February 14, 2024

Beloved in Christ:

On Wednesday, February 14, the global Anglican church joins many other Christian traditions in entering the church season of Lent. Beginning with Ash Wednesday and continuing through Holy Week, we are called to prepare ourselves for Easter Day, this year on March 31. Calvary is a part of this tradition, and I hope that you will find ways to live out the call to a holy Lent that we will hear read on Ash Wednesday. There will be lay volunteers on the sidewalks outside Calvary from 8:00 am to 11:45 am, offering Ashes to Go for all who pass by, along with a gift of a single red rose, a symbol of Valentine’s Day. We will honor God’s eternal love for us with the sign of a cross of ashes, and our love for one another with the rose.

Other Lenten offerings at Calvary include a series on prayer that will take place on Sundays from 9:15 am to 10:15 am in the Larsen Fireside Room, a Lenten quiet day on Saturday, March 2 from 9:00 am to noon, and Wednesday Eucharists at 12:05 pm. The quiet day will offer meditations, counsel, confession/absolution, and time to walk our labyrinth.

One local offering not at Calvary will be at Assisi Heights Spirituality Center on Tuesday, February 20 at 6:30 pm. AHSC is offering a 6-week series for Lent focusing on the women that Jesus met on the way to the cross, and February 20 begins this series with a prayer service in the style of Taizé, using a painting called “The Passion of Mary” by Charles Peguy as its center focus. Other offerings in this series are on Zoom and in-person. I hope you will join me at Assisi Heights on February 20 for this special service. The Spirituality Center at Assisi Heights is fully open post-Covid and offers many significant and interesting programs throughout the year.

I am looking forward to keeping Lent with you all, in the many ways that spiritual disciplines can be added to our lives during these 6 weeks.

In God’s peace,

Beth+