The season of Lent offers us the opportunity for transformation through the traditional disciplines of self-examination, penitence, self-denial, study, and preparation for Easter.

On Ash Wednesday, we begin Lent with the receiving of ashes as a symbol of our mortality. Entering a forty-day season of reflection we look at what holds us back, spiritually and personally. We look at how we want to spend our life, not drifting through it but actively deciding how we want to live and thrive.

Lots of people give something up for Lent, something that’s a daily habit – from coffee to social media. Not reaching for what we do habitually reminds us that this is a special season when we pay attention to what we choose to have in our lives. And for some, taking on a new discipline of prayer of study helps us to re-focus our attention towards God. For Christians, in this we follow Jesus’ time in the desert, where he spent 40 days and was tempted.

As the season turns towards Holy Week, the tone of the season intensifies as we anticipate the story of Christ’s suffering and death. As the week progresses, we follow the events of the Passion – from Christ’s triumphant entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, to the last supper with the disciples and his commandment that they should love one another, to his betrayal, suffering and death.

But death is not the end, and as the Easter Vigil begins we gather in darkness, marking the end of the emptiness of Holy Saturday, and leading into the celebration of Christ’s resurrection and the dawning of a new world in which love triumphs over death.

Whoever you are, and whatever you believe, you are welcome to come to St Paul’s and experience Lent and Easter through words, silence, and music.