All Saints Church
Team Rector: Revd Martin Warren, tel: 01409-281424Team Vicar: Revd Susannah Metz, tel: 01837-810621
Dear Friends,I have a decision to make: February 14th – romantic dinner or ashes as Lent starts?In case you haven’t noticed on your calendar, Ash Wednesday, the start of Lent, clashes with Valentine’s Day. Oh dear! It just doesn’t seem to fit: Lent with all its emphasis on abstinence and repentance and Valentine’s with its thoughts of pleasure and enjoyment. What a choice!
But maybe they can go together. For the purpose of Lent is to draw us into a deeper relationship with God; to put other things aside and give ourselves to knowing God’s love better, and expressing our love for him better.
And isn’t that Valentine’s too? – to grow in love? To put other things aside and give yourself afresh to the one you love and who loves you. Maybe Ash Wednesday and Valentine’s can go together - both a celebration of love.
It’s only a problem when we see God as having a downer on us. So often we portray him as the one who wants to spoil things; to deny us the good things of life; to stop us doing the things we enjoy. What a gloomy picture of God. No wonder we shy away from Lent. But Christian experience has been the opposite. God wants to bless us; to give us fullness of life. He wants to move us on from dependence on things that don’t really satisfy to really enjoy the world in which we has placed us.
He doesn’t want to push us down but to lift us up.
So Lent can become not just one Valentine Day, but six weeks worth of Valentine’s Days that outdo
Valentine’s Day itself. Sounds amazing.
But still not sure about the romantic dinner v ashes! Happy Ash Wednesday/Valentine’s,
Martin Warren.
Services at All Saints11th Feb 11:00am Holy Communion18th Feb 11:00am United Service (at Chapel) 25th Feb 9:30am Holy Communion
4th Mar 9:30am Morning Prayer 11th Mar 11:00am Holy Communion18th Mar 11:00am United Service (at Chapel) 25th Mar 9:30am Holy Communion
1st Apr 9:30am Easter Communion8th Apr 11:00am Holy Communion15th Apr 11:00am United Service (at Chapel) 22nd Apr 9:30am Holy Communion29th Apr 11:00am Holy Communion (at Newton St. Petrock)
