Lent is the most notorious season of the church year. It has a reputation . It’s rebellious and different. The kind of season parents worry will keep their daughters and sons out late. The kind that could have an influence on them.

In the Episcopal Church, we observe the season of the 40 days (not counting Sundays) before Easter with reverence and with a particular character.

We begin with a special service, not on a Sunday, but a Wednesday. A day we call Ash Wednesday. This service, while maintaining the form of a traditional worship event, calls us to take the following month and half with great intention and focus. So that we might observe and learn and be moved by GOD to growth.

When you join us for worship on Ash Wednesday you will hear a call to the observance of a Holy Lent. You will hear about the early church and its custom of preparation and instruction and of reconciling the penitent for their sin. Serious stuff!

This leads up to the instruction:

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.

This all sounds simple but it is really quite serious.

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