Northfield Methodist Church

Dear Friends,

May this time of Lent be a time of deep spiritual blessing for you.

This last week on Ash Wednesday we began our journey through this time of preparation for Easter. The word Lent comes from the German/Dutch "lente" meaning Spring - because it more or less co-incides with springtime in the Northern hemisphere. It's a lovely image really because we associate Spring with new life, renewal, re-birth.

You might also like to think of Lent as a time of "spring-cleaning" the soul. Our lives get cluttered with so many unnecessary, dead and harmful things, that it is good to have a thorough cleanout now and then. To refocus our priorities, restore our values, renew important relationships, deepen our prayer life and our relationship with God, strengthen our sense of call.

We also associate Lent with fasting. Originally this meant a proper 40 day fast, often with just one simple light meal in the evening. Today this has diminished for many to "giving up something" for Lent. This is not necessarily a bad thing because it does help to remind us daily of the importance of this time. But we should try to make sure that whatever we give up has some spiritual significance for our lives.

And while you are about it, why not also "add something" that will help grow you spiritually. Extra time of prayer and reading the Bible each day, extra attendance at worship, a commitment to read a Christian book, an extra act of Christian service, or involvement, or reaching out to the needy. Something that will move you out of your spiritual comfort zone.

Grace and peace to you.

Bill Meaker

It is right that you should begin again every day. There is no better way to finish the spiritual life than to be ever beginning it over again, and never to think that you have done enough. St Francis de Sales