The Liturgies in Lent
The Great Litany
Shrove Tuesday
Ash Wednesday
Stations of the Cross
The Liturgies of Holy Week
Palm Sunday
Maundy Thursday
The Paschal Meal
Altar of Repose
Good Friday
The Great Vigil of Easter
Lenten Traditions
Jesus and the Easter Bunny
Keeping Lent at Home
Laetare, or Mothering Sunday
Lenten and Easter Calendar
of Events and Services
Wednesday Evening Lenten Program
The Stations of the Cross
The Rector's Letter
Lent is always a penitential season in preparation for the celebration of Easter. We are called to examine the state of our own souls and to rededicate ourselves, by a discipline of self-denial and repentance, to live lives befitting the followers of Christ. We are also called to remember Christ's final journey to Jerusalem, His final week of earthly life (which we call Passion Week), and His suffering, death, and burial.
At Saint Andrew's we have a number of liturgical and semi-liturgical observances to assist us in the second of these tasks. We have appropriate lessons in the lectionary for the Sundays in Lent, we keep the Stations of the Cross every Friday night in Lent, we use the full Palm Sunday liturgy, we keep the Paschal Meal and the Maundy Thursday liturgy, and we have a full cycle of worship on Good Friday. All of these things should make it possible for us to keep at least part of our minds upon Christ and His costly, obedient, faithful journey to the Cross and grave.
As for the first task, well, that's a bit more complex. The self-examination of one's own soul is by its very nature an individual matter, and only you and God really know how seriously you are treating it. On the other hand, it seems to me that this particular Lent may also prove to be an unusually fruitful time of corporate self-examination. The purpose of the Wednesday evening presentations on "The Anglican Spirit" is to allow us to examine ourselves in the light of our identity as Anglicans, and the reception of the Call To Dream Committee's report by the vestry is certain to lead us into a good deal of reflection on our spiritualstate as a parish.
Taken together, as they should be, all of these things have great potential for strengthening and enriching our individual and corporate spiritual lives. I urge you all to read through this booklet to familiarize yourselves with what we will be doing in the weeks to come, to take Lent very seriously indeed, and to seek earnestly for all that Christ offers us in our keeping of this solemn and blessed season.
Randolph +
