Dear Friends,

Lent is a time of prayer and renewal and an opportunity to refocus relationships with God that lead us to the Easter Sunday celebration of our risen Christ. This year, Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, Feb. 17, and continues through Holy Saturday, April 3, with Easter Sunday on April 4.

While Lent itself remains the same, with the global pandemic, no doubt some of our activities will have to be adjusted to fit the needs of this time – perhaps we feel as though the entire past year has been one long lent!

As we come together by staying apart, we know our celebration of Lent this year will look very different. For many of us, this marks a full year of managing and planning around the coronavirus. Let us join our own sacrifices and hardships to those of our Saviour as  together we walk the lenten Via Dolorosa.

A Lenten Prayer

Loving God,

we hear your call

to all who thirst

for a brighter future:

Come to the water.

Pour out your Spirit upon us

and lead us to walk

alongside one another even in this time of hardship and isolation.

Let a desire for change

well up within us.

May we overflow with

compassion and love to those in need.

And as a stream

wears away stone,

may we reshape

our world after this pandemic together to reflect your message

of hope for all and may our little lenten sacrifices be the very building bricks of a kingdom of justice, peace and love in the Holy Spirit.

Amen