Into the darkness we must go

Extinguishing our Lenten Candles 

As we enter the season of Lent, we do so with joy but also with an awareness that this is a difficult story. A story that leads right through death before life bursts forth. Each week we will extinguish a candle in recognition of the darkness and pain of injustice in the world. Until we can relight them with joy on Easter morning, knowing the light we try to extinguish cannot ever be put out.

"The Lenten candles have been lit, but over the next six weeks, the light will slowly fade into darkness. For we are retelling the story of Jesus’ betrayal and suffering and death. We do this not to be morbid, but because in the story of Jesus’ death and resurrection, God is revealed—in the amazing transformation of death into life, in endings transformed into beginnings, and in dead-ends that become a source for new possibilities.

This is the sacred centre of our faith—the truth made manifest in Jesus Christ—that God is in each and every one of us, quietly transforming us and the world. In his pain and suffering, Jesus speaks to every pain and loss you have endured and offers you the promise of transformation. It’s an old story, but it still has the power to reveal, to heal, and to redeem. Jesus is at the heart of our faith, in the depth of our souls. He is waiting for us, inviting us to leave ordinary time and follow along with him on the journey that brought him to the Cross. Listen in silence, for Jesus is calling you." - Jeanyne Slettom