Weekly Clergy Letter from Mother Anne Turner

Dear Friends in Christ,

 

Last week, I wrote to you about how we travel through Lent together. This week, I want to speak to the individual journey.

 

I know that many of you have adopted your own personal Lenten disciplines—ways of fasting or disciplines of study or service. I want to highlight three ways that we support those personal disciplines here at Grace:

 

• The Rite of Reconciliation is better known as confession. While we say a shared confession together during our Sunday worship, the Rite of Reconciliation offers as a chance to meet 1:1 with a clergy person to name those sins that weigh especially heavy on your heart. Any of the clergy are willing to make an appointment to hear confession. We also offer walk-in times from 11:00 a.m.-12:00 noon on Thursdays; you can just come wait in the pews in the nave until the priest sitting by the altar is available. If you want to learn more about the rite or prepare yourself, Martin Smith’s Reconciliation is an excellent guide.

 

• On Fridays, we pray the Stations of the Cross at noon. Plaques marking each station hang in the nave, and you do not need to be at the Friday service to pray your way through them. You can use the form offered by the Episcopal church, pray your own prayers, or simply meditate in silence.

 

• Finally, I have shared that I am reading Mark Tidsworth’s 40 Days of Prayer as a prelude to our parish’s visioning process later this spring. These brief meditations—a page a day—offer an opportunity to deepen your personal prayer life in support of our common life together.

 

I opened this letter by saying that I want to speak to the individual journey—which is true—but of course the individual journey feeds into our shared journey. We may pray and read in solitude, but we do not do so in isolation.

 

I am glad to share this season and this life of faith with you.

 

Yours in Christ,
Anne+