By the time this is posted in the Cathedral Connection we will be started on our Lenten journey.

At this writing I am still trying to figure out how I am going to find a discipline or practice that will enhance and spiritualize my time.

One danger for me is that I will try and do too much. Another is that I will not do enough!

Where is the balance?

I’m tired of giving up chocolate and other sweets. It reminds me of my perpetual task of trying to eat healthy and lose some weight! Not really very spiritual.

My Franciscan community was talking about the spiritual practice of Fasting at our last meeting. It’s not the same as giving something up, and its been a while since I practiced that, and I know there can be some spiritual benefits to fasting. So I’m thinking about how I might incorporate that into Lent one day a week… or at least part of a day.

I do think it is very helpful to change your rhythm and do something very intentionally to mark this season of the Church year. I need to really prepare myself for the coming celebration of Easter, and not just coast through the Lenten season.

But Lent is also a community experience. Historically it was a time of preparing adults for Baptism or Confirmation, and of re-paring those that had fallen away, to rejoin the” Community of the Faithful”. So I think it is helpful to do something that reaches beyond our own personal discipline.

I would like to encourage some of you to make Prayer Bead Bracelets for the hospital as part of your Lenten practice. I will have bead packets available after the Sunday services so you can take one or two to make while saying some prayers for the sick and the healing that are in the hospital. Good discipline, good prayer time, and good outreach. See me for some beads!

Another thing I commend to you is our Tuesday Evening Prayer Service at 5:30. We will read the Lenten lessons, say our prayers, and sit in silence together. It is a peaceful way to end the day and still be on your way home by 6:00.

Blessings for your Lenten Journey.
Deacon David