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Dear Friends in Christ,

If you have never lived in snow country where the roads are salted because of snow and ice, you may not know how salt can corrode the fenders and undergirding of your car. I remember seeing, one morning as I drove to work, an oncoming car lose its rear wheels and chassis. The trunk of the car hit the asphalt with sparks and scraping, while the rear axle and wheels went rolling off the road and into a vacant field. Since no one was hurt, I couldn’t help snickering to myself at the jocular scene, when I was suddenly arrested by the sobering thought: “Mark, when was the last time you examined the frame of your car?” Most of us, before we go on a cross-country trip, will check the oil, tires, brakes, and fill the gas tank. Yet surprisingly enough, many of us on the great journey of the Christian life, traveling over rough roads, in bad weather, icy passes and lonely barren deserts, demonstrate an all too lackadaisical attitude to the equipment of our spiritual lives.

Lent is a good season to do what Evelyn Underhill calls spiritual stocktaking. In the disciplines of the Christian life this is called “Self-Examination.” It is the first discipline mentioned in the Ash Wednesday invitation to a Holy Lent. The Prayer Book reads: “I invite you, therefore, in the name of the Church, to the observance of a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God’s Holy Word.” (BCP, p. 265)

Although Self-Examination, or “the examination of conscience” as it used to be called, is a long honored discipline of the Christian life, too often the average Christian not only doesn’t know how to do it, he doesn’t even know what it is. This of course is not his fault; it is the fault of us who are pastors and teachers in the Church. Ironically, 12 Step groups like A.A. and N.A. make important use of this discipline. The Fourth Step of A.A. reads: “Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.” The Fifth Step follows up: “Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.” Sixth Step: ” Were entirely ready to have God remove these defects of character.”
These steps are part of the process of self-examination and repentance. As St. Paul counsels in 2 Corinthians 13:5, “Examine yourselves….” There are two fundamental sources of help for practicing self-examination. The first and most important help, which seems almost superfluous to mention, is the Holy Spirit. The Spirit indwells us as believers. The Holy Spirit knows us thoroughly and searches the deep things of our lives. (Read for instance such passages as Psalm 139, John 7:37-39, John 14:16-26, Romans 8:26-27). To invite Him to search your heart is an invitation not merely to compile a list of sins to be gotten through; it is an opportunity for growth, learning, discovery, making new connections, receiving insight and to seek His help in putting things in order. The second help for self-examination is a written list to be worked through with self-honesty. Some people use the Seven Deadly Sins–(Pride, Envy/Jealousy, Anger, Sloth/Melancholy, Greed, Gluttony and Lust), others, the Ten Commandments, or the Litany of Penitence in the Ash Wednesday Liturgy (BCP, p. 267). One possibility that is often forgotten is to use not those lists that accentuate the negative dimensions of our lives but to ask the question about the place and pursuit of virtue. After all we have spent, as a culture and Church, far too much time with the clarification of values and given too little attention to the cultivation of virtue. So to take the Beatitudes, or the Fruit of the Spirit listed in Galatians 5:19-26, or even Seven Saving Virtues (Justice, Courage/Fortitude, Prudence/Wisdom, Temperance, Faith, Hope and Love) as the focus, after scrutinizing our sins of omission, can be a profitable exercise indeed. Such written forms might nudge us into areas we might be unconsciously avoiding and yet towards that which God would have us go.

Self-Examination of course is not a one-time thing; something done merely before the Ash Wednesday Liturgy. You might want to do it periodically during Lent. Find a quiet place where you’ll be alone and uninterrupted. Put aside the cell phone and computer. Allow twenty to thirty minutes. Bring along a pencil and paper. Once there ask God’s Spirit to help you in your search. It may lead you to repentance, which is of course not only the result of grace but the key which unlocks the wondrous treasures of grace.

With joyful embrace of the Lenten disciplines,

I remain faithfully yours,

–(The Rt. Rev.) Mark Lawrence Is Bishop of South Carolina

The first call is to conversion, a word that must be taken in its extraordinary seriousness, discovering the amazing novelty it contains. The call to conversion, in fact, uncovers and denounces the easy superficiality that very often characterizes our way of living. To be converted means to change direction along the way of life — not for a slight adjustment, but a true and total change of direction. Conversion is to go against the current, where the “current” is a superficial lifestyle, inconsistent and illusory, which often draws us, controls us and makes us slaves of evil, or in any case prisoners of moral mediocrity. With conversion, instead, one aims to the lofty measure of Christian life; we are entrusted to the living and personal Gospel, which is Christ Jesus. His person is the final goal and the profound meaning of conversion; he is the way which we are called to follow in life, allowing ourselves to be illumined by his light and sustained by his strength that moves our steps. In this way conversion manifests its most splendid and fascinating face: It is not a simple moral decision to rectify our conduct of life, but it is a decision of faith, which involves us wholly in profound communion with the living and concrete person of Jesus.

To be converted and to believe in the Gospel are not two different things or in some way closely related, but rather, they express the same reality. Conversion is the total “yes” of the one who gives his own existence to the Gospel, responding freely to Christ, who first offered himself to man as Way, Truth and Life, as the one who frees and saves him. This is precisely the meaning of the first words with which, according to the Evangelist Mark, Jesus began the preaching of the “Gospel of God.” “This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the Gospel” (Mark 1:15).

“Repent and believe in the Gospel” is not only at the beginning of the Christian life, but accompanies all its steps, [this call] remains, renewing itself, and spreads, branching out in all its expressions.

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O Lord Jesus Christ, who didst take upon thee the form of a servant, humbling thyself and accepting death for us, even the death of the cross: Grant that this mind may be also in us; so that we may gladly take upon ourselves the life of humility and service, and taking up our cross daily may follow thee in thy suffering and death, that with thee we may attain unto the power of thy endless life. Grant this, O Christ, our Saviour and our King.

A time to reflect, to make personal sacrifices, to add discipline to life and to help others in need ”¦ all are goals of the Lenten season, which gets under way today.

Lent is a 40-day period in the Christian religion that leads from Ash Wednesday to Easter, which this year is on April 4. Local religious leaders will encourage followers in the next few weeks to practice self-discipline and engage in prayerful thought.

“We’re in a time of an economic crisis, two wars and much stress,” said Bishop Christopher Epting of Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Davenport. “I’ll remind the congregation of their own spiritual basics, alms-giving responsibilities, and the need to fast to remind themselves of people in need.”

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A new web-based service from the Church of England, launched today to mark the beginning of Lent, lets people across the country confidentially share their hopes and concerns anonymously in the form of a prayer ”“ and also have those thoughts offered to God by a bishop.

Prayers received via www.SayOneForMe.org over the next 40 days will be displayed on the site and shared with a number of Church of England bishops, who have agreed to remember the submissions in their own prayers over the season. The website invites visitors to type in their prayers ”“ and then click ”˜Amen’ to post them.

The Rt Revd David Walker, Bishop of Dudley, says: “Priests are well used to having people shout at us ”˜say one for me’. Whatever the initial intention of that yell in the street, underlying it is the fact that people feel a need to pray ”“ especially during difficult times. Our visits today and the new website are both simple ways for us to harness that desire and engage with people where they are. Of course, nobody needs a dog collar to be heard by God, but for many people, knowing that someone else is praying for us gives us the confidence to make our own prayers, and prayer is often the gateway to hope. The website allows people to share their prayers anonymously via their own home computer or even on the move through a mobile device.”

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O Heavenly Father, whose blessed Son hast taught us that whosoever will be his disciple must take up his cross and follow him: Help us with willing heart to mortify our sinful affections, and depart from every selfish indulgence by which we sin against thee. Strengthen us to resist temptation, and to walk in the narrow way that leadeth unto life; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord.

By the ash on their foreheads will most Christians around the world acknowledge their faith on Feb. 17, Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent.

There are about two billion Christians around the world, but not all celebrate Ash Wednesday and/or Lent. Those who do will receive the imposition of ashes, as it has come to be known, from a priest who traces the sign of the cross on their foreheads with ash and says, “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” The ash is meant to symbolize mourning and penitence. The ashes are palms kept from the previous Palm Sunday which are burned and mixed with anointing oil.

Ash Wednesday, said to have begun as early as the third century, is also recognized by Christians as the day of fasting for 40 days before Easter. The 40-day period was chosen based on the Biblical account that Jesus fasted for 40 days and 40 nights in the desert.

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The 40-day period of penitence before Easter typically sees observant Catholics, Anglicans, and Orthodox Christians give up meat, alcohol or chocolates.

But this year’s initiative aims to convince those observing Lent to try a day without an iPod or mobile phone in a bid to reduce the use of electricity ”” and thus trim the amount of carbon dioxide spewed into the atmosphere.

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What we can hear, or choose to hear, or prefer not to hear, form a theme in the book from which the quotation about Adam comes. It is Our Sound Is Our Wound: Contemplative Listening in a Noisy World by Lucy Winkett (Continuum, £9.99). The Archbishop of Canterbury has named it as his Lent book. Lent starts on Wednesday and many Christians like to use a book to focus their thoughts in the six weeks before Easter.

Lucy Winkett, a singer by training, is Precentor of St Paul’s Cathedral, responsible for its music and liturgy. She also, she tells us, has tinnitus, which means for her that she hears a high-pitched whistle.

The sounds of the modern city match, she thinks, the dominant modern feelings of anxiety and fear ”“ principally fear of death. In opposition, she presents the liberating forces of justice and beauty. Beauty, she believes, leads to justice, partly by bringing us out of ourselves.

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College students were the first to hit on the Facebook fast. This year, adults — the fastest-growing Facebook demographic group — have taken on the challenge. Now Italian Roman Catholic bishops are onto it. Sort of. They’re urging believers to take a high-tech fast for Lent by switching off iPods and abstaining from instant text messaging.

Paul Griffith, a professor of Catholic theology at Duke Divinity School, said the church doesn’t have a problem with technology as such — only its overuse.

“The concern is that technology like e-mail and the Internet can substitute for genuine human relationships,” Griffith said.

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In recent days, given the three Oscars and the fame of the actor, there has been much talk of a film entitled “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” a story by writer Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald. It is the story of a man who is born old, with the monstrous features of an 80-year-old and, growing, he is reinvigorated to the point of dying as a real baby. The story is of course paradoxical, but there could be an all-together more real application if transferred to the spiritual plane. We are born “old men” and we must become “new men.” The whole of life, not just adolescence, is a “an evolutionary age!”

According to the Gospel, one is not born a child but becomes a child! St. Maximus of Turin, a Father of the Church, describes Easter as a passage “from sins to holiness, from vices to virtues, from old age to youth: a youth understood not of age but of simplicity. We were in fact fallen by the old age of sins, but by the Resurrection of Christ we were renewed in the innocence of children.”[15]

Lent is the ideal time to apply oneself to this reinvigoration. A preface of this time states: “You have established for your children a time of spiritual renewal, so that they may convert to you with their whole heart, and free from the ferment of sin live the vicissitudes of this world, always oriented toward eternal goods.” A prayer, stemming from the Gelasian Sacramentary of the 7th century is still in use in the Easter Vigil; it proclaims solemnly: “Let the whole world see and recognize that all that is destroyed is reconstructed, all that is old is renewed, and everything returns to its integrity, through Christ who is the principle of all things.”

The Holy Spirit is the soul of this renewal and rejuvenation.

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And if men thus deceive themselves, is it any wonder that they deceive others also, and that we so seldom find “an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no guile?” In looking over my books, some years ago, I found the following memorandum: “I am this day thirty years old; and till this day I know not that I have met with one person of that age, except in my father’s house, who did not use guile, more or less.”

This is one of the sorts of desperate wickedness which cleaves to the nature of every man, proceeding from those fruitful roots, — self-will, pride, and independence on God. Hence springs every species of vice and wickedness; hence every sin against God, our neighbour, and ourselves. Against God, — forgetfulness and contempt of God, of his name, his day, his word, his ordinances; Atheism on the one hand, and idolatry on the other; in particular, love of the world, the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, and the pride of life; the love of money, the love of power, the love of ease, the love of the “honour that cometh of men,” the love of the creature more than the Creator, the being lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God: — Against our neighbour, ingratitude, revenge, hatred, envy, malice, uncharitableness.

Hence there is in the heart of every child of man, an inexhaustible fund of ungodliness and unrighteousness, so deeply and strongly rooted in the soul, that nothing less than almighty grace can cure it. From hence naturally arises a plentiful harvest of all evil words and works; and to complete the whole, that complex of all evils, —

— That foul monster, War, that we meet,
Lays deep the noblest work of the creation;
Which wears in vain its Maker’s glorious image,
Unprivileged from thee!

In the train of this fell monster are murder, adultery, rape, violence, and cruelty of every kind….

–From his sermon “The Deceitfulness Of The Human Heart”

I have become more and more suspicious of the concept of the nominal Christian. Our parish churches are supposed to be full of nominal Christians who are just going through the motions, of half-believers who are relying on their good works and who have not really surrendered to Christ and accepted the Gospel. In any parish church there are a few real apostates, and a few real scoffers and perhaps a few who genuinely hate God. Their numbers are routinely exaggerated. Most of the people who come to the church Sunday by Sunday know they are dying and are placing their hope in Christ. It may be an inarticulate hope, it may be a confused hope. Often there are huge brambles of misunderstanding that must be cleared away before the whole power of the good news can come in upon them. Often there is real darkness into which the light of Christ has not yet come and which cries out for a light-bearer. Yet, they come. When Jesus saw such as these gathered in their multitudes on the hill side, the sight provoked in him not contempt for the nominal but compassion, “for they were like sheep without a shepherd.”

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Today is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the Christian season of Lent, when many people tend to respond by boycotting candy, soda and other guilty pleasures until Easter. Because that’s what you’re supposed to do, right?

Not quite.

“The idea of giving something up is to create a feeling of emptiness in yourself and open yourself to God’s presence,” said the Rev. Mike Duda of the First Church in Wenham.

It’s also a time of deep personal reflection, said the Rev. Manny Faria of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Beverly. “It’s taking stock of our own lives, and seeing where we fall short and what we need to work on.”

But the message can often get lost.

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“Confess your faults one to another” (Jas. 5:16). He who is alone with his sin is utterly alone. It may be that Christians, notwithstanding corporate worship, common prayer, and all their fellowship in service, may still be left to their loneliness. The final break-through to fellowship does not occur, because, though they have fellowship with one another as believers and devout people, they do not have fellowship as the undevout, as sinners. This pious fellowship permits no one to be a sinner. So everybody must conceal his sin from himself and the fellowship. We dare not be sinners. Many Christians are unthinkably horrified when a real sinner is suddenly discovered among the righteous. so we remain alone with our sin, living in lies and hypocrisy. The fact is that we are sinners!

But it is the grace of the Gospel, which is so hard for the pious to understand, that it confronts us with the truth and says: You are a sinner, a great, desperate sinner; now come as the sinner that you are, to God who loves you. He wants you as you are; He does not want anything from you, a sacrifice, a work; He wants you alone. “My son, give me thine heart” (Prov. 23:26). God has come to you to save the sinner. Be glad! This message is liberation through truth. You can hide nothing from God. The mask you wear before men will do you no good before Him. He wants to see you as you are, He wants to be gracious to you. You do not have to on lying to yourself and your brothers, as if you were without sin; you can dare to be a sinner. Thank God for that; He loves the sinner but He hates sin.

–Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together

Dear Friends in Christ,

It’s been said that like stars in constellation around the nearer planets are the lesser figures around the central characters in the Baroque paintings of Peter Paul Ruben. One of his finer works, Samson and Delilah, hangs in the British Museum of Art. Behind the young, beautiful and voluptuous Delilah lurks a wizened old lady who holds a candle brightening the central action, where a young man cuts the locks of Samson’s luxurious hair, while the biblical hero sleeps, his head upon Delilah’s lap, her breasts exposed, her body and clothes looking recently ravished. Samson’s shaded muscular torso shows the influence of Michelangelo upon the painter’s portrayal of human form. Further back in the darkness, behind Samson’s extended massive body, the Philistine soldiers are just entering the door, their dark shadows have preceded them into the room.

Ruben’s painting vividly portrays the scene of Samson’s life just before the moment when the biblical Book of Judges says, “And he awoke from his sleep, and said, ”˜I will go out as at other times, and shake myself free.’ And he did not know that the Lord had left him.” (Judges 16:20) Samson’s career as a spiritually anointed deliverer of Israel is a particularly instructive example for our era. He lived in an age of economical, political, and moral upheaval. Many of the older models of leadership and social order were faltering or seemed inadequate in the present environment. Although he was raised from birth for his leadership role, he had lost connection with the formative discipline chosen for him as his birthright. His failure cannot be attributed to any inadequacy in his experience of God or to a lack of the Spirit’s presence in his life. The breakdown and consequent vulnerability which led to his personal failure, depicted so graphically in Ruben’s painting, was the result of his poor understanding and subsequent neglect of the spiritual discipline that was designed by God to channel the anointing that God’s presence brought. He lived too much in the moment, which was the curse of his age and ours as well””in the doctrine of instant gratification. In such an era it is not enough to have a personal experience of God. We must also learn and embrace the disciplines of the spiritual life if we expect to replace old destructive habits with the new life-giving behavior of faith. Enter then Lent.

I noticed it while thumbing through my appointment book the other day””Ash Wednesday and Lent. When I was a busy parish priest it at times struck dread in my heart. Yet occasionally it brought a calmness to my soul, not unlike reading a book on the spiritual life by Evelyn Underhill; or spying a bud opening on the Elberta Peach tree in the backyard; or maybe glancing around a corner at a long missed friend just dropping into town with some time to spare and an inclination to get caught up on one another’s life. I remember one week just before Lent when a parishioner dropped a note in my mail slot. “Fr. Mark, when you get the time give me a call. I need an appointment. Time for a spiritual checkup.” The handwriting didn’t look frazzled. No trace of dreadfulness in the phrasing. If any mood came from the note it was anticipation””more akin to a visit with one’s travel agent than to the dentist.

Time for a spiritual checkup; that’s what Ash Wednesday is. Samson could’ve used it. And Lent, well among other things, it’s a spiritual shape-up for one’s Christian life; a godly housecleaning before a welcomed visitor; a spring spading and planting of the garden; even a long intimate walk with Christ. Repentance after all, once you commit yourself to it, usually ends in joy. I know the downside of the season as well as anyone. There are a lot of Lenten hymns I don’t care for. Some are dirge-like, others drab””(incidentally, Fr. Michael Wright has written a fine one and is willing to share it); the Kyrie can’t compare with the Gloria (surely there’s a good one out there, I’m just wanting to find it); and mea culpas just don’t yield themselves to full-throated praise from the heart as do Alleluias! Still, I have to admit when the pall of purple finally does give way on Easter morning, it’s like the end and the beginning of all things: the packed car starting out on vacation; the tied-fly cast lightly on the water; the closing of a good book: the opening of a better one.

May a rejuvenating Lent come your way!

Blessings in Christ our Savior and Lord,

–(The Rt. Rev.) Mark Lawrence is Bishop of South Carolina

The preparation of the breakfast cake was originally seen both as a time of celebration and as a way to use eggs, sugar and butter before the arrival of Lent. A Pancake Supper and Parade will be held at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church at 6 p.m. today. The youth of the church are sponsoring the event. Plates will be $4 adults and $2 for children under 11.

Lent ”” a 40-day period of introspection ”” begins with Ash Wednesday and ends on Easter Sunday. Many churches hold services involving the imposition of ashes.

“Often these Ash Wednesday ashes are made by burning Palm leaves from the previous year’s Palm Sunday celebrations and mixing them with olive oil as a fixative,” said Bishop David Epps, rector of Christ the King Charismatic Episcopal Church. The ashes are applied in the form of a cross, and the minister or priest generally says, “From dust you were taken, and to dust you shall return,” or something similar.

“This symbolism recalls the ancient Near Eastern tradition of throwing ash over one’s head signifying repentance before God ”” as related numerous times in the Bible,” Epps added.

“The imposition of ashes on the forehead is an ancient symbol of penance and a sign of one’s mortality,” explained Marie Mulvenna, who handles publicity for St. Mary Magdalene Catholic Church. A worshipper traditionally leaves the cross mark “on his or her forehead until sundown, before washing it off,” Epps said.

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