The Season of Lent begins this Wednesday with the Imposition of Ashes (6:15 p.m. in the Custer Road Sanctuary). I have always loved the Invitation to Lenten Discipline in the liturgy:
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ: the early Christians observed with great devotion the days of our Lord’s passion and resurrection, and it became the custom of the Church that before the Easter celebration there should be a forty-day season of spiritual preparation. During this season converts to the faith were prepared for Holy Baptism. It is also a time when persons who had committed serious sins were reconciled by penitence and forgiveness, and restored to participation in the life of the Church. In this way the whole congregation was reminded of the mercy and forgiveness proclaimed in the gospel of Jesus Christ and the need we all have to renew our faith. I invite you, therefore, in the name of the Church, to observe a holy Lent: by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God’s Holy Word.
Last night at my Invitation to the Psalms study I offered the class the following study/reading plan, featuring the Psalm assigned for each Sunday of Lent (February 22 – March 29) and Easter (April 5 – May 17). This fits the recommendation to read and meditate upon God’s word from the invitation above. You are invited to participate with us too, using the psalms as you see fit. Each psalm is used for a week. There are several options:
- Memorization
- Write them in your own words
- Meditate over them (reading them silently in a quiet place)
- Read them as the first and last thing you do each day, or on your lunch break
- Consider: how are the psalms for Lent and Easter different in tone and style? Especially check out Psalm 22, offered in both seasons!