Lent 2015

Grace Church Devotional Email

Ash Wednesday, February 18

I invite you...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... 

 

(Service for Ash Wednesday, Book of Common Prayer, p 265)

 

For he himself knows whereof we are made;
he remembers that we are but dust. (Psalm 103.14)

 

 

 + + +

  

 

Today my brother and sister priests and I will mark the foreheads of hundreds of millions, maybe billions, of Christians across the world with the sign of the cross, with the ashes of palm branches, using these words:  "Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return." 


 

Those are hard words to hear.  We are mortal.  We are sinners.  We will die.  They are hard words for me to hear.  But I know they are true.


 

The thing that makes them bearable--why I think we still need to hear them--is because Jesus triumphs over sin and death.  God knows I am broken, that I am sinful, that I will die.  But God loves and chooses me anyway.  God redeems me.


 

As the psalmist says, "As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our sins from us."


 

Thanks be to God for that redemption.  I don't have to be frightened of sin--or even frightened of death--because God is there redeeming me. 


 

Bring on those ashes.  I can be honest with God and with myself--and take a chance on repentance and change--because you and I are marked as Christ's own forever.


 

I pray for all of us a holy Lent.


 

--Fr Stephen Holton 


 

 

Thank you for subscribing to Grace Church's daily Lenten devotional email.  Pray for one another, for the Church, and for the city of New York this Lent.  And come to Grace for Ash Wednesday liturgies today at 8am, 12:10pm, and 6pm (with choir).

 

If you cannot make the liturgies of the day, consider stopping by for a brief litany of penance and to receive ashes every hour on the hour from 1pm through 5pm.

 

You are receiving this email because you are signed up for the Grace Church Lenten Daily Devotional Guide.  For questions & comments or to subscribe or unsubscribe, contact Stephen Holton or phone 212-254-2000 ext 114.
 
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  Psalm 103

Isaiah 58:1-12

2 Corinthians 5;20-6:10

Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21

 

(click heading to go to readings) 

 

 

 

Collect for Ash Wednesday:

 

Almighty and everlasting God, you hate nothing you have made and forgive the sins of all who are penitent:  Create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we, worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness, may obtain of you, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness;

 through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.