We Here we are, friends, once more at the beginning of our yearly 6-week retreat called Lent.

you Do know how it first got started?

      Way back, in the very early Church, adults seeking baptism spent a year or more in spiritual formation.  These catechumens came to Sunday Eucharist, but stayed only for the first part, the Liturgy of the Word.  Then they left and went to another place to reflect together on that day’s Scripture readings.
 

      When their formation reached the final stages, their fellow-parishioners presented them to the bishop, who, in a ceremony called the Rite of Election, formally accepted them as candidates.
 

      Bishop Trautman is doing that for our St. Luke’s Greg Logan, and all the other convert-candidates from around the Diocese down at the Cathedral this weekend.
 

      From this point, the candidates began an intensive period of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving in preparation for baptism, confirmation, and first Eucharist at the Easter Vigil.  And all their fellow parishioners joined with these candidates, reflecting on their own practices of discipleship.
That’s the origin of Lent.
 

\     And in this reflection discipleship, naturally the good actions were identified.  But also, it was a time to name and claim what bad things had crept into a person’s life.
 

      We say “name and claim” because it really involves and honest, humble admission to oneself of what’s going on in one’s life really.
 

      That’s not always an easy conversation to have with oneself, because we are great excuse-makers.  We like to live no-fault lives
Where nothing is ever our fault. It’s always the fault of someone or something else.
 

      But with God’s grace, and the memory of the loving Father in the Scripture’s story of the Prodigal Son, or prodigal child, if you want, we can own up to our faults and failings, put a name on each of them, and then one-by-one, begin to work on getting rid of them.
 

      It may not be a one-time, quitting cold-turkey event.  It might take the whole 6 weeks of Lent.  It might even take several Lents.
And we might not be able to clean up all the bad things we’ve named and claimed in one year’s Lent.
 

      But if we put forth some good, honest effort to try, God will help us, and we should be satisfied with whatever progress we manage to make.
 

      A comment I often make when hearing confessions is something I learned from another priest years ago: as a penitent often concludes with the words: “For these and all the sins of my past life, I am heartily sorry, and ask penance and absolution from you, please,” I’ll say: “And that’s the important thing about confession and repentance, it’s that we are heartily sorry, truly sorry, not trying to make excuses, but genuinely wanting to clear away anything that comes between us and making God’s ways become our ways.
 

      And that’s what is involved in repenting.  It’s that cold, honest self-examination of our own consciences, Naming and claiming what needs to be fixed, mended, repaired, or removed, And then taking some real steps toward those goals and that healing.
 

      So don’t be afraid.  Those steps don’t have to be giant leaps.  Take small, even baby steps, if that’s what will work for you.
Just know that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are there to help each day along the way. Jesus resisted the devil’s temptations in today’s Gospel. He’ll be there to help us do the same.

      Be reasonable about your Lenten goals; don’t try to climb a mountain when your energies at this point in your life will only let you walk up a small hill.  And don’t become scrupulous, looking around for problems in your life or skeletons in your closet that either aren’t there, or if they are, shouldn’t be made mountain-size when they are only molehills.
 

      Repenting: it’s a good, healthy, spirit-filled experience that is enabled and enhanced by the increased prayer, fasting, and almsgiving we do for Lent.
 

So, Thank you.