Yes, I know that’s an oxymoron… and it’s one that will probably make it into my sermon on Sunday. But it bears noting.
As I mentioned last year, we marked Ash Wednesday without the imposition of ashes. Sandra said that she’ll have to find a Catholic church next year because she misses it. Apparently, All Saints’ Kampala imposes ashes, but none of us has time to go there. I miss it too, but what I really missed is the invitation to a holy lent in the Ash Wednesday service. Our service was properly meditative, and we had an excellent sermon from Canon Musiime, but I missed the invitation:
Dear People of God: The first Christians observed with great devotion the days of our Lord’s passion and resurrection, and it became the custom of the Church to prepare for them by a season of penitence and fasting. This season of Lent provided a time in which converts to the faith were prepared for Holy Baptism. It was also a time when those who, because of notorious sins, had been separated from the body of the faithful were reconciled by penitence and forgiveness, and restored to the fellowship of the Church. Thereby, the whole congregation was put in mind of the message of pardon and absolution set forth in the Gospel of our Savior, and of the need which all Christians continually have to renew their repentance and faith.
I invite you, therefore, 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. And, to make a right beginning of repentance, and as a mark of our mortal nature, let us now kneel before the Lord, our maker and redeemer.
Amen.
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