The Coming of Lent

February 17, 2015

Dear Friends,

Tomorrow all over the surface of the earth Christian believers will gather in churches, in train stations, in tiny chapels and grand cathedrals to accept on their bodies a simple sign in the dust of the earth that says, "I am a mortal, fallible sinner and I intend to repent."  So will begin the season of Lent.  It is indeed a season of penance and repentance.  It is as well a long retreat to recall the meaning lifelong of our sharing baptism into Christ.

The form this season takes for some of us year to year appears to be this: it is a season to be the type of serious Christian we are not the remainder of the year.  This time around we might consider allowing tthe practices and experience of the season to be a beginning that does not end with the coming of Easter. Rather, might it not be a reformation of life that commences now and grows into future fullness? 

Who are we called to be in Christ?  Not just tomorrow, and not only until Easter, but always.

I hope you will find useful, both for personal enrichment and parish ministry. the Lenten Resources gathered on a page here on the Mercer School website for the season.

Lenten blessings,

John P. McGinty+
Canon for Formation