Bishop Terry Writes…

I am told that the word “Lent” comes from an Old English word “lenten” which is an early version of our modern word “lengthen”. The lengthening referred to in this context is the hours of daylight as we move out of Winter into Spring. With the advent of electricity and then abundant street lighting, we can become detached from the natural cycle of the year and the changes in the seasons. With the increasing of the light, all that seemed dead begins to sprout and grow again. Where life was extinguished, life springs anew. It doesn’t take much imagination to make the gospels come alive and to infuse the preaching of the message of repentance, forgiveness, redemption and resurrection with the hues of the passage from dark Winter to life-filled Spring as we witness it in this part of the world.
If during this Lent you have not noticed the light of the Sun of Justice, Jesus the Lord, shining on you, it is not too late to get out there and turn the eyes of your soul towards Him. He is calling you now, this moment; for this is the favourable time, this is the day of salvation.
As the days lengthen and earth spends longer in the light of the sun, grant that we may spend longer in the light of Your presence, O Lord. And may those seeds of Your Word, long since buried in our hearts, grow, like all around us, into love for You and Your Holy People. Grant, O God, that his Lent may be a springtime for our lives in Christ. Amen.