From Rev. Hannah Atkins:
Please note this exhortation to follow a Holy Lent from
the Book of Common Prayer, p. 264.
I invite you all
to share in this most Holy Lent in which we repent in the hope of
transformation and forgiveness, so that our burdens may be lightened and our
lives become living, breathing examples of answered prayers. As your priest, pastor
and sister in Christ, I invite to participate fully in all the carefully
planned out and lovingly prepared spiritual formation opportunities available
to you at Trinity this Lent 2013:
Dear People of God: The first Christians observed with
great devotion the days of our Lord’s passion and resurrection, and it became the
custom of the Church to prepare for them by a season of penitence and fasting. This season of Lent provided a time in which
converts to the faith were prepared for Holy Baptism.
It was also a time when those who, because of
notorious sins, had been separated from the body of the faithful were
reconciled by penitence and forgiveness, and restored to the fellowship of the Church.
Thereby, the whole congregation was put
in mind of the message of pardon and absolution set forth in the Gospel of our
Savior, and of the need which all Christians have to renew their repentance and
faith. 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. AMEN
