March 2025 Chimes

Dear siblings in Christ,

As I write this letter, we are just one week away from Ash Wednesday and the start of Lent. Around this time of year, we often hear the question: What are you giving up for Lent? I remember, quite clearly, a conversation I had in high school with some friends who asked that very question. They were both Catholic, and were both planning to give up chocolate for Lent.

I answered, with all the self-righteousness and conviction of a teenager who’d just finished confirmation classes, that I wasn’t going to give anything up for Lent, because we can’t make God love us more by doing silly things like not eating chocolate. (Side note: I was a ton of fun to be around as a teenager.)

Of course our Lenten fasts and practices can’t possibly make God love us more—but if that’s the way we approach them, then we’ve missed the point. Since the very beginnings of the church, probably in the 200-300s, Christians have marked the period of Lent with three practices: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. These things are not ways for us to earn God’s favor, but rather ways for to help us reorient ourselves, that our lives might more clearly reflect God’s intentions and love.

I’d like to share what I plan to do for Lent this year and invite you to consider if you’d like to take up your own version of any of these ancient Lenten practices. None of them is obligatory, but rather an opportunity.

Prayer: Each Lent, I add a couple different “extra” prayer practices. One is our weekly evening prayer service here at St. Paul’s. Because we always invite guest preachers for these services, it’s a wonderful chance for me to simply be present in worship, without having to think too much! I also like to do a Lenten devotion each day. This year, I’m using Kate Bowler’s devotional, “The Hardest Part.” There’s more information about how to download that devotional in this issue of the Chimes.

Fasting: This is the one that always got me into arguments with my friends, and probably the best known of the three Lenten practices. I’ll be honest, I never feel like I’m doing much spiritually when I abstain from something like chocolate or alcohol or coffee for a season. For others, I know it can be a meaningful experience, so if you haven’t tried it before, I’d encourage you to do so. There is never one right way to engage a spiritual practice, and what works for me might not be what’s right for you.

I tend to find more meaning in fasting from less physical things. In Pope Francis’s Lent message in 2017, he advised Christians to fast from things like hurting words, from anger, from bitterness, and from grudges.

Almsgiving: Lent calls us to turn outward in generosity. If you are fasting from something physical, consider using the money you would have spent on coffee, or chocolate, or cocktails, and giving it to a charity, instead. I’m planning to make an extra gift this Lent to Lutheran Settlement House.

However you observe Lent—whether it’s through one or more of these practices, or something else entirely—I pray you have a blessed and holy season. May we be drawn in by God’s never-ceasing love, nourished in our faith, and shaped as God’s hands and feet in the world.

In Christ,

Pastor Laura

Read the full Chimes HERE