Lent: Preparing for Easter

Written by Danny Castiglione

My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise. Psalm 51:17

What is Lent?

Lent is a 40-day period before Easter that many Christians throughout church history have set for aside for self-examination and repentance.

How do we practice Lent at Waypoint Church?

Practicing Lent is not required for Christians, but we think it is a helpful practice for us as individuals and a church body. So, we encourage Waypoint people to join us.

Here are some of the ways you can practice Lent:

-Ask God what spiritual disciplines you can practice this Lent season to draw closer to his goodness and his presence.

-Come to the Waypoint Academy class on Spiritual Formation

-Join us for the Ash Wednesday Prayer and Worship Service on Wednesday Feb.22

-Listen to the most recent Waypoint podcast on Lent

-Watch this short video from Kathy Keller about practicing Lent

-Read the daily 40-day Lent Devotional from Kathy Keller

-Join the Maundy Thursday (April 6) dinner with other Waypoint people in your community (the specific details about this will be announced in a few week)

-Join the Good Friday service on April 7

-Come on Easter Sunday, April 9, ready to celebrate the risen Christ and the new life we have in him.

If you have questions about Lent or anything related to it or about your spiritual life or the Christian life in general. Please reach to us, we are here to help you on the journey!

And finally, I will end this post with part of the Ash Wednesday liturgy that has been recited by Christians around the world for over 400 years…

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ:

the early Christians observed with great devotion

the days of our Lord's passion and resurrection,

and it became the custom of the Church that before the Easter celebration

there should be a forty–day season of spiritual preparation.

During this season converts to the faith were prepared for Holy Baptism.

It was also a time when persons who had committed serious sins

and had separated themselves from the community of faith

were reconciled by penitence and forgiveness,

and restored to participation in the life of the Church.

In this way the whole congregation was reminded

of the mercy and forgiveness proclaimed in the gospel of Jesus Christ

and the need we all have to renew our faith.

I invite you, therefore, in the name of the Christ’s Church,

to observe a period of lent:

by self–examination and repentance;

by prayer, fasting, and self–denial;

and by reading and meditating on God's Holy Word.

To make a right beginning of repentance,

and as a mark of our mortal nature,

let us now kneel before our Maker and Redeemer.