Ash Wednesday

"And now, O Lord, I bend the knee of my heart,
     and make my appeal, sure of your gracious goodness." (BCP 90)

These words from the Canticle entitled "A Song of Penitence" are, as the rubrics say, especially suitable in Lent, and on other penitential occasions.

There's an important lesson here for our American self-focus in Lent. "What are you giving up?" we ask each other, forgetting that our Lenten observance is not meant to focus us on our sinfulness, but on God's gracious goodness.

We're turning our eyes toward Easter here, and the example we see in the Risen Christ -- even far off -- is so beautiful that we are ever more conscious of our sins. But in the light of that Easter glory, we make our appeal, "sure of God's gracious goodness."

Whatever practice you have taken on, whatever indulgence you have given up, I pray that this Lent will find you ever more confident in God's goodness, ever more ready to celebrate the Easter feast.

Anskar, Bishop and Missionary to Denmark and Sweden, 865

Fourteen years ago today, in St. James Cathedral in Chicago, Bishop Griswold laid his hands on my head and made me a deacon in the Church, inviting me and my six fellow ordinands to "make Christ and his redemptive love known, by your word and example, to those among you live, and work, and worship" (BCP 543).

In one of the Collects suitable for use on the feast of a missionary, we pray that God will shine in our hearts, "that we also in our generation may show forth your praise" (BCP 248). Apparently, Anskar shone pretty dimly during his first missionary efforts in Scandinavia. As the preacher at our ordination wryly observed, he made no converts at all -- not one. Later generations, however, after they had been converted, looked back and realized that the first time they had seen the light of Christ was in the person of Anskar. He is now the patron saint of Danish and Swedish Christians, sometimes called the "Apostle of the North."

In another Collect from Lesser Feasts and Fasts, suitable for use on Anskar's feast day, we pray to God: "Keep your Church from discouragement in the day of small things, knowing that when you have begun a good work, you will bring it to a faithful conclusion."

Not all of us have a chance to see the final result of our labors, but all of us do have the chance to shine in what we do, so that when people look back on our work, they'll see traces of Christ and his redemptive love. It's a high calling, not for the ordained only, but for every single one of us in the Church.