Dear Friends,
Lent is a season of 40 days of repentance and preparation for the joys of Easter. Lent starts on Ash Wednesday, and lasts until Holy Saturday (the day before Easter Sunday). One of the traditional practices of Lent is fasting. We are told in Matthew 4:1-11 that Jesus spent forty days fasting in the wilderness and afterwards “he was starving.”

If you’ve never practiced fasting before, an easy way into the practice is to engage in a partial fast. A partial fast can involve food and drink, or certain habits. Here are some possibilities for a partial fast:

• Fasting from foods associated with “feasting”: chocolate, desserts, coffee/caffeine, alcohol, etc.
• Fasting from media or entertainment: smartphone, TV, radio, music, email, computers, video games, etc.
• Fasting from habits and comforts: for example, shopping

Here are some questions that might help you discern a partial fast that will be challenging enough to be fruitful

• What cravings have a hold on me?
• What would be truly liberating to leave behind?
• Short of an addiction, have I become dependent on a particular food, drink, substance, or activity?
• What would be truly challenging for me to give up during Lent?
• What is Jesus asking of me?

As you pray through these questions, try picking one food or drink and one media, comfort, or habit to give up, and then share this with a loved one as a way to embrace accountability.

One more thing about partial fasting during Lent: Sundays don’t count! Sundays are “feast days,” which means you don’t practice your fast on Sundays. (The entire season of Lent is actually 46 days long: 40 days of fasting and 6 Sundays of feasting!) Practicing a feast day helps make our Lenten fasts sustainable.

With love and my prayers,

James

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Sunday and weekday Services

Our weekly service times are:
Sunday 10:00am Eucharist
Tuesday 10:00am Morning Prayer (BCP)
Thursday 10:30am Holy Communion (BCP)

The weekly online service is now a livestream of our Sunday Morning Eucharist Service. The link for the livestream page is https://stmarymagdalene.church/livestream-service/ the Service for the coming Sunday is listed on this page on a Friday. The page includes a video that will go live at approximately 9:55am on Sunday, it also has the words to the hymns, collects and readings and has a downloadable service booklet. It will continue to be made available to those who, for whatever reason, are unable to attend church.

Lent course

Will be held in the Vestry on Tuesdays at 10:30am, following on from Morning Prayer. We will be looking at a series of six videos on John’s Gospel presented by David Ford https://homegroups.org.uk/series/gospel-of-john-study-guide/

Opening the Church on Saturdays

Our church is a valuable resource for people in our community to take some time out of their daily lives to reflect and connect with God. Not everyone is available on Sunday mornings and some just want a few minutes to pause and be still. We are hoping to make our church available for private prayer on Saturdays and are looking for volunteers who can give a couple of hours of their time. A minimum of two people will need to be always present. Names will be added to a rota, so the more people who are available to help us, the less often you will be called upon.

If you are able to help with this, please see Alison Reeve.

Lunchtime Concerts

This month Enfield Grammar School Band will be providing the music for our Lunchtime Concert. Pick up a leaflet at the back of the church to find out more.
From 11:30 am onwards, before each concert, you can as usual have coffee or tea and cake in the vestry. Come and meet other folk and enjoy a chat.

Eleanor Pritchard.

Community Café

Free, warm, welcoming, safe.

Every Tuesday, we open the choir vestry for anyone and everyone as a free, warm, welcoming, and safe place to be for a couple of hours. Cups of tea or coffee will be provided along with the opportunity for somewhere warm to meet others in a friendly and safe space.
Every week, following on from the Community Café, at 3:30 pm, we are introducing…

Tuesday’s at 3:30pm following on from the Community Café

Short, weekly sessions, exploring themes that encourage us to develop our relationship with God, a ‘Rekindling’. Absolutely nothing heavy, simply looking at a short passage from the Bible, like Jesus’ words:

“Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.”
Matthew 11:28.

Considering and sharing what we think Jesus means and how we respond to this, followed with some singing, either a familiar hymn or a learning a new worship song related to the day’s theme.

Not one, not two, but eighteen nineteen twenty and growing!

Something to dip in and out of or play while ironing or relaxing! Instead of a single video, this week we have a playlist on our YouTube channel containing twenty videos with lyrics. Four have been shared in the emails before, a few of the others at Rekindling, while others you may have heard elsewhere. Hopefully there will be one, two, or more(!) that strike a chord with you, the words, the tune, or a combination of the two. There’s a variety of styles included so perhaps one day something upbeat works, another something quieter, more reflective resonates with you. Any feedback is welcome.

All have great words that I encourage you to be active participants in rather than passive bystanders. Here’s a link to the playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOS511gUMPpV2F1Lk-vDW5x9_UE_t_bVG

Pilgrimage to Greece 2025

In the past it was always our custom to go to Launde Abbey one year and a pilgrimage elsewhere the next. We have not been able to do this recently but are trying to re-establish the practice. We are going to Launde Abbey this year and have looked at options elsewhere for the future. We are considering a pilgrimage to Greece which includes St Paul’s time in Greece as well as some sightseeing of the ancient wonders of Greece including Athens and Delphi. Because this is likely to be expensive, about £3,000, we have deferred this to 2025 to give time to save, and I will be setting up a monthly savings scheme in August or September this year. I have already had expressions of interest from about 12 people and, if you think you would like to come, please speak to me for more details.

If you have not been on a pilgrimage with us before they are great fun, and serious too, help us all to get to know each other better and make us the family we are. Do give it a thought.

A PDF of the Pilgrimage schedule is available on our website here.

Michael

Ladychapel Memorial book

Every week we remember the anniversaries of death for different people. Their names are taken from two Memorial Books we keep. One for those whose ashes are interred in the Memorial Garden and a second, in the Lady Chapel, for people we wish to be remembered on a certain date (usually their death).
If you would like the name of someone to be remembered in the Ladychapel Memorial Book please speak to Maureen Rew, the cost is £25.

Donations

Would you like to donate towards the work of St Mary Magdalene? If so, this QR code will take you to our donations page where you can choose the amount you wish to donate. Or simply click on this link: https://stmarymagdalene.church/product/open-donation/

Dates for your diary

March

Sun 10th 10:00am: Mothering Sunday
Weds 13th 11:30am: Coffee and cake followed by a Lunchtime Concert with the Enfield Grammar School Band

Holy Week – Sunday 24th – Sunday 31st March

Sun 24th 10:00am: Palm Sunday
Mon 25th 8:00pm: Stations of the Cross
Tues 26th 4:00pm: Stations of the Cross
Tues 26th 7:00pm: Agape Meal
Weds 27th 4:00pm: Stations of the Cross
Thurs 28th 10:30am: Maundy Thursday Communion
Thurs 28th 8:00pm: Maundy Thursday Communion with washing of feet followed by The Watch
Fri 29th 12:00noon: Good Friday Service
Sat 30th 9:00pm: Paschal Vigil and First Eucharist of Easter
Sun 31st 10:00am: Easter Sunday Eucharist Service

April

Weds10th 11:30am: Coffee and cake followed by a Lunchtime Concert with Keith Beniston on Organ
Sat 20th 7:00pm: Bingo evening with Fish & Chips supper

This magazine appears online only, with only a few copies available for archival purposes