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Dear
Cathedral Community,
How Is
It with Your Soul? Lent invites us to slow down. To examine-To
return!
It
places before us the ancient and searching question: How is it with
your soul? Not how is your schedule, not how is your productivity,
not how is your reputation.
But how
is your soul?
Charles
Wesley’s hymn presses the question further:
“How
is it with your soul?
When
Jesus makes His home…
à And makes
your heart His throne?” Lent is the season when we gently ask: Is
Christ truly at home in us? Does He reign in our hearts? In our
Cathedral community? In the quiet spaces no one else sees?
Is He
your Lord and King? Does He within you reign?
These
are not accusatory questions. They are invitational. Lent is not
about spiritual performance; it is about honest reflection. It is
about allowing God’s mercy to search us and restore us.
The hymn
continues: “Is there no way of sin , In which you walk unknown?”
Lent
gives us courage to name what we would rather hide — impatience,
resentment, pride, fear, exhaustion, doubt. Not to condemn ourselves,
but to bring those places into the light of Christ’s love.
Because
the goal of Lent is not guilt. The goal of Lent is deeper love.
And yet,
if we are honest, love can feel complicated in a broken world.
There
was a season in my own life when that brokenness felt overwhelming.
In the years following 9/11, serving as a first responder, I walked
through trauma that reshaped my inner world. At the time, I did not
fully understand what I was carrying. PTSD was present but
unaddressed. The world felt unsafe. God sometimes felt distant.
I
wrestled with questions that many of us have quietly held:
How
could Christ be King in a world so fractured?
How
could God be sovereign amid such suffering?
In that season,
the question “How much do I love Jesus?” felt heavy. I wondered if my
faith was strong enough. If my devotion was deep enough. If my grip
on God was secure enough.
But Lent
eventually led me to a deeper truth. The foundation of faith is not
how tightly we hold onto Jesus.
It is
how faithfully Jesus holds onto us. The gospel does not begin with
our love for Christ. It begins with Christ’s love for us.
Do you
with joy confess - The Lord who died for you? We confess Him not
because our love is perfect, but because His love is constant.
Lent
reminds us:
Before
we repent — He loves us.
Before
we return — He loves us.
Before
we understand — He loves us.
Even in
our doubt — He loves us. “O may we all rejoice In Him who died for
all…”
Cathedral
community, as we walk this Lenten path together, may we examine our
souls honestly. May we ask the hard questions gently. May we
surrender what needs surrendering.
But
above all, may we rest in this unshakable truth:
It is
not ultimately about how much we love Jesus.
It is
about how much Jesus loves us.
And that
love , crucified and risen , is what makes Him King.
That
love is what heals wounded souls. That love is what restores broken
communities. That love is what carries us through Lent and into
Easter hope.
So let
us return.
Let us
trust.
Let us
be honest.
Let us
be held.
How is it
with your soul? May our answer this Lent be rooted in grace.
In
Peace,
Tim+
The
Rev. Timothy M. Kingsley
Provost,
Saint Mark's Episcopal Cathedral
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