Comments on: Getting ready for Easter

By: Beav

Beav — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 23:08:31 +0000

you can borrow it – when are you coming to get it

By: Beav

Beav — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 23:07:58 +0000

it's like crack…want it so bad (but to clarify I don't want actual crack)

By: Beav

Beav — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 23:03:51 +0000

thanks Jim. I like those thoughts about the emphasis on Baptism. That does sound powerful. I'm amazed that now 2 weeks in, that giving up 1 simple thing already has translated to me being much more aware of Easter coming and more thought about my condition. Previously, I would rarely engage specific Easter related thought until a week or so before.

By: Beav

Beav — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 21:50:46 +0000

it’s like crack…want it so bad (but to clarify I don’t want actual crack)

By: Susie

Susie — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 08:55:59 +0000

Beav– my bro gave DIET COKE up for new years. weened himself with sprite which he doesn't really like and now drinks water. my bro in law is like you, literally drinks 2 liters a day. now i only drink it when i go out. its hard at first but what a good thing for lent!Susie

By: carrie

carrie — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 08:05:19 +0000

beav, i wish you could've been at our Ash Wednesday service. it was really mellow and simple but really neat, i think you would've appreciated it.anyways, are you going to let me borrow Christians at the Cross or what? i'm hoping you left it with Bowen so i can get it tomorrow! i've been looking forward to reading it and wanted to have my friend read it, too!Dave and i are doing a 'prayer of review' during Lent this year nightly, (well, 5 nights a week to be exact) it's great to have that as the end of the day and do it together. it's just a recorded deal, i got it from the website – pray-as-you-go.org which has great meditations i download and listen to on the way to work everyday. it's super helpful for me and just really gets me thinking and reflecting and inspired as well. might be something you or some of the readers here would want to check out love you!

By: Jim O'Connor

Jim O'Connor — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 03:45:17 +0000

Hey Brian, more power to you for working to cut back on Diet Coke and therefore caffeine in your quest to experience Lent in a new way. What you are doing is a good daily reminder of the events to come at the time of the Jewish Passover. I think we would all benefit from naming our addictions, whatever they may be, and working to diminish their influence over our lives.In my denomination we have changed the primary focus of Lent from a purely penitential time to a more ancient emphasis on Baptism. (This is not to say that we have completely blown off the penitential aspect). For centuries, Easter marked the time when new converts to Christianity came into full communion with the Body of Christ through Baptism. So these days, during Lent we reflect on our Baptismal promises and examine our lives and our consciences in light of those promises, asking God in His mercy for forgiveness for our weaknesses and moral failings and for the grace to do better. We try to live in a more recollected state during this time. Then at the Easter Vigil Service, when men and women come into the church through Baptism, the entire gathered community renews its Baptismal promises. It is quite powerful.