FEBRUARY BEGINS -
and brings with it all the preparations for Lent, Ash Wednesday, and midweek Lenten potluck/program/worship. Sigh. This year, I will be presenting - Discovering Our Spiritual Gifts. I pray that it will be healing and offering some vision for this congregation. Most likely the ones that should be there, won't be, but, I pray that it will prove beneficial to all who attend and will get them thinking of how each has
something good and needed to contribute to the life of the church. Wednesdays will be long days for me and it will last 6 weeks. And each week, it will be preparation for what to bring to the potluck.
Thankfully, there will be no Easter Vigil this year. I am not a huge fan of
the Easter Vigil - it is very long, occurs too early on Sat. evenings and if you can get folks to come to Maundy Thursday & Good Friday - that is to be celebrated. Expecting them to come three evenings and Easter Sunday morning is somewhat out of the realm of the reality of people's lives, at least in this day and age.
Still, it promises to be a busy time and I am thankful that I will have time to rest inbetween. Being so part-time is really a whole different rhythm than I am used to and I have to work at making my time off productive and spiritual, and appreciating said time, to reflect and sit with God. It just doesn't do much for paying the bills. But I am learning to be content with this semi-retired life and praying that something more is yet ahead for us.
In the meanwhile, there is an Ash Wednesday sermon to write, the Lenten
program to organize by sorting handouts by week, a whole Lenten pilgrimage to make.