Introducing the 2021 Lenten Devotional

The shell is an ancient symbol of Christian pilgrims

Lent marks the beginning of the church’s journey toward Easter. The significance of this time in the church’s life is stated clearly and well in the “Invitation to the Observance of Lenten Discipline” in the Ash Wednesday liturgy found in The United Methodist Book of Worship, #322:

“Dear brothers and sisters in Christ: The early Christians observed with great devotion the days of our Lord’s passion and resurrection, and it became the custom of the Church that before the Easter celebration there should be a forty-day season of spiritual preparation. During this season converts to the faith were prepared for Holy Baptism.

It was also a time when persons who had committed serious sins and had separated themselves from the community of faith were reconciled by penitence and forgiveness and restored to participation in the life of the Church.

In this way the whole congregation was reminded of the mercy and forgiveness proclaimed in the gospel of Jesus Christ and the need we all have to renew our faith.

I invite you, therefore, in the name of the Church, to observe a holy Lent: by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God's Holy Word.”

This year’s Lenten Devotional offers hymns that are found in the Methodist Pocket Hymnbook. I have this hymnal in my office and have found it to be a source of inspiration and devotion over the years. These hymns are presented as found in the hymnal using the punctuation and spelling that was used by the Methodist Episcopal Church more than 200 years ago. 

The hymns were selected from these sections of the hymnal: “Penitential,” “Awakening and Inviting,” “Christ our Passover or the Lord’s Supper,” and “Redemption.” Hymn authors (where known) were John Fawcett, Charles Wesley, John Wesley, Samuel Wesley, Sr., Samuel Sebastian Wesley, and Isaac Watts.

The Methodist Pocket Hymn-book, revised and improved as a constant companion for the pious of all denominations. New York: Published by J. Soule and T. Mason, for the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States. Abraham Paul, printer, 1818.

—Pastor Charles