Ash Wednesday

Today begins the season of Lent.  I almost missed it in fact, until I was reminded last night. I stole this exhortation from an Ash Wednesday service at St. John’s but I like to read it every year:

Brethren, in the primitive Church it was the custom to observe with great devotion the days of our Lord’s Passion and Resurrection, and to prepare for the same by a season of penitence and fasting.  This season of Lent provided also a time in which converts to the faith were prepared for holy Baptism.  It was also a time when such persons as had, by reason of notorious sins, been separated from the body of the faithful, were reconciled and restored to the fellowship of the church by penitence and forgiveness.  Thereby, the whole congregation was put in mind of the message of pardon and absolution contained in the Gospel of our Saviour, and of the need which all Christians continually have, of a renewal of their repentance and faith.  I therefore 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 meditation upon God’s holy Word.