Looking through Lent
23 Feb 2020 • Articles
This year the first Sunday in March is also the first Sunday in Lent. The season of Lent is a time for looking seriously at our lives, remembering that human life does not last for ever on this earth. "Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return" are the traditional words which are said while a small cross is marked in ash on the forehead of each person at Ash Wednesday services, followed by "Turn away from sin and be faithful to Christ." Without God nothing lasts; with God we live for ever.
During Lent we consider some of the early events in the ministry of Jesus. First, the temptations, when Jesus was working out how to attract people to God without bribing them, showing off or tricking them. Then his talk with Nicodemus, telling him that he needed to have a change of mind as complete as if he was a new person. Then the meeting with the woman at the well, with the promise that Jesus can give us living water.
Mothering Sunday is on March 22nd.This day reminds us to honour mothers and all they do for their children and for the communities in which they live. We also use this occasion to think of the Church as our spiritual mother, caring for Christians as God's children throughout their lives and building up the community of Christ. Another theme of Mothering Sunday is our gratitude to Mary, the mother of Jesus, who cared for God's Son so that he could grow up to welcome us all into the community of God's heavenly kingdom.
With every blessing,
Ann