These familiar words from the Gospel of Matthew, heard each week in the Rite I service of Holy Eucharist, are words which sustain those who are weary. And at this time of year, when the days have been short and cold and the flu and colds season has knocked many out and our soldiers are still dying in Iraq and the economic climate is still not promising...well, for many it’s a season of weariness. Lent, the church season in which we now find ourselves, is a period of reflection which many view as a season as bleak and weary as winter itself.

But suppose we were to think of Lent as what it is meant to be...not as a time of beating our breasts and giving up things we enjoy - food and sweets, for example - but as a time of “fasting from the ways that weary the earth and weary ourselves; and a time of feasting on the word and ways of God.” -Edwin Searcy, UCC, Vancouver, Canada

The season of Lent derives from the early church and its preparation for baptism which consisted of a forty-day fast of purification to prepare for Easter Sunday. Sundays were not included as fast days since fasting was forbidden on the Sabbath. Sunday is also the day of the celebration of Christ’s resurrection, so from the beginning, the rhythm of the week even in Lent alternated between Jesus’ passion and his resurrection.

Fasting is not immediately appealing in a society of excess and immediate gratification such as ours. The discipline of refusing ourselves and our own desires...and making room for the desires of the Spirit does not make our hearts sing. But if we are to prepare ourselves for the loss of Jesus on Good Friday - the one on whom we depend for everything - and for the terrible void of his complete absence on Holy Saturday...and for the stunning total newness of Easter Sunday, we need to practice self-denial and making room.

Sadly, Lent has ceased to have the importance it had a generation ago when even children entered into giving up something special for those long forty days. Still, for many, the Lenten journey in faith is one of ultimate importance: forty days in the wilderness, an enforced fasting, a journey through rough terrain heading for something new...and trusting if we just hang on, it will come.

Sundays in Lent are the days when all come to the Lord for sustenance, for that life-giving manna which comes down from heaven to sustain and encourage us on our way. This Lent, come to Grace and St. Peter’s for your refreshment and renewal.

There will be regular opportunities for worship and study Wednesday nights during Lent. Kurt and Mary Acker and John Donohue will lead a Bible study on the Beatitudes immediately following Wednesday Worship, a quiet service with candlight, prayer and Holy Eucharist. Also during Lent, we will continue to explore the ways in which God might be calling us the Mission and Ministry in Hamden.

Participate in any way you can. All time and talent will be offered in the hope that as you “fast from the ways of the world and feast on the word and ways of God,” at Lent’s end, you and your life will be strengthened and transformed with Easter joy.

-Julie