February sees the transition from the season of Epiphany to the season of Lent in the Christian Year. In the readings from Scripture in the lectionary, we move from a time of gifts-the showing forth of God in unexpected places, such as a shed outside an inn-to a time of struggle and self-examination, marked by Jesus’s going into the wilderness after his baptism by John in the River Jordan. We move from the deep joy of the Incarnation, the Word becoming human in Jesus Christ, to more difficult questions about what that means in practice for the followers of Jesus. How then shall we live? What does it mean to be a disciple, to walk in his way, to be a community of faith? … More Ash Wednesday