The Standard March 15, 2025
In the second century, the Church began to use the time between Ash Wednesday and Holy Saturday to teach and prepare converts to the Christian faith for baptism. These new believers were baptized on Easter Sunday. It did not take long before many Christians were using this season of the church calendar, like the forty days that Jesus fasted, to participate in spiritual disciplines as preparation for Easter. Lent became a special time to remember Christ’s sacrifice through prayer, Bible-reading, repentance, and self-denial.
At Farmville’s community Ash Wednesday service, the Celebrant began with words from the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer. “Almighty and everlasting God, you hate nothing you have made and forgive the sins of all who are penitent: Create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we, worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness, may obtain of you, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Dear People of God: The first Christians observed with great devotion the days of our Lord’s passion and resurrection, and it became the custom of the Church to prepare for them by a season of penitence and fasting. This season of Lent provided a time in which converts to the faith were prepared for Holy Baptism. It was also a time when those who, because of notorious sins, had been separated from the body of the faithful were reconciled by penitence and forgiveness, and restored to the fellowship of the Church. Thereby, the whole congregation was put in mind of the message of pardon and absolution set forth in the Gospel of our Savior, and of the need which all Christians continually have to renew their repentance and faith.
I invite you, therefore in the name of the Church, to the observance of a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God’s holy Word. And, to make a right beginning of repentance, and as a mark of our mortal nature, let us now kneel before the Lord, our maker and redeemer.”
During these forty days, we can focus on what Scripture teaches about our universal need for forgiveness and God’s solution to our sin dilemma. We can pray the words of King David, “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight; so, you are right in your verdict and justified when you judge.” Psalm 51:1-4
Let us take great solace that God the Father sent his only Son as a sacrifice for our trespasses. “Then he [Jesus] took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, ‘Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” Matthew 26:27-28
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