Lent has begun.

Lent ‘beginning of 40-day journey’ for Christians - Utica, NY 13501 - The Observer-Dispatch I love Lent and I love the church calendar year. It pains me to not be connected to a church with liturgical leanings at the moment. In a surprise of surprises, I surfed across The Vineyard Church of Syracuse's web page this week and found: they have an afternoon Anglican worship experience on Sundays AND they had an Ash Wed service last night. Outstanding! I like the thought of that. Imagine for a moment people coming forward for the imposition of ashes and being slain in the Spirit as the sign of the cross is made. The BCP's Ash Wednesday is online. "Dear People of God: The first Christians observed with great devotion the days of our Lord's passion and resurrection, and it became the custom of the Church to prepare for them by a season of penitence and fasting. This is season of Lent provided a time in which converts to the faith were prepared for Holy Baptism. It was also a time when those who, because of notorious sins, had been separated from the body of the faithful were reconciled by penitence and forgiveness, and restored to the fellowship of the Church. Thereby, the whole congregation was put in mind of the message of pardon and absolution set forth in the Gospel of our Savior, and of the need which all Christians continually have to renew their repentance and faith. I invite you, therefore, in the name of the Church, to the observance of a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and editating 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."