As I write this, we are coming to the end of the Christmas season, which for the church continues until Candlemas, on February 2nd. And this year that means that four days after Christmas ends, Lent begins! Easter is so early this year.

          So once more we enter the time of preparation for Easter. We look forward to celebrating the Resurrection of Jesus on Easter Sunday, the most important day of the church’s year. Somehow, Easter has become for many people less     important than Christmas. Perhaps that’s    because it’s easier to celebrate the birth of the baby Jesus than to think about his death on a cross and his resurrection? But all of us know that there is death as well as birth; suffering as well as rejoicing. It’s Jesus who can help us to cope with those sad times, who gives us hope that death is not the end, but a new beginning.

          Lent is a time to ponder on these things, a time when the church tries to provide opportunities for spiritual reflection, to ask questions and sometimes to find answers. It can be a hugely rewarding time, if we take those  opportunities. Drop into church; pick up a Lent programme – all the churches have them – and this Lent, instead of giving up chocolate, give up a little time to explore what God can give you. Of course, you could still give up chocolate as well, and since Lent is a day longer than usual because it’s a Leap Year, you could lose even more weight than usual. But whatever you do about chocolate, my promise that you’ll find God can give you more than you could ever imagine. Go on; I dare you! Let this be the Lent when you take the risk of finding out! Have a good Lent and then a most joyful and blessed Easter.

Lynn Grove, Curate, St. Peter & St. Paul’s Church.