At Ash Wednesday liturgies throughout the world, Christians will be invited by their parish clergy into the observance of a holy Lent. Here at Lent Madness we pray that everyone will have their souls enlivened during this transformative season of the Church year. Of course, we believe that your soul will be all the more enlivened by your participation in Lent Madness.
Therefore we have written an invitation to be read at all "Ash Thursday" liturgies to make sure everyone engaging in Lent Madness does so with the appropriate attitude of the heart. Although approval of this invitation by the Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music is pending, it has been fully authorized for trial use by the Supreme Executive Committee of Lent Madness (ie. Scott and Tim). Nonetheless, please don't share this with their respective bishops as they will deny any knowledge of said invitation.
Invitation to the Observance of a Holy Lent Madness
Dear People of God: The first Christians observed with great devotion the days of our Lord's passion and resurrection, and it became the custom of the Church to prepare for them by a season of penitence, fasting, and Lent Madness. This season of Lent provided a time in which converts to the faith were prepared for Holy Baptism and taught to vote for their favorite saints by logging onto www.lentmadness.org. It was also a time when those who, because of notorious sins in refusing to engage in Lent Madness, had been separated from the body of the faithful were reconciled by penitence and forgiveness, and restored to the fellowship of the Church – but only after proving their worth by purchasing a Lent Madness mug. Thereby, the whole congregation was put in mind of the message of pardon and absolution set forth in the Gospel of our Savior, and of the need which all Christians continually have to renew their repentance and faith by participating in Lent Madness.
I invite you, therefore, in the name of the Church, the Supreme Executive Committee, and our “celebrity bloggers,” to the observance of a holy Lent Madness, by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, voting in a timely fashion, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God's holy Lent Madness. And, to make a right beginning of repentance, and as a mark of our mortal nature, let us now kneel before the Lord and our computer, only one of which is our maker and redeemer.
One comment on “Invitation to a Holy Lent Madness”
This is a wonderful creation! Thank you so much! My kids (9 and 15) are on spring break and we just spent an hour researching the folks and making our picks, and I anticipate the fun and learning continuing throughout the season.
We are distressed, however, to see you following the example of church calendars of the past (continuing to the present and only slowly being changed) by seriously marginalizing women. As half of the human population and more than half of the churched population they should make up half the candidates but instead make up only approximately one quarter (9 out of 32). Please improve this in future years, even if it means looking beyond the present TEC kalendar (assuming this is your sole or primary source). The present RC calendar, though overweighted with men, has a lot of marvelous women not on TEC, and the new Lutheran calendar is a great source of diverse options as well--Katie von Bora Luther definitely deserves a spot one of these years. Thanks!