Lent means "Spring."  It's a time for spiritual renewal and return to God leading up to Holy Week, when we celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus.  For St Luke, this means another opportunity to be engaged in one of our primary goals: to refocus our attention on spiritual renewal and faith formation.  We do so with opportunities to explore how prayer and also the Arts (visual, music, literary, etc...) contribute to the life of faith.

Ways to participate in renewal this Lent:

Ash Wednesday Worship - 7:30pm St Luke, 12:30pm Holy Shepherd Lutheran Church, Chatsworth.  Two opportunities to come and enter into this penitential rite, which is a way for us to begin this time of renewal, with a rite of confession, beautiful music from our choir, and the imposition of ashes on our foreheads.

At home, at work: There are a number of ways to fast and find new life in God's word.  One great way to enrich Sunday experiences during Lent (see below) would be to join us in reading this short book by a famous scholar of the Old Testament, Walter Brueggemann, Praying the Psalms: Engaging Scripture and the Life of the Spirit.  Discussion date to come soon. 

On Sundays: during worship our sermons will focus on the Psalms, which are both treasured prayers and poems that have been the heart of Christian spiritual life since the early church.  During forums at 9:45 am, join us for an exciting series of conversations on the Arts and the life of faith.  

On Wednesday evenings, February 24th - March 24th, 6:30pm-8:00pm.  Soup supper, spiritual exercises and worship focused on Jesus' "high priestly prayer."  This prayer, which makes up chapter 17 in John's Gospel, shows us not only what Jesus himself wanted for his followers and the world, but also how we might pray, following him.  It leads up perfectly to the events in Holy Week, when we celebrate John 18 to the end, his Passion and Resurrection. 

During these evenings, Helen Schneiders, a spiritual director with rich formation experiences and friend to many at St Luke, together with Pastor Hillesland, will lead us in some of the following exercises:

February 24th - Lectio Divina

March 3rd - prayer with Art

March 10th -    prayer resources to use at home

March 17th - an easy way to pray with one another

March 24th - Prayer in silence