March 2011 letter from Fr Marcus

“Brothers and sisters in Christ, since early days Christians have observed with great devotion the time of our Lord’s passion and resurrection and prepared for this by a season of penitence and fasting. By carefully keeping these days, Christians take to heart the call to repentance and the assurance of forgiveness proclaimed in the gospel, and so grow in faith and in devotion to our Lord. 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.”

Words from the liturgy of Ash Wednesday

My Dear Friends,

The Holy Season of Lent is upon us, and as usual we are going to do our very best to make the most of it. We are all aware that the more energy we put into anything, the more we experience in return, and I would like to commend to you the idea of having a spiritually energetic approach to our keeping of this awesome time of the year.

Several things are happening: The Rother Valley Churches Together are holding the Lent Lectures. This year we are hosting them. Details appear elsewhere in the magazine, but it would be great to see you here.

In addition, I am embarking on my Lent Visits. Slightly different this year, in that I will not be asking you to fill in a time slot for me to come round, but rather to indicate that you would like a visit by signing up, and I will phone and arrange a convenient time. The idea of the visit is just to spend some time together; to do a brief bible study; to pray together; do a lovely little House Blessing, and have an opportunity to chat about absolutely whatever you want. All this in about an hour (Please do not offer me any food, otherwise I shall be the size of Belgium by Easter!)

The other thing that we do during Lent is to concentrate on our worship. As you know it is a very evocative time, when all our senses come in to play, and we use many symbols that have come to mean such a lot.

We begin with the Imposition of Ashes, reminding ourselves of our mortality, and our dependence on God; but also as a sign of our reflection and penitence. We use our purple vestments to signify the penitential nature of the season. We omit the singing of the Gloria, in order that it has a truly powerful and significant impact when we start again at Easter. It is part of the idea of denial, helping us focus on all that Christ means to us.

Denial is not meant to make us miserable. Rather it is an aid to remembrance. Every time we notice we are doing without something, we recall the object of our faith (Jesus) and the reason behind why it is different. I shall go on to speak of doing extra things in a moment.

We also have the distribution of Palm Crosses, the dramatic telling of the story of Our Lord’s Passion, and the lighting of the Paschal Candle at Easter.

So our worship has many signs and symbols that help us focus.

This year during Lent we are adding an option whereby people can have a little ‘Focus Moment’ on the way up to the altar. Each week there will be a chance to do something that will hopefully add to the experience of worship.

It may be dipping your fingers in some holy water, to remind you that we all share in the same baptism. It may be feeling a touch of holy oil, to symbolise that we are sealed, chosen and special in the sight of God. It may be that we light a candle as a prayer for a particular cause or person. It may be that we place a symbol of our sin at the foot of the cross, or add a few grains of incense to remind us of the holiness of God, and the depth of our prayer. These little moments, not in any particular order, may add an extra touch to the rich tapestry which is our worship. There will be one each week, and of course it will be explained as we go along, and everyone will be able to choose to participate or not.

My feeling is that it will be very simple, and very beautiful.

With love and prayers for a very happy and holy Lent,

Fr Marcus