Lenten Reader 2013

A Brief Introduction to Lent There is a scene in the movie “Doubt” in which Sister Aloysius (played

by Maryl Streep) is speaking with Father Flynn (played by Philip Seymour Hoffman). Sister Aloysius offers Father Flynn a cup of coffee and when he asks for sugar she has to hunt through her drawers to find it.

When she hands it to him, she apologizes and says she put it away because she gave it up for Lent. Father Flynn remarks that it must not have been much of a challenge to give sugar up for Lent because it is now winter and she still had not found a need to bring the sugar back out.

For most Lent is a season bookmarked by Mardis Gras and Easter Egg hunts. For the Christian Church it is a season that begins with ashes and ends in glorious resurrection. Those intervening 40 days are marked by fasting and repentance. It is a journey from sadness over our own sin and our mortal inability to overcome it to a celebration that God has made us clean and frees us from the punishment we so deserve.

Lent is known for being 40 days long. It parallels the 40 days Jesus spent in the wilderness and the 40 years the Israelites wandered in the desert. This reader will journey with the Israelites in the books of Isaiah, Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers. We will end with readings from Hebrews.

While Lent itself is 40 days, the Sundays within the season are not counted as part of that 40. Traditions that fast from something during Lent often do not fast on Sunday. It is in this vein that we do not have a devotional written for each Sunday. Instead there is a passage of Scripture and a work of art depicting an event from Holy Week.

Contributions for this project came from people all over the Evangelical Covenant Church of Canada. There are also additional prayers and reflections by brothers and sisters from centuries gone by—our honourary