Lenten Season at Incarnation

Here is some of what's up at Incarnation during the upcoming season of Lent:

Ash Wednesday next week begins a new season in the church's spiritual life.  Lent just names a seven week period of reflection and prayer leading up to Holy Week which observes Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection.  Practically, this season runs from Wed. March 9 through Easter Sunday April 24.  Because faith concerns how our lives are shaped by Jesus' life, Lent focuses on our traveling with Jesus toward Jerusalem, towards the suffering and death that he experienced for our sakes.  

As a community, we want to invite all to take advantage of some tools to help you pay attention to your spiritual life during Lent.  Beyond our normal rhythms of worship on Sundays, here are a few options we thought might interest you:

1. Daily Prayers - You can commit to a short time of Scripture reading and prayer each day during Lent.  One way to do this is to bookmark the Oremus website and use the readings and prayers offered there.  I often shorten the daily offerings, reading one of the three songs, skipping the hymn, etc.  So do as much or as little of it as seems fitting.  The daily prayers are really quite wonderful.

2. Fasting - You can commit to fasting with our community on Fridays during Lent.  Fasts are just purposeful periods when we abstain from eating so that we can devote that time to prayer.  Pick any meal on Fridays and use that time to pray for our community, orient your heart to God's goodness and Jesus' life, and ask for God's healing for others you know.

3. Reading - Some in our community will be reading a short work on spirituality during Lent, Reaching Out, by Henri Nouwen.  (You can get it on Amazon for $10).

4. Conversation - In all these ways we hope to encourage one another during Lent, reflecting together on the season and what God is teaching us personally and as a community.  We invite all to share their Lenten reflections on Incarnation's Facebook page during the season.

Praying for God's renewing presence in our lives,

Jared.