BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:icalendar-ruby CALSCALE:GREGORIAN METHOD:PUBLISH BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260814T092511Z UID:9-242460@garymemorialumchurch.org DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260218 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260218 CLASS:PUBLIC CREATED:20260205T113908 DESCRIPTION:Though Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of our Lenten journey\ , we must remember that all long journeys begin not with the first step or rolling down the road\, but with preparation.\nLenten Prayer\nMerciful Go d of New Beginnings\, on this day of dust and devotion\, we return to you\ , seeking clean hearts and renewed spirits. We offer these gifts as signs of our desire to be reconciled—not only to you\, but to one another and to a world aching for healing. Receive what we bring—our resources\, our repentance\, and our resolve—as tools you may use to mend what is broke n\, build what is needed\, and proclaim your redeeming love. Strengthen us to walk this Lenten journey together\, shaped by grace\, grounded in comm unity\, and sustained by hope. In the name of Christ\, our reconciliation and peace.  Amen.\nThe fast that God chooses (Isaiah 58:1-12)\n58:1 Shout out\; do not hold back! Lift up your voice like a trumpet! Announce to my people their rebellion\, to the house of Jacob their sins.\n58:2 Yet day after day they seek me and delight to know my ways\, as if they were a nat ion that practiced righteousness and did not forsake the ordinance of thei r God\; they ask of me righteous judgments\; they want God on their side.\ n58:3 "Why do we fast\, but you do not see? Why humble ourselves\, but you do not notice?" Look\, you serve your own interest on your fast day and o ppress all your workers.\n58:4 You fast only to quarrel and to fight and t o strike with a wicked fist. Such fasting as you do today will not make yo ur voice heard on high.\n58:5 Is such the fast that I choose\, a day to hu mble oneself? Is it to bow down the head like a bulrush and to lie in sack cloth and ashes? Will you call this a fast\, a day acceptable to the LORD? \n58:6 Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice \, to undo the straps of the yoke\, to let the oppressed go free\, and to break every yoke?\n58:7 Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house\; when you see the naked\, to cove r them and not to hide yourself from your own kin?\n58:8 Then your light s hall break forth like the dawn\, and your healing shall spring up quickly\ ; your vindicator shall go before you\; the glory of the LORD shall be you r rear guard.\n58:9 Then you shall call\, and the LORD will answer\; you s hall cry for help\, and he will say\, "Here I am." If you remove the yoke from among you\, the pointing of the finger\, the speaking of evil\,\n58:1 0 if you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflic ted\, then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like th e noonday.\n58:11 The LORD will guide you continually and satisfy your nee ds in parched places and make your bones strong\, and you shall be like a watered garden\, like a spring of water whose waters never fail.\n58:12 Yo ur ancient ruins shall be rebuilt\; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations\; you shall be called the repairer of the breach\, the re storer of streets to live in. LAST-MODIFIED:20260205T113908 LOCATION: SUMMARY:Ash Wednesday URL;VALUE=URI:https://www.garymemorialumchurch.org/events/ash-wednesday/202 6-02-18 ATTACH;FILENAME=Week1_RenewedMercy_Worship_Series_PPT.jpg;FMTTYPE=image/jpe g:https://dq5pwpg1q8ru0.cloudfront.net/2026/02/05/16/38/01/fe22dd3b-d504-4 261-9dd7-c56b59b083d4/Week1_RenewedMercy_Worship_Series_PPT.jpg END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR