An Invitation to Lent

What is Lent?

What comes to mind when you hear the word lent?

Lent literally means spring season. In the church calendar, lent marks the 40 days leading up to Easter. It begins on Ash Wednesday and continues until Holy Saturday. Sundays are not counted toward the 40 days since they serve as a “little Easter” every week.

Why should you observe it?

We invite you to view Lent as a beautiful season that forms you into the image of Christ.

40 days of fasting follows the example of Moses, Elijah, and especially Jesus. The 4th century church fathers Athanasius and Saint Augustine commend lent to us as a 40-day fast observed by the entire Christian world.

Lent should not be viewed as a burden or duty. Rather it is a beautiful opportunity to make space in our lives for repentance, prayer, and generosity. Historic practices gently invite us to willingly enter the desert with Jesus for 40 days of fasting. We do it both in private and in community with our church family.

Ultimately, Lent leads us to the feast of Easter. You will discover that by journeying through the wilderness, our hearts to rejoice even more in the feast that God has prepared for us in His resurrection!

How can you enter into Lent (with your family)?

20 centuries of the Christian church has provided a plethora of ideas on how to go about the season of lent. You will notice the Lenten practices all revolve around 3 themes: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving (generosity). For the year 2025, we invite our church members to especially focus on the theme of prayer!

Here are some ideas that we would recommend for you and your family:

• Begin with Ash Wednesday (March 5, 2025)
  Ash Wednesday is the door Lent. We gather to hear God’s Word and receive an ash cross on our foreheads. This is a tangible call for all ages to “remember that you are dust, and to dust you will return.” Here is our Facebook event page for this year’s Ash Wednesday Service.

• Read the Psalms
  The Psalms are Scripture’s prayer book. This year we are providing each family with a copy of Reading the Psalms with Luther. This beautiful resource gives a short reflection and prayer as a companion to each Psalm. Copies are available at our information table.

• Follow our Lent Calendar
  We are providing a Lent Calendar to guide you through the 40 days of Lent. This is intended to be a companion to Reading the Psalms with Luther, but can also stand on its own. It gives you a particular Psalm and prayer theme for each day. Pick up a copy at our info table or download your own here.

• Light Lent candles (family activity)
  Similar to an Advent wreath, some families recognize Lent with candles. These are 7 purple candles (1 white candle and 1 pink candle are optional) in the shape of a cross. In contrast to Advent, we recommend beginning with all 7 candles lit and lighting 1 less candle each week culminating with total darkness on Good Friday. For more ideas here is a good link: Lenten Candles Family Activity.

• Attend Lent Services
  In addition to Ash Wednesday, we encourage you to participate in some additional Lent Services. We will hold two Testimony and Song nights (Wednesday, March 19 & April 2), Maundy Thursday (April 17), and Good Friday (April 18). Stay tuned for more details.

Additional ideas

• Consider fasting
  The practice of fasting is deeply rooted both in Scripture and church tradition. You might choose to fast from excess items that draw your resources and attention (i.e. food/drink items, technology, or entertainment). Fasting is a way to deny ourselves in order to rely on Christ. Here are some verses on fasting you might consider: Matthew 4:1-4; 6:16-18, Isaiah 58:6-12, and Acts 13:2.

• Pursue generosity
  The early church actually fasted from meats in part so that they had more financial resources to share with the poor. Many of us today have resources available to share even without giving items on our budget. Consider how God might use your time or financial resources this Lent in order to serve those in need!

• Learn more about Lent!
  Read The Good of Giving Up: Discovering the Freedom of Lent
  Watch Why Observe the Season of Lent? by Dr. Jordan Cooper
  Learn more in the 1517.org articles Lent for All (part 1) and Lent for All (part 2)

You are invited…

In closing, here are words of invitation that we will hear at our Ash Wednesday Service:

Dear brothers and sisters of our Lord Jesus Christ, on this day the Church begins a holy season of prayerful and penitential reflection. Our attention is especially directed to the holy sufferings and death of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

From ancient times the season of Lent has been kept as a time of special devotion, self-denial, and humble repentance born of a faithful heart that dwells confidently on His Word and draws from it life and hope. 

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 alms-giving; and by reading and meditating on God’s holy Word.

Let us pray that our dear Father in heaven, for the sake of His beloved Son and in the power of His Holy Spirit, might richly bless this Lententide for us so that we may come to Easter with glad hearts and keep the feast in sincerity and truth.