in the mountains all afternoon. Rather than our usual plan of driving down to get the kids together then dropping back to get my car and then following each other home, we decided to drive back to El Cajon, drop me off at my car so I could go get the kids at the beach while Keith drove up the mountain to take care of little Dash who was probably very cold by now.

By the time I had driven from El Cajon back down to Pacific Beach, Keith called me: he was stuck on the freeway just east of Alpine (halfway up the mountain), and traffic was at a crawl. And there was snow along the side of the road, a rare occurence in Alpine at the 1500 foot level. I stayed put with the kids while my dad and I tried to get an online report on traffic conditions. Keith called back ten minutes later to say that he and hundreds of cars were shuffled off the interstate and back through Alpine; Interstate 8 was closed, and the highway patrol had no idea when it would be reopened.

Obviously, we were very worried about the dog, so while my mom got makeshift beds ready for the kids and me, and I tried to call neighbors to at least put the dog into the house as the temperatures were dropping well below freezing, Keith decided that he would pull onto a dirt strip near the interstate and wait for a while in case they reopened the freeway. I spent the next half hour frantically trying to call neighbors to put our very cold Dash inside. I couldn't get Sheri either at home or on her cell (found out today that she had turned around yesterday afternoon and driven back down to her sister's house in the city because the roads were too dangerous), and Judith was too far away and couldn't get out of her driveway in her Camry. Teri's van had become stuck while driving home from the Bible Camp and she didn't have a way to get to our home unless she hiked through the blizzard in the dark. I didn't have the number for either of our next door neighbors in my phone. I was finally able to reach Jeannette who lives two streets down AND has a four-wheel drive vehicle, so she and her husband drove over at 9:30 PM, coaxed Dash out of his doggie house in his kennel area, let him go pee, and then put him in the house which was heated to 55, a great deal better than the 16 degree overnight low. Finally after waiting on the side of the frontage road for a couple of hours, Keith gave up on the freeway reopening and drove back down to the beach where we all slept at my parents' place: the boys on sofas, Keith on the living room floor on an air mattress, B on the floor in the spare bedroom where E and I were sleeping on the trundle day bed. From my dad's laptop I e-mailed Father Acker to tell him that we wouldn't be attending the Friday morning service in Alpine, our usual routine.

We woke up this morning with Interstate 8 still closed. Keith took the van into work while my mom fed the kids and I showered, and we all got back into yesterday's clothes, just grateful that Mom had extra toothbrushes for us to use. Jeannette called my cell and offered to go back over to our house this morning, let Dash out to pee again, and feed him. The interstate was still closed by the time the kids and I made it to the chiropractor's office for my usual neck treatment, so we headed over to Keith's office. We had to cancel Johanna, E and T's math tutor, as all the kids' math books were at home. So I took the kids shopping (Sears had a great kids' clothes sale!) and we went to go see ... National Treasure 2. After the movie, I checked my cell and saw that Sheri had called while we were in the movie; she had been able to drive up the mountain to our town by 12:30 PM. Keith started home a bit before we did, and we finally were home just before 5 PM. Keith had taken a fairly desperate dachshund out to pee just before we drove into the driveway, and after we stopped my car and opened the door, a small red streak jumped into the backseat with the kids, jumping around and licking us all with joy. His people were home!!!!

There's very little snow left around town; it's rather difficult to believe that less than 24 hours before we had blizzard conditions such that several hundred people were stranded on Interstate 8 and had to be rescued by firefighters and highway patrol and were put up in Red Cross shelters both at our town's fire station and at a casino fifteen minutes east of our town. Big rigs had jack-knifed and collided; cars had overturned in multiple accidents, and many, many cars were stuck in the snow on Interstate 8. The temperatures dropped so low that there were snow flurries in several parts of El Cajon (elevation 500 feet) for the first time in twenty years, and the temperature at the San Diego Zoo was 39 degrees at 5 PM, according to Keith's sister. Areas like Alpine, Ramona, Santa Ysabel, Campo, Potrero, and others that rarely see snow did, and had the traffic accidents to prove it. One major highway in the North County is still closed as a major mudslide occurred as a result of the October fires. The highway leading up to my parents' cabin fifteen minutes further up the mountain from our town still has not been cleared, and they received a foot of snow there.

And the clincher to this adventure of snow in San Diego? Every single weather forecaster missed it. The sunny afternoon that was predicted ended up being one of the coldest storms in San Diego history with pouring rain, thunder and lightning, hail, and snow sticking at 1000-1500 feet. In fact, if Keith and I hadn't had plans to go out to dinner for Valentine's Day, I would have been driving back up the mountain at about 3 PM in my little '91 Corolla with balding tires and probably would have been stuck (or much worse!) with four kids in the car with me. Despite missing the blizard that prevented people from driving around even in our town, I'm very thankful that we were warm and safe at the beach.

And now we're home, nice and toasty with the heater running, in fresh clothing, and with a very happy dachshund curled up next to me on the sofa as I type. The Valentine's Day Blizzard of 2008 will definitely go down in the annals of San Diego weather history. And it's true: there's no place like home. And we owe Jeannette and her family several pounds of toffee for taking good care of our beloved Dashwood.

Time o' Day

You're the time of day right around sunrise, when the sky is still a pale bluish gray. The streets are empty, and the grass and leaves are a little bit sparkly with dew. You are the sound of a few chirpy birds outside the window. You are quiet, peaceful, and contemplative. If you move slowly, it's not because you're lazy – it's because you know there's no reason to rush. You move like a relaxed cat, pausing for deep stretches that make your muscles feel alive. You are long sips of tea or coffee (out of a mug that's held with both hands) that slowly warm your insides just as the sun is brightening the sky.


17% of the people who took this quiz got the same evaluation.

I got this from Putterings and Ponderings ... thanks, Sandie!

Busy Days...

I have quite the busy week, so if you don't hear much from me, you'll at least know why.

Today is my only day with nothing on beside our normal school schedule. After we finish school (around 4 PM), I need to grade some papers for my Advanced Writing Class -- need to get those done this afternoon. The essays were written in-class, which means I have to deal with deciphering messy handwriting. Joy. Tonight I need to write up at least one if not two grammar tutorials for my friend Carmen's community college class. I'll at least get the one on adverbs done tonight, and hopefully get a good start on the conjunction/interjection/preposition one.

Tuesday I have my Lady Bereans Bible study at Lake Murray, so that's a 70-mile round trip, taking the two younger boys with me. I prepared the lesson on 2 Peter 1:12-21 yesterday, so at least that's all done. Kim asked me to finish the discussion for her as she has to leace for a doctor's appointment halfway through the class. I also need to stop by Henry's and pick up some spelt spaghetti noodles for Thursday. I will be home with J and B by 1 PM, eat lunch, and then get the school ball rolling with all the subjects we do together like language arts, Latin, Bible, vocabulary, spelling, history, literature, poetry, etc. They spend the morning doing their own math and other individual tasks whether they're with me (the two youngers) or at home (the two olders). Tuesday night is our town's monthly Writer's Workshop, and we'll be workshopping a short story by Dave. He's a great fiction writer, so I'm really looking forward to the experience. Unfortunately, I've been too busy to write much more than blog entries (if that) lately; someday I will have time to write! Perhaps if I said "no" once in a while to all the good opportunities that come my way.... Yes, I know. I read myself that lecture all too often. You don't have to. :)

On Wednesday after our own school, I have two students to tutor for an hour each on writing (2-4 PM), then I want to attend the Lenten Study in Alpine with the Anglicans. I've always wanted to read The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis, and I'd love to do so with Father Acker and the Anglican group, especially since we're doing it for Logos (our church's literary discussion group) in a month or two. I won't be home until about 8:30 PM, and I have Class Day to prepare for (and need to somehow, sometime grade the twelve essays for the Intermediate Class, too). And somehow also read the first five chapters of Screwtape before 6 PM....

Thursday -- Valentine's Day. It's also Class Day which means leaving the house with all four kids, their homework for their classes completed, their lunches (and mine) packed, all of us dressed according to the dress code, and with something for the dessert buffet that we're having at lunch to celebrate St. Valentine's Day. Oh, yes -- and the kids have to have their Valentines written up for their friends, too. After classes, I need to drop the kids off at my parents' home (at the beach, another 15+ miles from the 35 miles I'm already coming for Class Day) and then meet Keith somewhere for a romantic dinner. The kids and their cousins always spend V Day with my parents who make a wonderful spaghetti dinner (hence the need to pick up gluten-free noodles on Tuesday) and ice cream sundaes for dessert. The kids also make homemade Valentines for Keith and I after dinner. We'll get home at about 10 PM.

Friday morning is chapel with the Anglicans, so I have to leave the house with B (lunches packed) by 8:50 AM. After chapel, I have a chiropractic appointment, then head to Starbucks to do B's school with him, one-on-one. I'll also need to run to Trader Joe's. Then I'll pick up the other three kids from Keith's office after they meet with their math tutor and run any other errands we need to. We also have to go home and finish up a couple of hours of schoolwork. I'd also like to take E to see the U2 3D movie in Mira Mesa, which of course is at least a 100-mile round trip. I don't know if we'll have time, but I hope to.

And Saturday I get to rest. Finally. Laundry, housework, and perhaps time to read and write a bit. At least write in my journal if nowhere else.

So if I'm not around, at least you'll know why. Right?

A Penetential Office for Ash Wednesday (Part II)

In honor of the beginning of Lent, I am posting the beginning of the Penetential Office for Ash Wednesday as found in the 1928 Book of Common Prayer:

Psalm 51 (English Standard Version)

51:1 Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy
blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin!

3 For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me.
4 Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you may be justified in your words
and blameless in your judgment.
5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
and in sin did my mother conceive me.
6 Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being,
and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.

7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
8 Let me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones that you have broken rejoice.
9 Hide your face from my sins,
and blot out all my iniquities.
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right spirit within me.
11 Cast me not away from your presence,
and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and uphold me with a willing spirit.

13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
and sinners will return to you.
14 Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God,
O God of my salvation,
and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness.
15 O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth will declare your praise.
16 For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it;
you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.
17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

18 Do good to Zion in your good pleasure;
build up the walls of Jerusalem;
19 then will you delight in right sacrifices,
in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings;
then bulls will be offered on your altar.

Then one of the several prayers we pray is:

Turn Thou us, O good Lord, and so shall we be turned. Be favourable, O Lord, be favorable to Thy people, who turn to Thee in weeping, fasting, and praying. For Thou art a merciful God, full of compassion, long-suffering, and of great pity. Thou sparest when we deserve punishment, and in Thy wrath thinkest upon mercy. Spare Thy people, good Lord, spare them. And let not Thine heritage be brought to confusion. Hear us, O Lord, for Thy mercy is great, and after the multitude of Thy mercies look upon us; through the merits and mediation of Thy blessed Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

After the prayers, Father Acker came around with a small bowl of very fine black ashes. Some of the ashes were from the palms given our on Palm Sunday (and included some palms I had saved from Lake Murray's Palm Sunday observance) and some ashes were at least 50 years old, perhaps even close to 100 years old as they have been passed down from priest to priest, symbolizing the sinfulness of humankind as well as the forgiving grace of God throughout the ages. After mixing the ashes with holy water, he made a cross of ashes on his own forehead before coming around to each of us, making a cross in ashes upon our foreheads as he somberly intoned:

Remember o man, that thou art dust, and to dust shalt thou return.

After the Imposition of Ashes (the significance of which you can find a few posts down in the Ash Wednesday and Lent post, the one with the ashes on my forehead), we continued on with our usual celebration of the Eucharist. After the service was done, the boys were wiping off their ashes in the car immediately. I left mine on, smudged though it became throughout the day. I forgot to take a photo right away when I got home, so it is rather hard to see in the photo below.

Ash Wednesday makes me face my own sin and the effect my sin has on myself, God, and others in a way that no other day does. I am marked as Christ's own with ashes of repentance, showing myself publicly to be a sinner in need of Christ's sacrifice and redemption. My need for Christ was published on my forehead throughout the day -- not for my own pride but for my humilty. It's hard for me to own up to my sin, and Ash Wednesday does that very thing, publically and irrevocably.

The Litany for Ash Wednesday (Part I)

The Anglican Ash Wednesday service is beautiful. Peace and reverence, contrition and humility are the marks of this service. The boys and I attended the 9:30 a.m. service at Victoria House and joined four others for the morning service. Grouped around the Ackers' round oak dining room table, the mood was somber yet reverent. On the table were four votive candles burning, several small icons laying flat on the table, a large cross in the middle, and along one side was the paten and chalice on the stone "altar," covered with a purple cloth. Father Acker was also robed in purple, the color of Lent which symbolizes our penitence and Christ's royalty.

We started first with The Litany (or General Supplication) in the 1928 Book of Common Prayer. It starts thus (responses of the congregation are italicized):

O GOD the Father, Creator of heaven and earth;
Have mercy upon us.
O God the Son, Redeemer of the world;
Have mercy upon us.
O God the Holy Ghost, Sanctifier of the faithful;
Have mercy upon us.
O holy, blessed, and glorious Trinity, one God;
Have mercy upon us.

Then comes a section which our response is: Good Lord, deliver us as we asked God to deliver us from our sins, from the assaults of the devil, from blindness of heart and pride, from hypocrisy, hatred, and malice, from the deceits of the world, from natural disasters, from false doctrine, heresy, and schism, and from hardness of heart, among many other evils and dangers.

We respond to the next portion of the Litany with We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord as we pray for: God's governance of His holy Church universal, to rule the heart of our President and other leaders of our country, to illumine the hearts of all church leadership, clergy, and deacons with "true knowledge and understanding of Thy Word; and that both by their preaching and living they may set it forth, and show it accordingly." We also respond with the words above as we pray for missionaries, for all of God's people, for all the nations, for our own hearts to love and fear God, for all Christians to hear and obey God's Word, to strengthen the weaker believers and to "beat down Satan under our feet." We continue to pray for travelers, for widows and orphans, for our enemies, persecutors, and slanderers, and for our own true repentance and for God "to endue us with the grace of thy Holy Spirit to amend our lives according to Thy Holy Word."

Then we pray the Kyrie: Lord have mercy upon us. Christ have mercy upon us. Lord have mercy upon us. And afte that, we pray the Lord's Prayer.

We finish with this prayer:
We humbly beseech Thee, O Father, mercifully to look upon our infirmities; and, for the glory of Thy Name, turn us from all those evils that we most justly have deserved; and grant, that in all our troubles we may put our whole trust and confidence in Thy mercy, and evermore serve Thee in holiness and pureness of living, to Thy honour and glory; through our only Mediator and Advocate, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Litany is only the first part of the Ash Wednesday service. I'll post more about the service over the next few days. It truly is wonderful!

Ash Wednesday

The following was composed by myself and Pastor Stephen Sammons of Lake Murray Community Church on Ash Wednesday and Lent: (I'll post more about my personal experience with Lent tomorrow.)

Irenaeus (125AD – 195AD), mentions the idea of spending some time fasting in preparation of Easter. This developed into the observance of Lent (Council of Nicea, 325AD). Lent is the forty days (not including Sundays as they are always days of celebrating the Resurrection) preceding Easter. The forty days of Lent are used to parallel the forty days that Jesus spent in the wilderness, fasting and praying, before starting His earthly ministry. “Ash Wednesday” has been historically recognized as the day to initiate the period of fasting and repentance known as Lent. It's called "Ash Wednesday" because ashes were traditionally used to mark the foreheads or hands of those who attended church on that day.

In the Old Testament, ashes are a sign of humility and repentance of sin. (See 2 Sam. 13:19 and 15:2; Esther 4:1-3; Job 42:6, Jer. 6:26 ). Jesus mentions repenting in sackcloth and ashes in Matthew 11:21. A mark is a sign of ownership; in Ezekiel 9:4-6, a mark on the foreheads of the people provided protection to those who served God. Therefore, a mark of ashes was used to show repentance of our sins and complete ownership by God.

God calls us to do spiritual housecleaning everyday. Our spiritual life is a day by day (in fact, moment by moment) walk with our Heavenly Father. However, this day can serve as a good reminder of the need for us to take a spiritual inventory. Take this occasion to come quietly and reverently before the Lord, offering your life to Him to examine. Ask Him where He wants to work. Ask Him what He wants to change. Maybe there are some patterns of thinking and habits that you have fallen into that need reevaluated; maybe God is calling you to some new habits and a new manner of investing your precious time so it can reap eternal benefits.

Set aside some time and let the Lord work in your heart. Then, as the Lord leads, pray about not only what to do, but also, how the Lord would have you implement the ideas into your life. An added value is for each of us to share with one another what God is doing in our hearts. In this way, we can develop accountability and have partners in the journey who can hold us up in prayer.