Lenten Studies

The purpose of Lent is to be a season of fasting, self-denial, Christian growth, penitence, conversion, and simplicity.  This season can be viewed from the perspective of Stewardship: it is spiritual spring cleaning—a time for taking spiritual inventory and then cleaning out those things which hinder our relationships with Jesus Christ and our service to Him.  The season of Lent begins with a symbol of repentance: receiving ashes on our foreheads.  To reflect this, our interior life should lead us toward greater dependence on God’s mercy and grace and less attachment to those things which distract us from living as stewards of God’s gifts.

 

Making a Great Lent!  There are three traditional spiritual practices that serve as the foundation of Lenten penance:  prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. These disciplines should be practiced throughout the year, but are given special prominence during Lent.  

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Prayer: Lent is a good time to develop or strengthen a discipline of daily prayer.  Weekday Masses and the Stations of the Cross are also great ways to draw closer to God during Lent.  We also have Benediction celebrated every Friday morning at 10:00am. If it is your piety, perhaps saying the Rosary.

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Fasting: Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are obligatory days of universal fast and abstinence.  Fasting allows a person to eat one full meal.  Two smaller meals may be taken, not to equal one full meal.  Further, all Fridays in Lent are days of complete abstinence (from meat).  If possible, the fast on Good Friday is continued until the Easter Vigil (on Holy Saturday night) as the "paschal fast" to honor the suffering and death of our Lord, and to prepare ourselves to share more fully and to celebrate more readily His Resurrection. 

 

Almsgiving (Charity): While Lent is about giving something up (i.e. fasting), it is also about putting something positive in its place. The best way to remove vice is to cultivate virtue.  Lent has been a traditional time of helping the poor and doing acts of charity and mercy.  While as Christians this is a year-round calling, Lent is a good time to examine ways to get involved and to make resolutions to actually do them.

 

Through our works of prayer, fasting, and abstinence, let us heed the prophet Joel's exhortation to return to God with our whole heart (2:12).  Below are some of the past Lenten topics.

Parables of Jesus

Dr. Kenneth Baily​

Jesus' Resurrection Then and Now

​The Rt. Rev'd. N.T. Wright

The Good Samaritan

The Prodigal Son [The Lost Younger Son]

The Prodigal Son [The Lost Older Son]

The Rich FoolPilate and the Tower​

 

Jesus' Resurrection Then and Now

[Link to the course description]

 

The Historical Jesus
Jesus the Resurrected Messiah
The Jewish Understanding of Resurrection
The Gospel Writers' Understand of Jesus' Resurection

Paul's Understanding of Jesus' Resurrection

Jesus's Resurrection today

A Life Worth Living

​Fr. Nicky Gumble

 

Based on St. Paul's Letter to the Philippians

New Heart                              Philippians 1:1-11
New Purpose                         Philippians 1:12-30
New Attitude                          Philippians 2:1-11
New Responsibility             Philippians 2:12-18
New Friemdship                   Philippians 2:19-30
New Confidence                    Philippians 3:1-9
New Ambition                       Philippians 3:10-21
New Resources                      Philippians 4:1-9

New Generosity                     Philippians 4:10-23

40 Days of Purpose
​The Rev'd Rick Warren

What On Earth Am I Here For?

Worship:        You were Planned For God's Pleasure
Fellowship:    You Were Formed For God's Family
Discipleship: You Were Created To Be Like Christ
Ministry:         You Were Shaped For Serving God
Evangelism:   You Were Made For Mission
 

The Great Adventure: Bible Timeline

How to read the Bible

Early World
Covenant and the Patriachs
Egypt and Exodus, and the Desert Wanderings
Conquest and Judges and the Royal Kingdom
The Divided Kingdom

Return from Exile and the Maccabean Revolt

Messianic Fulfillment and the Church
 

Search For Significance
Dr. Robert McGee

"Seeing Your True Worth Through God's Eyes"

The Performance Trap
Justification
Approaval Addict
Reconciliation
The Blame Game
Propitiation
Shame
Regeneration

Agent of Change