This week has brought us the fun of Pancake Day, and in many parts of the world, the day is marked as Carnival. But this week also brings Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent, the forty days of preparation for Easter. Lent is a time when traditionally the focus is on penitence, but I heard Lent described recently as the forty days God gifts us so that we can attend lovingly to our relationship with God. I thought that opened-up some new perspectives. We are privileged to have the Epiphany group run our Lent Study evenings on prayer and that certainly provides one meaningful opportunity. What are all the ways we could resolve this Lent, to treat God as the honoured guest in our homes. How might we extend loving hospitality to God. We take God’s care for us as a given, but how shall we care for God this Lent?
For reflection this week, we offer Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s wonderful hymn which picks up on the theme of caring for God.
1.We turn to God when we are sorely pressed;
we pray for help, and ask for peace and bread;
we seek release from illness, guilt and death;
all people do, in faith or unbelief.
2. We turn to God when he is sorely pressed,
and find him poor, scorned, without roof and bread
bowed under weight of weakness, sin and death:
faith stands by God in his dark hour of grief.
3. God turns to us when we are sorely pressed,
and feeds our souls and bodies with his bread;
for one and all Christ gives himself in death;
through his forgiveness sin will find relief.
Copyright Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-19445)
Blessings!
Anne
Greetings from Currie Kirk - 16th February 2024