Lent at Holy Family 2012

Remember that you are dust . . .

Ash Wednesday is February 22.

• The Holy Eucharist with Imposition of Ashes will be offered at 7:00 a.m., 12:00 noon, and 6:00 p.m. in the Nave.

Midweek Eucharists offered during Lent: The Holy Eucharist, Rite II, will be celebrated at 7:00 a.m. every Wednesday morning during Lent, from Ash Wednesday through Wednesday in Holy Week. The liturgy will be approximately 30 minutes in length, allowing for people to arrive at work on time. Gathering with fellow brothers and sisters in Christ in prayer makes for a great Lenten discipline.

The Way of The Cross, a Lenten devotion found in The Book of Occasional Services, is offered  in the Nave at 6:00 p.m. every Friday in Lent, beginning February 24.

Sung Compline, the final office of the day in the tradition of canonical hours, will be offered in the Nave at 8:00 p.m. on Sundays, February 26, and March 4, 11, and 18.

Wednesday evenings: Embracing the Gifts of the Lenten Journey

The 2012 Lenten Series at the Church of the Holy Family will be an exploration, by five different speakers, of the five classic disciplines undertaken by generations of Christians as part of their Lenten observance. Almsgiving, fasting, penitence, prayer, and scriptural reading/meditation: do they draw us closer to God, or make us want to run away? Each week, one of our speakers will lead us deeper into the true purposes of a Lenten discipline, so that even the faint of heart may feel encouraged. The presenters and their topics:

Almsgiving – Clarke French  (Rector, Church of the Holy Family)

Penitence – Michelle Robertshaw  (Assistant to the Rector, Church of the Holy Family)

Fasting – Colin Miller, PhD  (Candidate for Holy Orders, Diocese of North Carolina)

Scripture – Nils Chittendon  (Chaplain, Anglican Episcopal House of Studies, Duke)

Prayer – Carole Baker  (Artist and Iconographer)

The Lenten Series will be offered on Wednesdays, February 29 and March 7, 14, 21, and 28 from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. in the Nave. A light supper will be served in the Parish Hall beginning at 5:45 p.m. on each of these dates. Activities for children and youth (and babysitting for children under four) will be provided in the Commons after supper until the presentation ends. After supper, children go to the Christian Education Commons to sing, play, and create together as we learn about Jesus’ journey to the cross. Leaders will conclude the “content” portion of the evening at 7:15 to accommodate early bedtimes, but will be ready with art and games for children whose parents are staying until 7:30 p.m.

A women’s mid-week Bible Study: Parables of Jesus

Beginning on Wednesday, February 15, join other women of our parish for a mid-week Bible Study focusing on parables in Matthew’s gospel. We’ll meet each week in the Christian Education Commons to read, study and discuss a different parable together, beginning with the parable of the sower in Matthew 13. 

No advance preparation is necessary in order to participate. We will gather from 10:00 to 11:30 a.m. on Wednesdays from February 15 through March 28. Childcare will be provided in our parish nursery.

Contact Wren Blessing (942-3108, wblessing@chfnc.net) with questions or to sign up.

Holy Handiwork this Lent

Do you knit, needlepoint, embroider, or crochet? Join in the ancient Christian tradition of meditative listening while working with one’s hands. Bring your hand work as we take turns reading aloud from C.S. Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters. We will meet in the church library on Saturday mornings in Lent, starting March 3, from 10:30-11:30. Informal lunch gatherings and discussions afterwards are encouraged.

Lenten Workshop ~ instead of Sunday School on February 26

We invite children to come with a parent and join us at 10:05 a.m. on Sunday, February 26 in the Christian Education Commons as we prepare for a season of fasting prayer, and giving. We’ll make Lenten prayer chains, bake pretzels, create alms boxes, play games, and polish silver. Take home a
set of Lenten “table cards” for family devotions.

Book Study with the Rector
From Clarke:

"I have resolved this Lent to spend some time with a book that has been around for awhile, and is one that I keep coming back to because of its depth.  Martin Smith's A Season for the Spirit was written for folks who want to make the Lenten journey in an intentional way.  Divided up into 40 small chapters, it's meant to be a daily companion for the season.
I am going to be reading A Season for the Spirit this Lent and I wanted to open up the experience to any who wish to join me.  Each Monday evening in Lent, I'll gather in the church's Library at 7 p.m. for an hour long discussion of the previous week's chapters, and, I'm sure, for plenty of other stuff that will come up as well."

See the following schedule:

• 2/27 at 7pm
• 3/5 at 6pm* Note Time Change, as Holy Family hosts Diocesan Event that evening
• 3/12 at 7pm
• 3/19 at 7pm
• 3/26 at 7pm

Martin Smith is formerly the Superior of the Society of St. John the Evangelist, a monastic community for men in the Episcopal Church, and he currently works as a senior associate rector at St. Columba's in Washington D.C. 

Used copies of A Season for the Spirit can be ordered from Amazon, or a few copies are available for free in the church office.