It’s still cold. The sky is mostly gray and the sun, as if with a mind of its own, teasingly comes out and gives us just a small sample of its power and warmth. We look up and gaze into the grayness and think of the spring time that is getting closer and closer, all the while we grow more anxious for warmer, more inviting weather.

We keep ourselves busy, with all the responsibilities that occupy our time while we find healthy ways of distracting ourselves from thinking spring, the start of baseball, working in the garden that has been so quiet and dormant through these cold, winter months and all the beauty and new life that are part of the season of “recreation.” However, we live in the here and now and there is much for us to do and more for us to prepare. There is much yet to enjoy and celebrate…right here and right now.

Let’s start by marking our calendar for a rather big gathering on Saturday, March 5th…our first and what we fully expect and hope to be ‘annual’ St. Nicholas Community Chili Supper! I ask you…what’s better on a brisk, late winter’s evening than a robust and hearty bowl of piping hot chili? And, as good as the chili will be, we will get to share this treat with one another…a certain and solid reason to come out and celebrate. Bring the whole and extended family and ask your friends to come out and support a community event! Consider yourselves, all of us, families and friends, invited to St. Nicholas Episcopal Church Community celebration of chili, fantastic door prizes that are to be raffled and lots of good fun and conversation. Make a full evening of it by first attending our 4:30pm Saturday Holy Eucharist. How wonderful…our souls are nourished with the gifts of Jesus and we then replenish our bodies with more of God’s bounty. We certainly have much for which to be grateful.

And lest we forget the week following our Saturday, March 5th Chili Supper, we enter the holy and sacred season of Lent. We begin this 40 day journey as we celebrate Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent on March 9th. We will make good use of Lent, preparing ourselves for the great Feast of Easter. Each Wednesday in Lent, we will celebrate the Holy Eucharist, starting with our 7pm Ash Wednesday Liturgy. The following Wednesdays of Lent, we will gather at 6pm to pray and worship. It is our hope that many will come, in fact it is our hope we all are able to gather, taking a much needed midweek break from the daily grind, as we relax and rejuvenate both soul and body with our sisters and brothers, gathered round the altar to share the gifts of the earth and of God’s beneficence to us.

And so we prepare ourselves for our Lenten journey. We live our lives fully, with joyful Liturgy, social gatherings and with our traditionally warm and welcoming gestures that have made St. Nicholas Church Community the unique and loving place it is.

Mark the calendar:

Saturday, March 5th, 2011

4:30 Holy Eucharist

Followed by

6pm St. Nicholas Church Community
Annual Chili Supper & Raffle
Wednesday, March 9th, 2011

Wednesday, March 9th, 2011

7pm Ash Wednesday Holy Eucharist

Peace,

Manny Borg

manny AT stnicholasepiscopal.org