LETTER FROM KATIE • February 11, 2026
Salvador Dali, The Transfiguration Of Jesus, 1969, 19 x 13 3/4 in. Lithograph in colors on wove paper
Dear Holy Comforter,
The Epiphany season comes to a close this Sunday with a reading about the transfiguration of Jesus. And that is appropriate because aside from his resurrection, there is no more significant display of Jesus’ glory than the transfiguration, when he shines bright as the sun and is identified as God’s Beloved Son. All of Epiphany has been building toward this revelation of who Jesus is.
And then next Wednesday, Ash Wednesday, we’ll descend from the mountain of transfiguration and enter the wilderness of the Lenten season. The forty days of Lent are patterned after Jesus’ forty days of testing and the Israelites’ forty years of wandering in the wilderness and serve to remind us that the only way to survive the dangers of the wilderness whether it comes to us as temptation, fear or anxiety, resistance to the call of love, a loss of hope, or sickness is by turning to God for help.
And year after year, Lent after Lent, we find God waiting for us when we turn, whether we are beginning again or for the first time. And the goal is always the same, communion with God in our desert wanderings–to know him and be known by him more deeply and personally. So that when we come together on Easter to rejoice in the resurrection, we might be certain of “being delivered from sin and raised from death through Jesus Christ.” (The Collect for Easter)
But in the church calendar, the feasts always outlast the fasts. Before Lent, we’ll close the Epiphany season with a Shrove Tuesday pancake dinner. Traditionally, this was a way to clear the pantry of rich foods before the beginning of the Lenten fast. You can sign up to help with pancakes here.
The word shrove comes from the word shrive which means to confess your sins and receive absolution. As Lent is a season of repentance and renewal, you are especially encouraged to make an appointment in Lent to be reconciled to God through confession. Reconciliation (also sometimes called confession) isn’t required but I have found it a really helpful spiritual practice in my own life that has become easier with every passing year. There will be handouts available on the welcome table throughout Lent if you are interested in learning more about Reconciliation of the Penitent as it is called in our prayer book.
Ash Wednesday
Our Ash Wednesday service will be at 7 pm at Hyattsville Mennonite
Sundays in Lent
You’ll notice some changes to our Sunday worship in the season of Lent:
The Penitential Order
On Sundays in Lent, we follow what's called "the penitential order," which rearranges our usual liturgy to begin with confession and repentance. It'll feel a little disorienting at first, and that's okay.
Sermons
Throughout Lent, we will be using the lectionary scriptures to learn how to be with God and to see God in our daily life through the steps of the prayer of examen. There are many ways to pray, but I have found the examen to be particularly helpful as a way to pay attention to God’s presence and activity in my life. In that sense, the prayer of examen is “an attitude more than a method,” as Jim Manney says in The Prayer That Changes Everything. As an awareness of God’s presence is at the heart of all prayer, the examen can be a helpful and powerful way of beginning to open ourselves to God, especially if we feel distrustful and skeptical of prayer.
At the conclusion of each sermon, we’ll leave time for silence, for practicing and reflecting on each step of the examen. I’m looking forward to the ways that we will see and experience God together in Lent.
No alleluias
We fast from the word alleluia in our music and liturgies until Easter, making the first cries of "Alleluia, Christ is Risen!" all the sweeter.
"Every Sunday, a little Easter."
Even in Lent, our worship is not all doom and gloom. The Sundays of Lent don't count toward the 40-day total; they are considered feast days, when we can break whatever Lenten fasts and disciplines we might be practicing. In that way, every Sunday is a little Easter, a foretaste of the resurrection, a glimpse of the far-off joy that awaits us as we gather around Christ’s table together.
Prayer Nights
We will have two prayer nights in Lent–opportunities for us to lament and pray together.
We will host one evening (Thursday, March 12 at 7 pm at HMC) and IAC will host the other (details TBD).
Personal Disciplines
Christians have historically taken on three practices during the season of Lenten: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving (sacrificial giving or care for our neighbors who are most in need). But before you launch into an ambitious Lenten to-do list, I invite you to reflect on the particular shape that these practices need to take in your life this Lent. Our external and internal landscape shifts from year to year and last year’s practices might not be what we need this year. I invite you to take some time this week to talk with God about how you might make space in your life for God to renew and transform you.
Please reach out if you have any questions about Lent or want to pray and talk about how you might keep a holy Lent this year.
With love,
Katie
