Dear Friends,

As we observe this First Sunday of Lent, we are remembering that
it was six years ago on the First Sunday of Lent in 2007 that we gathered
together for the first time and invited you to co-create The Spirit of Life
Community with us. We feel so blessed

that we each call forth the best in each
other and have so nourished each other along life's way. We have found
together a credible, life-giving way of being Catholic in our world
today. We have demonstrated for peace on The Common, in solidarity with
the Sisters in front of the Cathedral, and marched in the Gay Pride Parade to
acknowledge our gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, transgendered sisters and brothers as
"equally blessed" by God and welcome in the Catholic Church. We have
gathered faithfully every Sunday for Eucharist to fortify and empower each of
us to live out our following of Jesus in our little corner of the world.
We have much to celebrate. We are so grateful for your life-giving presence in
our lives!

As we begin our Lenten journey together this year, we lift up
this reading from Archbishop Oscar Romero which we used at our Eucharistic
Liturgy yesterday as one of our readings:

"This
Lent, which we observe amid blood and sorrow, ought to presage a
transfiguration of our people, a resurrection of our nation. The church invites
us to a modern form of penance, of fasting and prayer – perennial Christian
practices, but adapted to the circumstances of each people. Lenten fasting is
not the same thing in those lands where people eat well as is a Lent among our
third-world peoples, undernourished as they are, living in a perpetual Lent,
always fasting. For those who eat well, Lent is a call to austerity, a call to
give away in order to share with those in need. But in poor lands, in homes
where there is hunger, Lent should be observed in order to give to the
sacrifice that is everyday life the meaning of the cross. But it should not be
out of a mistaken sense of resignation. God does not want that. Rather, feeling
in one's flesh the consequences of sin and injustice, one is stimulated to work
for social justice and a genuine love for the poor. Our Lent should awaken a
sense of social justice."  Oscar Romero

We invite you to come and walk with us in prayer and action at
The Spirit of Life. Through our time of prayer and sharing together, we
work together to grow in our self-understanding and in our relationships with
God and with God's people. We celebrate the gift of our faith and the responsibility
that is ours as followers of Jesus Christ.  It is our prayer that
what we as a community experience in our praying together will overflow into
the rest of our lives, making us more fully human and more
'whole'....holy!  We invite you to join us in this endeavor and
journey with us as we seek to grow in our love of God and to grow in our
capacity to be living expressions of God's loving peace and justice in our
world.

May God's light and love continue to live within each of us and
move us to be non-violent agents of change for peace and for justice in our
world,

Ron & Jean