St. Mark's News

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April 2015

St. Mark’s News Volume 20/Issue 3

From the Assistant Rector How’s Lent been going for you? Confession time for me: mine’s been pretty uneven. This year, I took up two disciplines, and one good work. The first discipline was to “eat no meat.” That’s been going remarkably well, and to be honest, I think a big reason is that I’ve been slowly working up to this fast over the last three years. Seriously. During Lent 2013, I made my first big step toward this year’s prohibition on meat––I decided to only eat one meat meal a day. Sound a little silly? With the way my diet was at the time, it was actually really hard. I still remember (vividly), the day after Ash Wednesday (which just so happened to be Valentine’s Day), feeling like my stomach was going to eat a hole in itself by dinnertime. I remember this because Valentine’s Day 2013 was also one of the first big romantic things Janna and I ever did together. I was so hungry by dinnertime that I (no exaggeration) ate twelve dinner rolls before my steak came. It’s a miracle Janna ever went out with me again. So, that discipline has been going a little bit better, and in doing so, reinforces the idea that disciplines often take time to develop. The second discipline I took up was to “observe all posted speed limits.” I’ve got one word for how this has been going: yikes. Over the years, I’ve gotten so used to speeding that I hardly even realize I’m doing it anymore. And, when I am conscious of how fast I’m In this Issue driving, it’s usually because I’m running behind, and feel like I have to From the Assistant Rector ......... 1 decide between speeding and being late (you can guess which one I tend to Vestry Highlights........................ 2 choose). In fact, I’ve been so bad at keeping this discipline that on March Holy Week & Easter Schedule .. 4 17th, I actually got cited for running a stop-sign in Waco––my first ticket in Parish Life ................................. 4 years. My attempt to try to curb my speeding habit has been a total and utter Music Notes ............................... 6 failure. And, while the one good work I tried to take up—saying compline Parishioner Highlights................ 6 every night with Janna—has not been quite the same failure, it also has been Outreach.................................... 7 far from a success. Christian Formation ................. 10 What about you? How’s Lent been going for you?

Caffeine Ministry ...................... 11 Celebrations ............................ 11 ROTA ...................................... 12

You don’t have to actually tell me—of course, you also can’t tell me, without picking up the phone or keyboard —but it’s worth reflecting on now that we’re coming to the end of this season. Back in February, I suggested that one reason we take up these disciplines was “to begin to alter our habits, and so loosen some of the control that our disordered appetites have upon us.” But what happens when, at the end of the forty days, my road rage and reckless driving have (if anything) gotten worse?

I’m sure you can substitute something from your own Lenten discipline here. Or, even if you kept your Lenten disciplines perfectly, I’m sure you can still substitute something here, right? After all, we all know that for every discipline we did keep (for me: giving up meat), there were a host of others we didn’t even dare to take on (for me: giving up alcohol…that’s one I’ll never do!). And so, in one way or another, through all our falling and failing and false starts, Lent leaves us with this question: Will we ever find our way back to the goodness in which and for which we were made? Can our nature ever be restored?

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