While those of us in Mobile, Alabama know that this Sunday is Joe Cain Day, in the wider world of the Church, this Sunday is the Last Sunday After the Epiphany, which is celebrated as Transfiguration Sunday.
Our collect for this Sunday reveals the reason we focus our attention on the Transfiguration right before Lent begins. We celebrate the revelation of Christ’s glory “before the Passion” so that we may “be strengthened to bear our cross and be changed into his likeness.” Lent is a time for renewing our discipline in walking the way of the cross and keeping our baptismal covenant promises. Easter reveals to us Christ’s full glory. The Transfiguration is a foretaste of that, meant to encourage us, as it did Peter and James and John, for the journey to the Passion and beyond.
After the revelry of Carnival has subsided, we will gather again on Ash Wednesday to “remember we are dust” and begin our journey through Lent. Bishop Russell Kendrick will preach and celebrate at both the noon and 5:30 p.m. services on Ash Wednesday. I know you join me in looking forward to his teaching and direction for keeping a holy Lent. A nursery will be available at 5:30.
You should have received a mailer from Christ Church Cathedral containing Lenten devotional materials—information on The Good Book Club, posters for the Lent and Easter journey through Luke and Acts that the GBC will follow, cards for Easter memorials, and a purple parking pass for this Sunday.
I hope as many of you as are able will make your way past the barricades to come downtown on Sunday morning to voice the final “Alleluias” before Lent and to strengthen yourselves for the journey ahead.
Our collect for this Sunday reveals the reason we focus our attention on the Transfiguration right before Lent begins. We celebrate the revelation of Christ’s glory “before the Passion” so that we may “be strengthened to bear our cross and be changed into his likeness.” Lent is a time for renewing our discipline in walking the way of the cross and keeping our baptismal covenant promises. Easter reveals to us Christ’s full glory. The Transfiguration is a foretaste of that, meant to encourage us, as it did Peter and James and John, for the journey to the Passion and beyond.
After the revelry of Carnival has subsided, we will gather again on Ash Wednesday to “remember we are dust” and begin our journey through Lent. Bishop Russell Kendrick will preach and celebrate at both the noon and 5:30 p.m. services on Ash Wednesday. I know you join me in looking forward to his teaching and direction for keeping a holy Lent. A nursery will be available at 5:30.
You should have received a mailer from Christ Church Cathedral containing Lenten devotional materials—information on The Good Book Club, posters for the Lent and Easter journey through Luke and Acts that the GBC will follow, cards for Easter memorials, and a purple parking pass for this Sunday.
I hope as many of you as are able will make your way past the barricades to come downtown on Sunday morning to voice the final “Alleluias” before Lent and to strengthen yourselves for the journey ahead.
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