First Sunday in Lent

 

(Stations of the Cross at Prince of Peace Abbey, Oceanside, CA)

The Collect from the Book of Common Prayer 2011 for the First Sunday in Lent: 

THE COLLECT:

LORD Jesus, for our sake you fasted forty days and forty nights; Give us grace that in our abstinence, our bodies may be subject to the Spirit, and that we might obey your guidance in righteousness and true holiness for your honor and glory; Who lives and rules with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen. (Sources: Matthew 4.1-2; Ephesians 4.24)

THE READINGS: 2 Corinthians 6.1-10; Matthew 4.1-11; Psalm 91; Genesis 2.15-17; 3:1-7. 

Lent has begun! Forty days of reading and studying God's Word, praying for ourselves and others, searching our hearts, fasting, and repenting. We met at Blessed Trinity on Wednesday to usher in these holy days. Father Sunil imposed ashes on our foreheads (the ashes are from burning the palm leaves from the previous year's Palm Sunday service) and pronounced the solemn words: "Remember, you are dust, and to dust you shall return." 

This prayer follows: LORD, grant that we may begin this campaign of our Christian warfare with holy fasting, so that, as we battle with apiritual wickedness, we may be defended by the aid of self-denial; Through Christ our Lord. Amen. 

This Lent, I am fasting from YouTube with the exception of Church Without Walls and worship services. 

Blessed Trinity Anglican Church is doing a daily Lenten Bible Study using Create in Me a Clean Heart: A Lenten Study of Psalm 51 by David Roseberry (2026), which is available on Amazon. 

Lent is amazing, and Holy Week is my favorite week of the entire year. Forget Christmas and all other holy days; Holy Week is the BEST!! I hope that we can do a Passover Seder during Holy Week this year, plus Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday Vigil services, leading up to Easter. 

Wishing you all a blessed Lenten season!

Soli Deo Gloria,