Bishop's Lent Message 2017

The Bishop's Ash Wednesday Message

Ash Wednesday 2017

I have just returned from the service of imposition of ashes at the St. Andrew's Schools chapel. I was reminded of both the innocence of youth and the frail reality of our world. Looking out beyond the faces of the boys and girls, I could see past them through the great doors of the Cathedral to the houseless person walking by in the rain. The reality of the simple phrase "[r] emember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return" was incarnated all around me. These young ones, like me, are walking along a path that might drive them far from other people (even to houselessness in the rain), but not from the love of God. I know too well that I have been "deaf to God's call to serve, as Christ served us" and that I "have not been true to the mind of Christ" (see BCP page 267). Yet here I was in the moment of forgiveness with children made in the very image of God. Renewal beckons. Love abounds.

This Lent I am committing myself to seek that forgiveness and love "by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God's holy Word." Specifically, I will be reading (and listening closely to the words of) St. Francis de Sales (1567-1622) and studying the Gospel of John. I have much travel in the month of March and that means the quiet of airplanes.

We live in unusual times. I pray that this Lent provides a time for your reflection and renewal for the days ahead. I hope you can find the time to pray and welcome God's love.

Your servant in Christ Jesus,

+Bob