Encouragement for you this Ash Wednesday
It’s Ash Wednesday and I wanted to share with you the first Daybook Meditation of Lent with you all here on my public blog. I also wanted to invite you to walk day by day into the cleansing simplicity of Lent and the festive celebration of Easter. This year there are two ways to keep company with our Lent Community.
Lent & Easter Daybook daily meditations online
Join my Daybook Meditations membership, Each day you’ll receive one meditation in your email inbox and have exclusive access to the entire season (and all previous years) in the Daybook Meditations member area of my website.
Lent & Easter Daybook one-time .pdf download + virtual retreat guide
Purchase and download the entire Daybook in one .pdf to follow along at your own pace throughout the season. This option includes one free registration for a virtual Lent retreat on March 3.
A Little Bit of Encouragement
(from me and the steely-eyed Dorothy Sayers)
“Lent is not intended to be an annual ordeal during which we begrudgingly forgo a handful of pleasures. It is meant to be the church’s springtime, a time when, out of the darkness of sin’s winter, a repentant, empowered people emerges.
Put another way, Lent is the season in which we ought to be surprised by joy. Our self-sacrifices serve no purpose unless, by laying aside this or that desire, we are able to focus on our heart’s deepest longing: unity with Christ. In him—in his suffering and death, his resurrection and triumph—we find our truest joy.””
— Dorothy Sayers, Bread and Wine: Readings for Lent and Easter
I’ve been thinking about you and praying for all of us as I put the finishing touches on this year’s guide. May each one of us enter the coming prayerful weeks with an awareness that we are deeply loved exactly in the state we find ourselves heading into this Lent.
Whatever it is you’re carrying is exactly what Jesus invites you to bring with you toward his arms outstretched on the cross. This is all we need to do to begin preparing our hearts, minds, and bodies for resurrection in Christ.
If you are wanting daily encouragement to draw closer to the heart of God this Lent, please choose one or both of the options above and join me. For now, I offer you a meditation for today, Ash Wednesday.
Ash Wednesday: Lent Daybook 1
First, take a few deep breaths, settle your body, mind, and heart into a quiet space and let’s begin with prayer.
Opening prayer: Heavenly Father, make me more like Jesus and more like the true self you’ve created as I savor your loving presence today. Please guide my thoughts and impressions by your Holy Spirit. Amen.
Look: A house sits covered by a deep blanket of ash from a volcano erupting on La Palma, in Spain's Canary Islands, on October 30. After 85 days and eight hours of destruction, the Cumbre Vieja volcano in Spain's Canary Islands finally finished erupting on December 13, 2021. The volcanic eruption - sending lava into neighborhoods and raining ash downwind - was the island of La Palma's longest active eruption on record, according to Canary Island government officials. Emilio Morenatti / AP - Source
Listen: From the Dust, Paul Zach - Lyrics | Spotify | YouTube
Read: Isaiah 58:1-12; Psalm 103; 2 Corinthians 5:20-6:10; Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21
Pray: Book of Common Prayer, Collect for Ash Wednesday
Almighty and everlasting God, you hate nothing you have made, and you forgive the sins of all who are penitent: Create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we, worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness, may obtain of you, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Do: Attend an Ash Wednesday service
If you live in the Fairfield County area of Connecticut, you are most welcome to join one of our services at Church of the Apostles (click the link for times).
You can read the scripture and prayers for the Ash Wednesday service in the Book of Common Prayer here.
Is this your first time to practice Lent? Here's a simple introduction.
You might also enjoy:
Ash Wednesday Explained via The Homely Hours
Living and Dying Palm: what my name has to do with Ash Wednesday [written in 2011]
Living and Dying Palm, part 2: the part where I talk about celebrating my 40th birthday on Ash Wednesday [written in 2011]
Sunday Scripture readings are taken from Year C of the Book of Common Prayer 2019 (Anglican Church of North America). Daily Scripture readings are taken from the 1979 Book of Common Prayer and include both Morning and Evening Psalms (Year 2).