牧者心聲  Pastor's Message

02/14/2010   

Lent

      Those who are reading this in the Chinese congregation will find something "new." Those from the English service will notice that I have mentioned some of this already in last week’s sermon. Regardless, read on!

      All churches which have a continuous history dating back before 1500AD observe Lent. It begins on Ash Wednesday, which is 2/17 of this month (in three days). Lent is a preparatory time for Christians, in celebration of Easter. It occurs 40 days before, not counting the Sundays in between. For Christians, it is a season of soul-searching and repentance.

      Did you also know that on Fridays, Catholic churches would only have fish sticks for lunch? The Catholic Church’s reasoning is that fish isn’t considered a meat, technically. So while they abstained from beef, pork and poultry, the finned animals of the sea were fair game.

      Speaking of food, other churches practiced having only one meal a day at 3pm or in the evening, and still abstained from meat. On top of this, there was no food on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. Still more, one was encouraged to give up something else for Lent as a sacrifice to God. “Crazy!” You might say.

      Maybe our church will do a church-wide participation of Lent next year. We’ll see. For this year, you’re on your own. Kind of. I’ll be participating in Lent this year. And for you, pray about it to God, then wait quietly in prayer for his response. Also, don’t forget to do these things: take time for personal prayer, Bible reading, and confession. These are all important to practices to observe in order to have a good spiritual foundation in Christ!

      “Although the practices may have evolved over the centuries, the focus remains the same: to repent of sin, to renew our faith and to prepare to celebrate joyfully the mysteries of our salvation.”

      - Fr. William Saunders, History of Lent



      Brother Benjamin Chung