From the Minister Prayer Points Lectionary Readings

This year Easter is in the beginning of April, so Ash Wednesday, which marks the beginning of Lent, is in February, exactly the 22nd of the month. I am not sure if anyone knows the poem “Ash Wednesday” written by T.S Eliot who is “one of the twentieth centurys major poets”. As always in his poems, the first part of the poem is very impressive. Let me share it with you:

“Because I do not hope to turn again

Because I do not hope

Because I do not hope to turn

Desiring this man’s gift and that man’s scope

I no longer strive to strive towards such things

(Why should the aged eagle stretch its wings?)

Why should I mourn

The vanished power of the usual reign?”

T.S Eliot was born in America but became a British citizen in 1927. In the same year, he converted from Unitarianism to Anglicanism and later became a churchwarden of his parish church. This poem was published in 1930, three years after his conversion. He proclaimed himself “classicist in literature, royalist in politics, and Anglo-Catholic in religion.” If you are asked to describe yourself with a few words, what are they?

In fact, whether it is changing one’s nationality or changing the church one serves, it is necessary to draw a line. And sometimes it requires a strong determination not to go back to the past. We are Christians and we belong to Gods kingdom, or Gods Reign. We chose to turn to God. We should not turn again to the world. If you put one foot in Gods kingdom and the other in the world, I hope you move both feet to the Lord. I also pray that Gods will is done in your life, not your will in Gods kingdom.

Now is the time when the bubbles of Christmas and New Year subside. It is time to go back to our usual lives, and begin our circle of life again according to the Church calendar. Let us be drenched in God’s grace and mercy in preparation for Easter.

Let us praise our Lord, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.