As published in the March/April 2009 issue of The Southern Cross:

The liturgy for Ash Wednesday invites the baptized to observe a holy Lent and reminds us “of the need which all Christians continually have to renew their repentance and faith.”

One prayer that I find helpful for the renewal of our faith is the Collect for the Eighth Sunday after the Epiphany. It is a prayer that we do not often use because we do not typically observe an eighth Sunday after Epiphany (being that the Last Sunday after the Epiphany is always the Sunday observed before Ash Wednesday and takes precedence.)

Regardless of that, this prayer was not originally for the Epiphany season. We find it in the Family Prayer section of the 1928 Book of Common Prayer. It was first published by the Rev. William Bright (Regius Professor of Ecclesiastical History, Oxford, England) in 1862 in Ancient Collects and Other Prayers Selected for Devotional Use From Various Rituals. The prayer reads:

Most loving Father, whose will it is for us to give thanks for all things, to fear nothing but the loss of you, and to cast all our care on you who care for us: Preserve us from faithless fears and worldly anxieties, that no clouds of this mortal life may hide from us the light of that love which is immortal.

In the 1928 Book of Common Prayer, this prayer was titled “For Trustfulness.” I think that is a most helpful approach and understanding for us as we renew our faith this Lenten season. We have been filled with economic fears and anxieties in recent months, and it is good and necessary for us to spiritually refocus our trust on God. The service of Holy Baptism is quite clear in its challenge to turn to Jesus Christ and put our “whole trust in his grace and love.” As we live into the Lenten season we are reminded the Lent is a time of preparation for and renewal of Baptism.

One of the customs of the Church is for the bishop and clergy of the diocese to assemble during Lent for the Chrism Mass. This is the service in which the oil of Chrism is consecrated for use in all baptisms throughout the diocese in the coming year. It is a helpful reminder that the sacramental gesture of each individual baptism is always a participation in the whole Church. Each baptized person is signed on the forehead with chrism and told, “You are sealed by the Holy Spirit in Baptism and marked as Christ’s own forever.” Holy Baptism is full initiation into Christ’s Body, the Church, but the attitude of trust in the Lord is a continually learned behavior.

I, therefore, commend to you this prayer. I find it helpful to pray, knowing that God’s will for us is to give thanks, to fear nothing but the loss of relationship with God, and to cast all our care upon God. It is not easy to consistently think this way.

That is why the Lenten season is so spiritually necessary for us. It gives us a purposeful time to reflect on and to acknowledge to what and to whom we will ultimately trust.