Dear Friends,
Lent has begun, and this Sunday, the first Sunday in Lent, we begin with the Great Litany. Often churches chant the long litany found in The Book of Common Prayer as they process round and round about the sanctuary. At All Saints, we have taken that tradition and made it our own, excerpting the litany, reading it from the altar, and singing the Kyrie between the sections of the litany.
The language is old-fashioned, but the spirit is entirely modern as we pray for all the needs in our world and in our lives, acknowledging how we fall short, and asking for God’s help.
I know how busy we all are, how overwhelmed by the needs of family and work, how distracted by the ways of the world, but one of my favorite old-fashioned aphorisms is, “Begin as you mean to proceed.” So, let us begin Lent as we mean to proceed: in prayer, turning again to God, asking God’s mercy on us and our broken, beloved world, and let’s do it together in our beloved community of All Saints.
In this week’s newsletter you’ll see some ways to keep Lent, but most important is that we keep it in community, for the way we know God in this place is by loving and serving one another and together.
See you in church!
Faithfully, Suzanne+