Lent
Introduction from Fr Phil
In 1942 the nineteen-year-old Ruth Burrows entered the Carmelite monastery to live a particular version of the religious life. Her journey led her to a deep contemplation of what it means to give your life to Christ. Many hundreds and years earlier St Paul penned his first letter to the Corinthians, a very personal letter which gives us an opportunity to glimpse the struggles of some of the first Christian communities in deciding what it means to follow Christ. This Lent we will be reading Ruth Burrows book Love Unknown and also reading together St Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians. Who knows what we will achieve this Lent and how far we will be truly able to enter the mystery of our salvation in Christ? My hope is that whatever studying we do or devotional reading we imbibe, we can make this lent a time when we reaffirm our willingness to give our lives to Christ, to recognise ourselves as given over to God. “Trust, humility, obedience, these are the great Christ-like virtues for which we must entreat and, in so far as we can, work” write Ruth Burrows towards the end of the book. May these virtues be at the heart of our journey to discover more fully how we can understand ourselves as “…the body of Christ and individually members of it” (1 Corinthians 12.27).
Typically, in Lent I over commit and then spend the first few weeks casting commitments ‘overboard’ so that I can float again! Decide what you think you are able to do this Lent – Maybe one or two things which last over the whole of Lent and one of two one-off events – and then stick to that. Alongside the things particularly advertised as part of our Lent programme there are a number of things which happen anyway and you are welcome to join, such as the Daily Office and the weekday Eucharists. One of the great joys of Lent is that it is a time of renewal; it is not a case of hoping we might feel a bit more connected or spiritually awake because the truth is God is waiting for us. As Rowan Williams says in the book’s introduction “…the God of the Bible, and above all the God of Jesus, is not our rival or our examiner or our prosecutor but our lover”. If we can touch something of that truth this Lent then the journey will have been worthwhile.
There are lots of things planned for this Lent – there is a booklet with all the information about all the events. It can be found here. Do join us!
Lent Book Group
Join us to discuss this year’s Lent book – ‘Love Unknown’ by Ruth Burrows. We will meet after the 10.30am Thursday morning Eucharist.
Thursdays, 23rd February – 30th March, 11am, SMJ
Bible Study
Tuesdays (Mass at 5.45pm) Bible Study at 6.15-7pm, every week 28th February – 28th March (except 7th March)
We are starting a new group to spend time reading and studying scripture together and thinking about how it connections to our lives. We will be reading the First Letter to the Corinthians. During Lent we will meet weekly (with one exception!) and we hope to continue meeting in Eastertide. The group will meet in the North Chapel at SMJ after a Eucharist – you are welcome to come to both the group and worship or join us for the bible study afterwards.
Holy Week Services
