A message from the Pastor: February/March 2015

Dear friends,

When I make a cake, one of the first steps is to line the cake pans with waxed paper. I trace around the outside edge of the pan onto the paper and then I cut out the circle. I always find that no matter how careful I have been, my circle never quite matches up to the pattern I was tracing.

On February 18 we enter the season of Lent – the 40 days (not including Sundays) lead- ing up to Easter. Lent is traditionally a time to look at our lives to see how we match up to the pattern that Jesus sets for us. When we see the ways in which we fall short of the pattern, we set about making changes in our lives.

Lent is traditionally associated with giving something up. Sometimes we don’t notice how certain things we do have gained power over us. Lent invites us to discover these things and give them up. Franciscans use the term ‘detachment’ : the less that ‘stuff’ pre- occupies your life, the more room there is for God, as well as for yourself and for other people.

A common thing is to fast for Lent. To Catholics, this means giving up meats. To oth- ers, it may mean to fast entirely for one day a week. It can be hard. I find I have no idea how much I am involved with food until I am giving it up. If giving up food isn’t much of a task for you, choose something else that you have to make an effort to give up.

Some people use Lent for taking the complexity out of parts of their lives. They pare down their schedules, and concentrate on what is most important. If you work overtime, what are you working overtime for what are you working? For a real need, or to buy more stuff? A fast of any kind is a reflection of your awareness of sin, and your sorrow over it. It’s best to choose one thing at a time. It might be 40 days without television, gambling, impulse shopping, gossip, junk food.

Jesus is not looking for self-torture, self-hatred, woe-is-me thinking, 40-day starvation and oceans of tears. Lent is for soberly looking into ourselves and getting down to what’s real so that we can be better followers of the One who is our Pattern.

In Christ, Stacey