The Season of LENT 2010

"Remember that you are dust, and to  dust you shall return."  

Ash Wednesday, February 17, 2010  -- 

12:00 Noon -- Confession, prayer and Imposition of Ashes  (Download last year's service folder for meditation and reflection  .)

7:00 p.m. -- Holy Communion and Imposition of Ashes.

Wednesdays in Lent (February 24, March 3, 10, 17 and 24) -- Potluck Supper and Bible Study on the Gospel of John ~ Hoick Conference Room.

Thursdays in Lent  (February 25, March 4, 11, 18 and 25) -- weekday fellowship and brief Taizé worship experience

Lent is about giving --chiefly about our Lord's giving of himself in the passion and suffering in which we receive redemption. 

But also, the disciplines of Lent are about our giving back to God for Christ's sake, through the compassionate acts by which we offer love and hope to others.

7:00 p.m. --  Contemplative Prayer and Music from Taize (no sermon).

Sundays in Lent (february 21, 28, March 7, 14 and 21 -- a richly traditional musical service is used.

10:00 a.m.  Holy Communion service. All are welcome! (Also see: Worship at Hollywood Lutheran Church)

Palm Sunday is March 28, 2010-- Procession with Palms begins on the front Terrace; commemoration of our Lord's Passion History; Holy Communion

  • Weekdays in Holy Week (Monday-Friday):  Daily Prayer at 12:00 noon (brief spoken service) in the Sanctuary.  JOIN US IN PRAYER ON-LINE:  You may view or download Daily Prayers for Holy Week and pray these brief services on your own:
  • Maundy Thursday, April 1, 2010 -- 7:00 p.m. Commemoration of the Institution of the Last Supper; Holy Communion; in the Sanctuary; solemn Stripping of the Altar
  • Good Friday, April 2, 2010 -- 7: p.m. Commemoration of the suffering and death of Jesus:  Joint Services with Mt .Hollywood and Hollywood Independent Churches, at Mt. Hollywood (on the corner of Rodney & Prospect Avenues, two blocks away.)

Also see:  Easter in Hollywood

Easter Sunday is April 4, 2010 

Holy Week 2009

 

Holy Week, also called Passion Week, begins with Palm Sunday and remembers the final week of Jesus' earthly ministry and life.

Most significant, as told in the Gospels, are Maundy Thursday (the day on which Jesus gave his followers a new "mandate" or commandment to love another, and celebrated the Last Supper with them); and Good Friday, or originally "God's Friday" (the day on which he was crucified, died and was buried).

About Lent

from the Exhortation for Ash Wednesday:

Brothers and sisters: God created us to experience joy in communion with him, to love all humanity, and to live in harmony with all of his creation. But sin separates us from God, our neighbors, and creation, and so we do not enjoy the life our creator intended for us. Also, by our sin we grieve our heavenly Father, who does not desire us to come under judgment, but to turn to him and live.

As disciples of the Lord Jesus we are called to struggle against everything that leads us away from love of God and neighbor. Repentance, fasting, prayer, and works of love—the disciplines of this season of Lent—help us to wage our spiritual warfare. I invite you, therefore, to commit yourselves to this struggle and to confess your sins, asking our Father for strength to persevere in your Lenten discipline.

A One-Minute History of Lent

The season of Lent is a period of 40 days, not including Sundays, beginning with Ash Wednesday.  Lent has been observed by Christians since at least the 4th century, in preparation of the celebration of the Paschal Feast (Easter) and as a season for new converts to prepare for Baptism.  The 40 days memorialize Jesus' 40 days of temptation and fasting in the wilderness, and are characterized by practices of self-discipline, repentance and self-denial, as each Christian identifies with and imitates the discipline and sacrifice of Jesus.  The word "Lent" comes from an old English word for "lengthen", the time of year when the days begin to get longer.

The observance of Lent dates back as early as the 3rd and 4th centuries when Christians wanted to remember (commemorate) the events of the last week of Jesus' life.  Some made pilgrimages to Jerusalem to walk through the "stations of the cross" on the very street where Jesus had walked to his death (now called the Via Dolorosa, the Way of Sorrow).  The annual observance of Holy Week eventually led to the observance of Lent as a longer period of preparation for these sacred events.

Lent is also thought of as a "journey" --- as in the following prayer appointed for Ash Wednesday:

Merciful God, accompany our journey through these forty days.  Renew us in the gift of Baptim, that we may provide for those who are poor, pray for those in need, resist self-indulgence, and above all that we may find our treasure in the life of your Son, Jesus Chist our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

 

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