Yes, I did know it was Lent

But I've been so busy, that real posts have been hard to come by. For a long time - but I will try.

At the Ash Wednesday service this year, for the first time that I can remember, there was no music. I think the starkness that the lack of music brought helped me to focus on the liturgy and what our pastor said, actually. Sometimes a few simple quiet words are what you need to hear, and not the full production, so to speak.

He bought us all copies of the Magnificat's Lenten companion, and it has a few choice words that help to bring it all into focus. I will leave you with them.

"...sin itself isn't the biggest problem. Saint Augustine consoles us, 'Let us never assume that if we live good lives we will be without sin; our lives should be praised only when we continue to beg for pardon.' In other words, the biggest problem is how we respond to sin. No matter how dark the blackness of the blackmail of sin gets this Lent, let's use all of our energy to turn our whole being to the Light."

Fr. Peter John Cameron, the Magnificat Lenten Companion