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war, forgiveness

Today at church we began Lent as always with the rite of mutual forgiveness. Everyone present prostrated themselves before everyone else, individually, and asked forgiveness of sins. Everyone replied “God forgives, and I forgive.” I can’t begin to describe how powerful this is. If you are a Christian and missed out, I can only say that you’re trying to live a partial Christianity.

Afterward, I saw a number of concerned conversations among our Russian members (In Russian, which I don’t understand.) Many of these folks have family or friends in Ukraine. It really brought the news home.

One of the names we give to this Sunday of transition into Lent is the “commemoration of Adam’s exile from Paradise.” Seeing the murder of brethren by brethren impinging on our little community made the feeling of exile immediate.