Greetings and salutations Trinity Lutheran members and friends!

As I write this February note, I am grateful for the sun beaming through the office window at Trinity Lutheran Church.  I enjoy the view from this window, as I am able to watch the seasons pass by and evolve one into another.  We are in the midst of a warm-up this week after several days/week of sub-zero temps and a brutal wind; producing some threatening wind chill.  Be as my mom used to say: “This too shall pass!”.  We will be ending the church season of Epiphany early in the month of February.  Transfiguration Sunday (02/11/2024) is the seasons transition into Lent. Lent, begins with our Ash Wednesday service on Wednesday, February 14th (yes, we share it with the secular “Saint Valentine’s Day).  The season of Lent includes five Sundays and five midweek worship services.  Palm/Passion Sunday invites us into the week we call: “Holy” which includes Maundy Thursday and Good Friday.    After these somber days of the Passion, we visit an empty grave and rejoice in the Resurrection of Our Lord, on Sunday, March 31st.

Lent is a season of thoughtful reflection an our need for repentance and focusing on the practices of prayer, fasting and service.  It is also a time, historically, of preparation for those seeking to be baptized.  I would like to encourage you, dear Trinity members/friends to be intentional about spending time with God in prayer.  There are several practices that I would encourage you to partake in.  During worship on Sundays in Lent I will introduce some prayer practices/disciplines that are varied and that may enhance your prayer life.  There is more then one way to pray!  As we enter this season of Lent, begin it with WORSHIPING ON ASH WEDNESDAY, talk about a way to spend Valentines Day--- the gift of Jesus Christ and the journey he set upon in his last weeks of life is an INCREDIBLE LOVE STORY!  A LOVE  STORY from God to us- his beloved.

Practice  (daily time set aside in a consistent manner)

Reflect  (read/listen/write- journal what you feel/think and hear from God.)

Attentive (concentrate and tune out distractions)

Yearning (God yearns to spend time with you)

Enter (allow your heart to open for God’s Spirit)

Renew (God desires to renew in you a right spirit)

I look forward to entering into this Lenten season with you, as we begin our second year of ministry together.

 ~Pastor Carol