Such a Peculiar Lent

Dearest Holy Comforter Family,

This week, we mark the middle of the Season of Lent. After this Sunday, we have two more before we enter Holy Week with Palm Sunday. As I reflect on life at Holy Comforter, I find myself wanting to be protective of the joy and energy with which we are doing ministry. There is such goodness unfolding in our midst—you should have seen Lyn Frazer teaching the Many Colors Arts community how to line dance this past week. Or watched the tenderness and care with which the Food Pantry volunteers minister to the hearts of our neighbors as they wait their turn to ‘shop’ for food they so much need. Next week, your vestry will finally have clear, complete, and accurate reports of our financial situation. We will also be able to keep our promise to you: I expect that on the 11th, we will be able to mail out the end-of-year report of Expenses vs. Revenues in 2023. All that marks so much progress. “After so many struggles, can we please just celebrate the blessings Lord? Can we come back to Lent next year?” That is the prayer I want to raise to the heavens.

That goodness and joy is tempered by so much pain, fear, and worry in our world today. It gets harder and harder to read or watch or listen to the news. I keep returning to the verse in Isaiah that lies at the heart of our observance of Lent and Holy Week: “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have all turned to our own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” It is particularly sobering to have a strong sense that we will continue to watch the consequences of our choices. There will be no way to deny terrible suffering in ways our generations did not have to experience, though our parents and grandparents did.

Perhaps the best way to make sense of such a strange and difficult moment is to understand that even in the hardest times, grace is still at work in the world, and we are particularly blessed to be able to give witness to the grace happening here and now in our parish. That blessing can build us up, keep us going, remind us that God never, ever, ever stops working to right the things we get wrong, and never gives up on creation. Always insists that anything and everything can be made new, raised up, given yet another chance.

In the mercy of that hope, I give thanks for the light.  Rosa+

also streamed live on our Facebook page

 Michael Paul • Randy Woodland

Weekday Worship  

MONDAY

Compline | 7:00 PM Facebook live

WEDNESDAY

Morning Prayer | 10:30 AM Facebook live

 the Food Pantry

Critical needs in MARCH: Ramen noodles, canned tuna, condiments (ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, hot sauce, etc.), and paper/plastic grocery bags. If you'd like to donate, please drop off your items in the bins outside the double doors of McMaster Hall or the big basket inside.