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Dear Covenant Friends,
We are in the beginning days of Lent, and I pray you are experiencing God’s peace on your Lenten journey. We have been blessed with some mild winter days, a good opportunity to get out and walk (as you are able) in your local neighborhood or a nearby park. On a recent Friday, my husband and I made a pilgrimage to Mohican State Park, where we had not been since our children were small. We started our hike at the Covered Bridge and saw two small waterfalls on the trail, as well as several fishermen at the river’s edge.
The gentle peace of the river reminded me of baptism, and the way our own baptisms course through the different stages of our lives. Sometimes we are very aware of our Christian identity and belovedness, resounding like the sound of a mighty waterfall. Other times our awareness recedes, even as God’s love remains as constant as a slow-moving river. It’s all part of the journey.
This Lenten season, I hope we are united in our desire for a closer walk with God. On that theme, I’ve included a link to this past Sunday’s anthem- O For a Closer Walk with God by Anglo-Irish composer Charles Stanford (1852-1924). You can hear the anthem on our YouTube channel beginning at 19:45. Here are the words:
O for a Closer Walk
Scottish Psalter, arr. C. V. Stanford
O for a closer walk with God,
A calm and heavenly frame;
A light to shine upon the road
That leads me to the Lamb!
Return, O holy Dove, return!
Sweet messenger of rest;
I hate the sins that made thee mourn,
And drove thee from my breast.
So shall my walk be close with God,
Calm and serene my frame;
So purer light shall mark the road
That leads me to the Lamb
And here is a copy of this week’s Lenten devotionals from the Presbyterian Outlook, on the theme “Local Pilgrim”. May God bless us all on the pilgrim way.
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