Lent is an ancient season of repentance, fasting, and renewal that begins on Ash Wednesday and culminates in the death of our Lord on Good Friday and His resurrection on Easter Sunday. Historically, this 40-day season began as a journey of initiation for catechumens—those preparing for baptism and to enter the faith—as they prepared for the coming drama of Holy Week and their own entrance into the death and life of Jesus through baptism and their profession of faith on Easter Sunday.

The number 40 carries deep biblical significance, echoing the 40 years Israel spent in the wilderness and Jesus’ 40-day fast in the wilderness. It’s from these liturgical and theological roots that we find the main themes, or dispositions, of Lent: the repentance and renewal that comes with our baptism; the development of further prayerful reliance on and contentment in God (as manna that falls); and fasting as we journey through the wilderness with Jesus. These are practices of “baptismal spirituality” centered on our union with Christ as we journey with Him towards Jerusalem, towards death… yet in death, towards resurrection and life.

In this season you'll notice a “Lenten tinge” to our liturgical life together. The season is colored in purple, which historically has pointed Christians to the purple royal robe the Roman soldiers mockingly placed on Jesus during his Passion.

We also mark the season with a “fasting” of our words, removing the word “Alleluia” from our liturgical vocabulary until Easter Sunday. This “burying of the Alleluia” (what is called the depositio in latin, literally the “depositing” of the Alleluia into the ground) is an ancient practice that enhances the season’s focus on fasting and sacrifice, and one that ends with the resurrection of the Alleluia at Easter and in Eastertide. Finally, you’ll notice some changes in our music. We’ll regularly sing a setting of the Kyrie Eleison, the ancient cry of “Lord, have mercy,” in our Wednesday evening services, while we’ll sing a setting for the Trisagion in our Sunday morning services, another ancient hymn that proclaims the sobering holiness of our God while also crying out for God’s mercy. All of these changes in our liturgical practices help us along our Lenten journey with Jesus in the wilderness and on our way to Jerusalem.

Our short Lenten evening services at Blacknall on Wednesday are designed to help us as a community travel through the penitential season of Lent together. While Sunday morning services during Lent reflect the season in many ways, they are also still celebrations of the Resurrection, where we continue to give joyful thanks through the celebration of the Lord’s Supper (which is also called the Eucharist, from the greek word Eucharistia, which means “to give (joyful) thanks”). Historically, the church has primarily traveled the Lenten road Monday through Saturday (through fasting and prayer) and then paused on Sundays to celebrate the Resurrection, which always takes precedent over our other dispositions, as we are, fundamentally, a people of the Resurrection. So come and join us midweek as we travel together through Lent in prayer and repentance.