Lending a helpful hand during Lent




BEYOND SACRIFICE—Local church congregations are honoring Lent byfinding ways to help others and serve their communities. Lent is the six-week period leading up to Easter Sunday.

BEYOND SACRIFICE—Local church congregations are honoring Lent by finding ways to help others and serve their communities. Lent is the six-week period leading up to Easter Sunday.

In the 40 days leading up to Easter, many Christians dedicate themselves to prayer and spiritual discipline in anticipation of celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Lent represents Christ’s journey through the wilderness, and some believers mark the season by abstaining from guilty pleasures like coffee, chocolate or meat during this time of reflection and penance.

But David Anderson, the associate pastor at Emmanuel Presbyterian Church in Thousand Oaks, said the roughly six-week period is about more than fasting and sacrifice.

“We give something up to take something on,” he said. “The time and money fasting frees up makes us available to do something good.”

For the Emmanuel congregation, this Lent is about making room in their lives for others, Anderson said. Parishioners are spending the weeks before Easter focused on fellowship and hospitality through a series of soup dinners.

The pastor said people tend to practice their faith alone, praying and reading Scripture in private. Lent, he said, is more meaningful when it is experienced with other people who can share life’s heartaches.

“Life is broken. Life is messy. Life is hard,” he said. “Jesus can sympathize. Lent is best celebrated together so we can share that burden.”

The Rev. Stan Ferguson with St. Matthew’s United Methodist Church said his Newbury Park congregation is diving into the theology of Lent by reading Madeleine L’Engle’s “A Wrinkle in Time” as Ferguson teaches a sermon series on the book, which inspired a movie that opens in theaters this week.

He said the book raises interesting questions about what it means to be the light of the world, and his goal is to get parishioners involved in deep and meaningful conversations with each other about their faith.

“The more we share our stories with one another, the deeper understanding we have of who we are and who we are in relationship to God,” he said.

Ferguson said the discipline of Lent goes beyond sacrifice.

“We’re encouraged to give up something, but I like to encourage people to add something,” he said. “Add a good deed, pick your favorite place that helps those less fortunate than you and give money to that organization.”

He said all kinds of organizations— such as those that help the hungry or fight human trafficking— deserve donations in the lead-up to Easter.

“For me, Lent is a time of self-reflection, knowing yourself and engaging others,” he said.

Other congregations are pulling together to promote a single cause. Monte Vista Presbyterian Church in Newbury Park is collecting donations for Lifewater International, a Christian organization that provides clean water sources for vulnerable populations around the globe by digging wells and building other types of water infrastructure.

Local Catholic congregations are also embracing tradition when it comes to celebrating Lent.

St. Paschal Baylon Church on E. Janss Road is praying the Stations of the Cross every Friday of Lent. The Stations of the Cross are a series of 14 images depicting Jesus Christ on the day of his crucifixion. Each image has an accompanying prayer. As many Catholics don’t eat meat on Fridays during Lent, the services will follow a weekly fish fry in the parish hall.

Simi Valley’s St. Peter Claver and St. Rose of Lima Catholic churches will also have Masses and services on Holy Week and Easter Sunday.