Lent 2009 - Introduction

After last year, Lent could never seem to come early, to sneak up on us, could it?
Of course it could.

After all, we don’t live in eternity (yet), so silly things like time still manage to trip us up on a regular basis. Oh, and this year was quite regular in that respect.
Sadly, there wasn’t quite the creative “outreach” [you may prefer to think of it as “begging” or “badgering” if you prefer] of previous years. No endless harangues, no threats of “this page left blank courtesy of ,” nor even purple Lenten Stockings hung in the hallway with care.
This translated into not very many submissions for this year’s book.

Imagine that. We’ve done ten years of these already, and it’s looking like we won’t have enough to publish the book this year.
Wait a minute. Ten years of books? Already sitting there?
Well, if we can’t have all new devotions, we can certainly supplement them with some favourites from the past.

And so we did.

Even more than in past years, it seems perfectly appropriate to repeat the introduction from our congregation's first book of devotions of more than thirty years ago:

Keeping a true Lent requires us to be vigilant in many ways: in prayer, study, worship, sacrifice, giving, meditation, and fellowship.

One or all may take precedence, depending upon our daily commitments. From these devotions, lovingly prepared, may you find a well spring of faith to renew and sustain you, so that the Glorious Triumph that is Easter will remain with you always.

The Lenten Committee


Again, we can but say, “Amen.”

Charlie van Becelaere, Editor