A Lenten Pilgrimage 2026

  But Another Season   The Rev. Andrew Horne Melody:  “Meandering” by Lynn Mills ​​​​​Words:  The Rev. Andrew Horne But Another Season   ​A warm wind from the west      disturbs the winter’s rest ​the frozen river melts and starts to run ​ The pale, slender leaves    trembling on the trees ​whisper that a new year has begun ​ And an angel appears      to a girl of tender years ​promising that she will bear a son   ​The sun now rises higher,     offering its fire ​to lift the fledgling birds into the air ​ The glowing apple trees,  and buzzing honey bees ​gather sweetness – almost more than we can bear ​ And the boy is strong,    He, the Lord, the long-awaited ​answer to a thousand years of prayer     ​Like the summer sun,     when the world was just begun   ​ ​the light of God within him starts to shine ​ At his command,    with a strong but gentle hand ​he b...

Burial Eliza Sewap, Pelican Narrows Daily Office  Liminal We began Lent with sin and death and we end there as well. We read today that the unclean cannot be clean and that mortals die.  We deny ourselves the reality and grief of sin and death and thereby rob ourselves of the assurance and joy of forgiveness and life. There is an awkward silence to this day.  I am not sure what to feel. Relief, that Christ’s agony is over?  Sorrow, as I recall my complicity in this and all injustice and hatred and lies? Despair, as his most good and beautiful life and teaching, ministry and example, work and love have come to a dead end?  Gratitude, as I rest in his finished work?  Hope, as even his death was full of signs of hidden victory? The first time I heard someone use the word “liminal” (from the latin limen, threshold, referring to a transitional space or time), I recoiled. The word sounded pretentious and educated.  Yet here I am to claim that Holy Saturday is Li...

  Is 52:13-53:12; Ps 22;  Heb 10:16-25; 4:14-16, 5:7-9; Jn 18:1-19:42 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?     Why are you so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning? O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer;     and by night, but find no rest… But I am a worm, and not human;     scorned by others, and despised by the people. All who see me mock at me;     they make mouths at me, they shake their heads; ‘Commit your cause to the Lord; let him deliver—     let him rescue the one in whom he delights !’ Psalm 22:1-2, 6-8   Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. And the soldiers wove a crown of thorns and put it on his head, and they dressed him in a purple robe. They kept coming up to him, saying, ‘Hail, King of the Jews!’ and striking him on the face.   John 19:1-3   I’ll forever wipe the slate clean of their sins. Once sins are taken care of for good, there’s no longer any need to offer s...

Exodus 12:1-14 Psalm 116:1, 10-17 John 13: 1-17, 31-35   Later today at our Maundy Thursday service we will enter into the Triduum or the Great Three Days, the heart of our liturgical year.   McCauslind’s “Order of Divine Service” says we have two options for the tone of today’s service: the liturgical colour is white and the Glory to God in the Highest is sung to the accompaniment of bells, or the color is red, we don’t sing Glory to God and we must wait for our celebration another two days. I don’t remember which option we follow at St. Augustine’s but Psalm 116 draws me toward the first. After our season of discipline and self-denial, it is time to begin to turn toward celebration, even if it is best done with some reserving of our full release until Resurrection Sunday.   Turning back to Psalm 116, the lectionary has us skipping over verses 2-9 but I find them to express my response to my Lenten journey. “I love the Lord, he heard my cry for mercy.” A season of self-r...