• Lent • Shrove Tuesday • Ash Wednesday • Confession • Heavier Fast • Application of Ashes • 40 Days of Fasting, not counting Sundays • Originally a fasting with the catechumens preparing for Baptism • No masochism involved; it is a joyful fast, a decluttering, a refocusing, etc. • Actions • Fasting, typically food plus other things (recommendation: some abstinence from technology, regular schedule. Anything that regularly keeps you from prayer) • Prayer, make use of the more penitential liturgies in the Prayer Book (Penitential Office, Litany, Daily Office vs Family Prayer, read through the Exhortation) • Almsgiving, the money that is being saved on the food budget, plus extra money for charity, should be given to the needy, charity, or to some focused mission of the Church (i.e. REC100 Lenten Offering) • Refrain from saying “Alleluia” • Themes • Purity of Heart • Closeness to Jesus in His Obedience to the Father • Fixation of the Soul solely on God over and above earthly pleasures • Purgation of Sin • Ordering one’s Life • Triduum • Maundy Thursday • Institution of the Lord’s Supper and the New Commandment to “Love One Another” • Sometimes, there is a foot washing liturgy on Maundy Thursday. • Intimacy with Jesus (personal names used at Administration) dramatically shifts to the task of the Cross, and how Jesus goes it alone as the Church largely abandons Him. Tenebrae Service with the Stripping of the Altar. • Good Friday • Themes • Mourning that Jesus died for our sins • Gratitude for His payment of our debt • Actions • Primary Fast Day of the Church • Often used for giving your Confession • Stations of the Cross is a common devotion on this day • 12-3 are the hours that Jesus hung on the Cross. Typically there is a Liturgy at the Church during this time so that we can be “with” Jesus in His Passion. • Holy Saturday • Themes • Hope in God’s Promises • Faith that Jesus is truly God, and has power over Death and Satan • Love toward Jesus, our Savior • Actions • Quietness • Care for the Church and specifically the Altar • The Great Vigil • Baptisms • Easter • The great feast of the Church Year • Marked by the frequent saying of “Alleluia” • Common greeting is “The Lord is risen!” “He is risen indeed! Alleluia!” • Themes • Joy over our redemption from the Death and the Devil • Triumph over anything that keeps down those who belong to God • Actions • Lilies on the Altar • Banquet and Dancing • Triumphant Music • Celebration with those who were Baptized • Ascension • Celebrates the Ascension of Jesus to the right hand of the Father to reign as King • This will likely be our church’s “patronal feast day” • Themes • Jesus is King over all, and His dominion is in heaven and on earth • Actions • Procession with cross held high • Feasting • Thinking of the implications of Jesus reigning now as KingWh • Pentecost • Sometimes called Whitsunday because it is a common day for Baptisms, where people dress in white • Celebrates the giving of the Holy Spirit in Acts 2 • Often a time for ordinations • Themes • Power for mission in the world • A focus on the 10 Commandment, as now through the Spirit we can fulfill the Law • Actions • Feasting • Evangelism, as in the early chapters of Acts