Lent is the church season that begins on Ash Wednesday and carries us through 40 days (excluding Sundays!) to the Holy Thursday feast. This year, Lent is Wednesday, February 26 – Thursday, April 9.
Special Worship Services
Ash Wednesday, February 26
11:00 am: Mid-day prayer, communion, imposition of ashes (Sanctuary)
7:00 pm: Service of Word and Table (communion), imposition of ashes (Sanctuary)
Holy Thursday, April 9
11:00 am: Mid-day prayer and communion (Sanctuary)
7:00 pm: Service of Word and Table (Sanctuary)
Good Friday, April 10
7:00 pm: Service of Tenebrae
Other Stops on the Lenten Journey
COR will offer a number of opportunities to walk the Lenten path together in addition to our worship services, and I hope that you will connect in the ways that you are able.
40-day challenge: #40Bagsin40Days
This organizing challenge coincides with the 40 days of Lent and, as the hashtag suggests, is a challenge to remove one bag (of any size) of items you no longer use (that, dare I say, don’t spark joy?) in your home/office/life.
I’d like to offer a spiritual element as well, borrowing from my colleague Rev. Diane Kenaston: for 40 days, keep a brown lunch bag where you can place “spiritual wounds, long-lasting grudges, or painful pasts” and other spiritual detritus and commend it to God’s care. After 40 days, you can either pick it back up or embrace your freedom from it and recycle the bag without looking in it again.
Praying the Daily Office
One of the spiritual disciplines I will practice this Lent is praying the Daily Office to strengthen my personal prayer life. If you would like to participate and want the support and accountability of a group, you can join my Facebook group Praying the Daily Office: Lent 2020 where I will post mid-day prayers and other reflections, and be there to cheer you on! (Note: this group is associated with my public Facebook page, not Church of the Redeemer’s Facebook page.)
Other ideas? I’d love to hear them!
Feel free to share the ways that you embrace the meaning of Lent in your own practice!
Subscribe to our email list for weekly updates and special announcement as we move through the season.
Praying that you each find even deeper connection to Christ day by day, through Lent and all year round.
Pastor Shannon