Great Lent 2024

Almighty and everlasting God, you hate nothing you have made and forgive the sins of all who are penitent: Create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we, worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness, may obtain of you, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

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Scripture Readings

Amos 5:1–14

A Lament for Israel’s Sin

Hear this word that I take up over you in lamentation, O house of Israel:

Fallen, no more to rise,
 is maiden Israel;
forsaken on her land,
 with no one to raise her up.

For thus says the Lord God:
The city that marched out a thousand
 shall have a hundred left,
and that which marched out a hundred
 shall have ten left.

For thus says the Lord to the house of Israel:
Seek me and live;
 but do not seek Bethel,
and do not enter into Gilgal
 or cross over to Beer-sheba;
for Gilgal shall surely go into exile,
 and Bethel shall come to nothing.

Seek the Lord and live,
 or he will break out against the house of Joseph like fire,
 and it will devour Bethel, with no one to quench it.
Ah, you that turn justice to wormwood,
 and bring righteousness to the ground!

The one who made the Pleiades and Orion,
 and turns deep darkness into the morning,
 and darkens the day into night,
who calls for the waters of the sea,
 and pours them out on the surface of the earth,
the Lord is his name,
who makes destruction flash out against the strong,
 so that destruction comes upon the fortress.

They hate the one who reproves in the gate,
 and they abhor the one who speaks the truth.
Therefore, because you trample on the poor
 and take from them levies of grain,
you have built houses of hewn stone,
 but you shall not live in them;
you have planted pleasant vineyards,
 but you shall not drink their wine.
For I know how many are your transgressions,
 and how great are your sins—
you who afflict the righteous, who take a bribe,
 and push aside the needy in the gate.
Therefore the prudent will keep silent in such a time;
 for it is an evil time.

Seek good and not evil,
 that you may live;
and so the Lord, the God of hosts, will be with you,
 just as you have said.

Psalm 95

A Call to Worship and Obedience

O come, let us sing to the Lord;
 let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;
 let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!
For the Lord is a great God,
 and a great King above all gods.
In his hand are the depths of the earth;
 the heights of the mountains are his also.
The sea is his, for he made it,
 and the dry land, which his hands have formed.

O come, let us worship and bow down,
 let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!
For he is our God,
 and we are the people of his pasture,
 and the sheep of his hand.

O that today you would listen to his voice!
 Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah,
 as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,
when your ancestors tested me,
 and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.
For forty years I loathed that generation
 and said, ‘They are a people whose hearts go astray,
 and they do not regard my ways.’
Therefore in my anger I swore,
 ‘They shall not enter my rest.’

Hebrews 12:1–14

The Example of Jesus

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.

Consider him who endured such hostility against himself from sinners, so that you may not grow weary or lose heart. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And you have forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as children—

‘My child, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,
 or lose heart when you are punished by him;
for the Lord disciplines those whom he loves,
 and chastises every child whom he accepts.’

Endure trials for the sake of discipline. God is treating you as children; for what child is there whom a parent does not discipline? If you do not have that discipline in which all children share, then you are illegitimate and not his children. Moreover, we had human parents to discipline us, and we respected them. Should we not be even more willing to be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share his holiness. Now, discipline always seems painful rather than pleasant at the time, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed.

Warnings against Rejecting God’s Grace

Pursue peace with everyone, and the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.

St. Luke 18:9–14

The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax-Collector

He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt: ‘Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax-collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, “God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax-collector. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.” But the tax-collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.’

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“Holiness, I discovered, is not a state of being, but a continuing process.”
— excerpt from Road to Reality
—Metropolitan Yohan

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