27 January 2007

Gesimatide is Coming!

Next Sunday marks the arrival of Gesimatide. Think of it this way: if Lent is the journey to Easter, to the return to our Baptism into Christ, then the three Sundays of Gesimatide are the days when we begin making preparations for that journey. All three Sunday readings invite some thought about the coming Fast and its ultimate goal: the Paschal Feast.

The first week suggests that our fast include a refraining from complaining (against God and one another).

The second week suggests that our fast provide us more intensive time with the Word, that it may bear abundant fruit within us.

The third week reminds us that with eyes wide open to the mercies of God, Christ our Lord summons us to travel the road that leads to Calvary and beyond to the joys of the Resurrection.

Gesimatide invites some intentional thought and planning about how you will join in the keeping of the Fast (Lent auf Deutsch ist Fastenzeit) and practice the other Lenten disciplines of prayer and almsgiving, finding in Christ alone the bread which sustains our new life and which frees us to share our bread with the poor and to experience the joy of time in prayer with our Lord Jesus.

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