It’s a time for a celebration that begins with a sunrise service. Good Friday is a time when Christians focus on the events leading up to and including the crucifixion. ( Maundy may come from the word mandarum, the Latin word for commandment.) It commemorates the Last Supper and Christ’s washing of his disciples feet and ends with the stripping of the altar for Good Friday, which is the next day. I enjoy my church’s Maundy Thursday service, which is held the Thursday before Easter. The people who heard the sermon probably will never forget it, which I’m certain was the pastor’s intention. One of my former pastors once preached – in horrific detail – about what Christ’s beatings and crucifixion entailed….what he sacrificed for us. It’s the foundation of my Christian faith. The Palm Sunday service also may recall Christ’s crucifixion and death, which I would rather not do. Some churches begin the service with a Procession of Palms, when worshippers or the choir carry palm branches as they enter the sanctuary.

It commemorates Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem. I look forward to Palm Sunday, which is the Sunday before Easter.

Lenten services also lift my soul and bring me closer to God. The next day, we held a beautiful Ash Wednesday worship service that ended with the pastor drawing a cross on our foreheads with ashes. This year, my church celebrated Fat Tuesday, the Tuesday before Lent, with a pancake supper. I also need to read the Bible from cover to cover, as both of my daughters are doing. I need to start praying regularly when I wake up and go to bed while continuing my ongoing conversations with God during the day. And I need to get started now, not next week or next month. Those changes will lift up my soul, as well as improve my physical and emotional being. Yes, most definitely.ĭo I need to add more prayer time to my days? That’s another yes.īy throwing out a huge amount of worry that I carry with me, I will have more time to read the Bible and pray on a daily basis. Read the entire UMC article here.įor me, Lent is a spring cleaning of the soul in that I focus on God and talk with him about my metaphorical closets and cabinets.ĭo I need to throw out excessive worrying? Yes.ĭo I need to replace worry with trust in him. “Today, Christians focus on relationship with God, growing as disciples, and extending ourselves, often choosing to give up something or to volunteer and give of ourselves for others,” the church says. “Lent began as a period of fasting and preparation for baptism by new converts and then became a time of penance by all Christians…. “Lent is a time of repentance, fasting and preparation for Easter,” UMC says in its post, W hat is Lent and Why Does It Last Forty Days? The word Lent comes from the Anglo-Saxon word lencten, which means lengthen as in the lengthening days of spring. It was also the time when Satan tried his hardest to tempt Christ. The 40 days remind us of the 40 days Christ prepared for the beginning of his ministry by fasting and praying in the wilderness. Lent is the 40-day period leading up to Easter, not counting Sundays. Now that I have a better understanding of Lent, let me share what the United Methodist Church (UMC) says about it: Methodist beliefs, as explained by various Sunday School teachers and ministers over the years, seemed to correspond with my beliefs, and that was enough given that I had struggled with highly conservative theology throughout my teen years. This meant I picked up snatches of information about the season here and there through the years. Consequently, I pretended to know all about Lent and didn’t talk to anyone about it or ask questions. I was painfully shy and didn’t want to appear ignorant. The other regulars at the Methodist student union were cradle Methodists and knew all about Lent.

I joined the Methodist church through the Methodist student union on campus, and it didn’t offer confirmation classes. It was something that never entered our hearts or minds. Most of my friends prior to college were also Baptist and didn’t know anything about Lent, either. I grew up Baptist and never heard Lent mentioned. My introduction to the Lenten season came when I joined the Methodist church during college.

Deep spring cleaning