Lent and Letting Life Define Us

Dear Friends,

Grim stories have overwhelmed the news cycle recently (unless you are a Kansas City Chiefs fan). Earthquakes, deadly mass shootings, spy balloons, a new Russian offensive, bird flu, generative A.I — there’s a lot right now. And so I’m grateful to be headed into Lent.

The Church sets aside the season of Lent to prepare our hearts for Easter, and in so doing, Lent reminds us two things are simultaneously true: 1: The hard and horrible things of life are real, as are the good and happy things. Lent is for our days as we actually live and experience them. 2: Neither the good and happy nor the hard and horrible things of life — even death — define us. Life defines us — life with God through the power of our risen Lord.

Lent begins in less than a week, with Ash Wednesday (services at 12 noon and 7 pm).

But the evening before is our all-church Shrove Tuesday celebration. This is for everybody, not just kids — delicious decadent pancakes, bacon, sausage and more for dinner; burying of the alleluia, and our first ever Mardi Gras umbrella parade and contest. It’ll be a wonderful evening — one of the good and happy things of life to be sure.

In Christ,
Fr. Andrew