For twenty-four years, “The Lenten Journey,” has been a blessing and comfort to our Westminster Canterbury Richmond community—and to the Richmond area. Our staff and residents have stories to tell, faith to share, thoughts to ponder, and challenges to issue. The Lenten Journey is a place where that can happen.

A long and wonderful tradition at Westminster Canterbury Richmond is to offer “The Lenten Journey” to our community. Each person’s journey is sacred, and we give a special word of thanks to all who shared of themselves in offering their reflection for this, our 25th edition.

The season of Lent is a period of sustained focus on the journey of Jesus Christ toward the cross. The mood of Lent is usually more subdued, a time for sober reflection on the cost Jesus paid for setting us free from our sins. Like the season of Advent, Lent points beyond itself, this time to the joys of Easter,
where we celebrate the fact that the darkness of sin and death gave way once and for all to the glorious life of Jesus raised from the dead.

Lent begins with Ash Wednesday, when we gather to receive a cross of ash on our foreheads. Sounds a little odd, right? It’s an old tradition, one that reminds us of our frail mortal nature (“Remember that you are dust, and to dust you will return.”). It is also a symbol of our sorrow for the sins that we have committed. Thus begins a period of around forty days of repentance and self-examination where many of us will undertake various forms of fasting and self-denial as spiritual disciplines, aiming to take the next step with Jesus in breaking the power of sin in our lives.

It is our hope that “The Lenten Journey” will walk with you on your journey toward the cross. Know that the prayers of this beloved community are with you.

– Rev. Dr. Lynn McClintock
DIRECTOR PASTORAL CARE