The season of Lent has its most profound biblical resonance with the forty days that Jesus spent fasting in the wilderness being tempted by Satan. The prayer book encourages us to use it as a time for 'self-examination, repentance, prayer, fasting and self-denial'. It begins on Ash Wednesday with a reminder of our own mortality - that we are dust and to dust we shall return.

The 4th quarter of 2020 brought more changes to an already disrupted year. After enjoying a short season of in-person worship, the increasing COVID positivity rate and threat of a new COVID variant caused Bishop Gutierrez to reinstitute Phase 1 restrictions, which moved us back to Live Stream services. We are encouraged that new vaccines offer hope for a return to normal, perhaps by the fall. Even so, it’s difficult to go backwards.

We are in the middle of our Epiphany sermon series on ‘Walking with the Holy Spirit’. As part of our theme of ‘Deep Calls to Deep’ we are thinking about how we discern the Spirit’s voice in our day to day walk with Jesus. I want to lay out some of those pointers here to encourage you and stir your Spirits so that we make the best of this pandemic season we find ourselves in.