Mtr Taylor Devine

Dear Friend,

As we near Holy Week it is not too late to reflect on Lenten practices and to consider how these practices may be carried with you into the coming weeks. Has there been a practice that has been illuminating or surprising for you this year? What kind of practice would continue to help you love God with all your heart, soul, mind, to stay anchored in that desire in the coming season of Easter? How does that practice shift in the midst of the waves of Holy Week that are so tactile and full of memory?

I'm considering these questions myself of course, as my Lenten practice went a little bit differently than I expected, as they often do. The season of penitence and fasting, of reconciling and forgiveness, of prayer and of meditating on Scripture, of reckoning in the midst of Spring invites spiritual practices that may teach us to love God in new ways but not in the ways we expected. If you're interested in reflecting in these past few weeks of Lent, you might read the Invitation to the observance of a Holy Lent on p. 264 in your Book of Common Prayer as a starting place. I read the starting place is forgiveness and the need for it, of reconciliation and the need for it, of distance from God and need for nearness. Whether your Lenten practice was very life-giving or didn't work out, I pray that in this season when we turn afresh toward the Cross, you will know that the starting place of the love that makes forgiveness, reconciliation, and closeness possible is God in Christ's own love, and not our striving.

In Christ with hope,
Mtr. Taylor