The Lenten season is a time for meaningful prayer, reflection, self-examination, personal adjustment and renewal. When we check our life's spiritual direction, we may ask ourselves these questions, "Where do I stand at the beginning of another Lent? Have I grown spiritually since last year? How am I living faithfully?" Well, Lent gives us an opportunity to check that progress, enhance our efforts and start all over again.
In the Presiding Bishop's Lenten Message, "Keeping a Holy Lent: Prayer, Fasting, and Almsgiving", the Most Rev. Dr. Katharine Jefferts Schori compares the maintenance of the spiritual life to the tune-up of a vehicle. She states that similar attention to our spiritual life can yield better focused energy for effective living. Our human vehicles need an effective connection to the source of life, guidance and directions (prayer and study), regular maintenance (fasting), and effective ways to connect with the world (almsgiving).
Lent gives us an opportunity to help achieve the Millennium Development Goals by responding to the needs of the poor, hungry, and those who are in critical need. Presiding Bishop Katharine states that giving alms means caring for those in need. Lent is about cultivating a compassionate heart that will shape all our encounters in the coming year and years.
Let us tune-up our spiritual life and take advantage of this opportunity to make a difference in the world.
O God, whose glory it is always to have mercy, be gracious to all who have gone astray from thy ways, and bring them again with penitent hearts and steadfast faith to embrace and hold fast the unchangeable truth of thy Word, Jesus Christ Thy Son: Who with Thee and the Holy Spirit liveth and reigneth, one God, for ever and ever. AMEN.
- Offered by Shirley Sadler, Secretary of Devotional Life, ECW-Diocese of NC
