Lent #2: The invitation.

The sufferings of this present time.

(Romans 8:18)

Evangelical Protestants, like me, turn to the Anglicans to keep us in touch with ancient traditions such as Lent. Here’s how the Book of Common Prayer introduces us to our Lenten Season:

I invite you, therefore, in the name of the Church, to the observance of holy Lent by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting and self-denial; and by reading and meditation 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 (p. 265).

Beautiful, isn’t it? Those Anglicans know how to write. They can make fasting and self-denial sound good. It will be easy for me this Lenten Season to acknowledging “our mortal nature.” So, I’ll start Lent by “marking [my] mortal nature,” and “kneeling before the Lord, our maker and redeemer.”