This Week from Mitch

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I hope and pray that you are well. Welcome to Lent. For me, Lent is a time that I look forward to every year. Believe me, I get it, in terms of the humor of saying that. I am a priest, and so I am supposed to enjoy times of prayer and the reading of scripture. I am a priest, and so I am supposed to like mindfulness. I am a priest, of course, I love worship...it's my job. And if you say these things, you would be right! As all of these things are a part of who I am today. With that said, I was a Christian, a follower of Jesus, long before I ever took my ordination vows. Lent and my Lenten devotions were a large part of shaping my identity in Christ.

What mindfulness practice can you start with? What practice of gratitude? Can you spend five minutes in quiet prayer? If not, perhaps two. Time yourself and see. Yesterday, during our noon service, we had a roughly two-minute silence, and at our 6 PM service, we held the silence for just about three minutes. As I watched us all begin to squirm, wondering when the service would "start" again, it occurred to me that these types of prayer practices might be disciplines we need to rediscover. I commend them to you to try.

We are invited into a holy Lent, into a time when we allow prayer, devotion, and study to shape us. Who knows, it may have surprising results in your life. I believe God holds out a hand for all of us, yearning for us to take it. Lent is a time of year when, through our prayers, we step forward and reach towards that embrace.

Peace,

Mitch