This week's reflection is from the Associate Vicar
This week I received a promotional email from a local donut company, advertising 'Fat Thursday'. I suppose I spend too much time on my phone, because I tried googling Fat Thursday, thinking I'd missed some English tradition. Nope, just a marketing ploy.
Fat Tuesday, on the other hand, is a long tradition — though it sounds much better as Mardi Gras. More commonly in England we know that day as Shrove Tuesday, a time for confession (being shriven) in preparation for Lent. Here at Great St Mary's we'll fill the kids up with pancakes at The Ark on Mardi Gras, and burn old palms for ashes on Shrove Tuesday, and your associate vicar will load up for Fat Tuesday on the amazing cinnamon rolls at Michaelhouse.
But we'll also be getting ready for the season of Lent, making plans — perhaps a physical discipline such as a weekly fast, or giving up alcohol or meat; perhaps a discipline of prayer, saying the daily office or joining us online or in person for Morning Prayer; perhaps a discipline of charity, finding new ways to support neighbours in need. Set yourself goals that will feed your soul and strengthen your heart, and when you inevitably fall short...take that failing as a holy reminder that nothing is possible without God's grace, and turn back to Christ for help.
God our Father, in your love and goodness you have taught us to come close to you in penitence with prayer, fasting and generosity; accept our Lenten discipline, and when we fall by our weakness, raise us up by your unfailing mercy; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Common Worship, Intercessions for Lent
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