Ash Wednesday Message

There is no text to accompany this extemporaneous message. In the message, beginning with the Tagore quote linking service with joy  I suggest that keeping Lent focuses on our service to God. Using Benedict’s approach to the regulation of the day, I translate his approach into the contemporary concepts of mindfulness and intentionality. Being mindful and intentional guided by Benedict’s injunction that all activity has a beginning and an end and between the ending of one activity and the beginning of another lies a period for prayerful pausing, taking stock, quietly breathing. The Book of Common Prayer invites us to practice traditional disciplines of fasting, prayer, repentance, self-denial, and almsgiving. I offer interpretations of what these traditional practices of service to God and others might look like in our contemporary context. I end with a warning about expectations.