There is a Holy Eucharist with hymns every Sunday at 11.30am. After the service there is a time of fellowship when refreshments are served outside the church.

Lent is the 40 days (not including Sundays) from Ash Wednesday to Easter Saturday. It is time to prepare ourselves for Easter, but that requires of us to go deeper into God, and relive the passion and death of Christ in Holy Week.

The great thing about Lent is that it has a start, a middle and an end. In other words, if you want to try out a new devotion, discipline or act of personal generosity, you can have a go in Lent, and if it doesn´t work out there is no shame in walking away at the end. So why not give it a go?

The things that people do in Lent tend to fall into one of four categories:

🙏Prayer – it is good to spend some quality time with our God in Lent. For some of us, that might mean setting some time aside each day for prayer or meditation, for others perhaps to go for a regular walk and contemplate God´s creation, for others maybe joining a prayer group, or taking on a new discipline about going to church? But try it. And try to find how God`s mercy and love can flow through you into his world.

📚Study - Many Christians use Lent as an opportunity to engage in more intensive personal development related to their faith, perhaps reading a book of the Bible all through, perhaps joining a group to study a theological or devotional book, maybe following a course of study on the web, or reading a book quietly by oneself. It is a chance to deepen who we are and better understand the religious beliefs and practices that we sometimes take for granted.

🥣Fasting - or giving something up, is a very common practice during Lent. The idea is that giving up a regular part of life, such as chocolate, meat, or alcohol, can be a reminder of Jesus’ sacrifice and take away something that we may use to distract ourselves from the needs of others. Some people go a bit further and give up other activities during Lent to reorient their faith, like watching television, going to the gym, or social media.

💰Giving or Charity - Giving money or doing something good for others is a very good way to respond to God’s grace, generosity and love. Some people, for example, will spend time in Lent volunteering in a particular social project, or doing something practical in their church. Others might donate money – perhaps something like the couple of euros they spend each day to buy their morning coffee.

But try it. Lent is great for those who want to give it a go and see if it works!

See our full programme for Lent, here: https://stgeorgesmalaga.com/lent/

Every Tuesday morning at 10am

Simply tune in on Zoom and enjoy a few moments of quiet, prayerful reflection as the week unfolds. It will last no longer than 10 minutes.

Meeting ID: 892 2955 4820 Passcode: 836488
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86523047387?pwd=cZ8g29z3nUYTbXh1VlxdGedrf7Pvid.1

A time to pause, pray, reflect and reconnect.

No preparation needed.

Time for conversation for those who can stay.

“….Waiting on God, learning to be passive in a way creative for your inner life, is not a question of thinking about God, but of growing in stillness. It has to do with prayer, and with music or from the simple contemplation of the world about you.” (Michael Mayne, ‘A Year Lost and Found’)

The English tradition of Mothering Sunday was shaped by a lady called Constance Smith, who in 1913 looked back into the church´s traditions from pre-Reformation times, and discovered that, on Laetare Sunday, the middle Sunday of Lent, people were allowed a small break from the austerity of Lent, which is the reason why it is also known as ‘Refreshment Sunday’.

And so, in 1920, the pre-reformation tradition, where people would return to their home for a day in the middle of Lent, was revived, and became associated with another tradition on this day, of baking a simnel cake - a light fruit cake with a layer of marzipan in the middle and another on top.

Many youngsters worked away from home, as apprentices or domestic servants, and were given the day off to visit their mother. As they walked along the country lanes, they would pick wild flowers to take to church or to give to their mum, just as we do to this day.

Pope John Paul 1st, the Pope who lasted for only 33 days, said this: “God is our father, yet even more so, God is our mother”. For those qualities of motherhood that we remember on this day – care, warmth, responsibility, comfort, fairness, love, healing - are there aplenty in our God.

See our full programme for Lent, here: https://stgeorgesmalaga.com/lent/

We talk of the last weeks of Christ´s life on earth as his Passion. Yet how odd that we should use the same word for a strength of feeling (being ‘passionate’ about something), to describe a romance (being passionately in love), as to describe the last weeks of Christ’s earthly life (his passion).

The root meaning of the word ‘passion’ …is the Latin word, ‘to suffer’. It fits for Christ, but it fits uncomfortably with other examples. But then it’s the same word as the word ‘passive’, being done unto, being acted upon, offering no opposition, being submissive. Because that’s what it’s like when you are taken over by a feeling, that’s what it’s like when you fall in love with someone. And that was what it was like for Christ in his last days – passion, being done unto, offering no opposition, letting go.

So why was Jesus so passive? Why did he stick up there on the cross & not come down and flatten his persecutors? I can’t imagine that he went easily up to the cross, that he simply said: “well, I’m the Son of God – and this is just something I’ve got to do, to get through, something that comes with the territory: I’ll just grit my teeth and tough it out”. But I also can’t imagine that, behind that agonised face on the cross, was a secret smile: the one person who knew that he was actually going to rise again. I don’t think so – because any of that would have been to deny his real despair, the total human dereliction of being nailed to a cross, …and dying.

Rather Jesus went with genuine uncertainty, with no assurance, no comfort, no knowledge…. that all would come right in the end. But what he did have was a grain of faith, an openness to that crazy uncomfortable possibility, that somehow his death may be fruitful, it may be beneficial…..for others.

John Austin Baker, former Bishop of Salisbury, wrote: “The crucified Jesus is the only accurate picture of God the world has ever seen.”

See our full programme for Lent, here: https://stgeorgesmalaga.com/lent/

Picture shows the Calvary Cross on Caldey Island in South Wales