Repentance as a Journey

Summary

In this episode, Bishop DeDe discusses the importance of faith in a divided world, focusing on the themes of conviction, repentance, and community. She emphasizes the need for personal transformation through the lens of faith, particularly during the season of Lent. The conversation explores how conviction can lead to a deeper understanding of oneself and one's relationship with God, and how repentance is an ongoing journey rather than a one-time event. The importance of community support in this journey is also highlighted, along with personal reflections on practices during Lent.

Takeaways

-Faith is essential in navigating a divided world.
-Conviction can be uncomfortable but is necessary for growth.
-Repentance is an ongoing journey, not a one-time event.
-Community support is vital for healing and transformation.
-Lent is a time for personal reflection and change.
-Loving our neighbor requires intentional effort and understanding.
-God's love invites us to change our minds and hearts.
-We must listen to others with compassion and mercy.
-Personal practices during Lent can deepen our faith.
-The teachings of Jesus challenge us to live differently.



Chapters

Chapters

00:00 Exploring Faith in a Divided World
10:08 Understanding Conviction and Repentance
20:30 The Journey of Repentance and Community
24:31 Reflections on Lenten Practices

AI Disclosure: To support our staff in their limited time, many of our episode summaries are first generated by AI and then edited by the Communications Director to accurately reflect and preview our podcast episodes.

Transcript

Bishop DeDe (00:02.978)
Hey friends, welcome to the podcast. We're gonna speak about faith. Speaking of faith in these days, when there's so much division can be a little bit difficult, but the point of this podcast is to be able to talk about our faith and to share our faith, to think about our faith and our day-to-day life. What does it mean to be a person of faith in this time in the world and how do we find deeper meaning? My name is DeDee Duncan-Probe. I am the Episcopal Bishop of Central New York.

candidate of Pennsylvania, Utica Delmyra, and I'm joined by Adam Eichelberger, who is our communications director, and we are going to speak about faith today. On the docket, I want to talk about something that I don't even know that people talk about very much, what it is to be convicted, and I'm not talking about a prison system or something like that, I'm talking about when you hear something and that spike of what

seems a little bit like guilt but is more pointed, strikes our heart. That we have a check in our spirit about something where we have a caution in our gut about something. But it often happens for me when I hear someone preach and it's not a real pleasant experience. I will just say to you, somebody preaches about loving my neighbor and I remember the time when that morning or the day before where I have not been.

in love with my neighbor, where I have been selfish or where I have been, as we are as humans, caught up in my sinful nature, as it were, the part of me that is just not that interested in being kind. And so when I hear the sermon and it strikes my heart, it's a little uncomfortable and I have a choice to make at that moment.

I can either give into the discomfort and be offended and say that was a stupidest sermon. Why do I have to listen to these people talking about this? I'm just fine. I have entitled to my opinion. I'm entitled to feel the way that I feel or to recognize that that pain that has struck my heart might be a recognition, might be the Holy Spirit saying to me, you know, if you want to be whole and you want to know Jesus and you want to feel peace,

Bishop DeDe (02:20.15)
You need to walk through that conviction of your spirit and repent. You need to change your mind. Yes, you're entitled to have whatever opinion you have, but it doesn't mean that that opinion is going to be helpful to you or to anyone else. Yes, you can believe whatever you want to believe, but that doesn't mean that what you believe might actually lead to a whole and productive and healthy and happy life. We may be convicted in our spirit because that is part of our Christian journey.

And in the season of Lent, this is a time to be convicted of our need for redemption. We need the peace, we need the healing, we need what Jesus is talking about to help us move from a place of selfish greed, ambition, brokenness, if there's addictions in our lives, all these things that keep us from living the life that God created us and is calling us to live.

the way of Jesus. I don't know about you, but when I read the gospel of Jesus, what I hear most often is something that's so different from how the world is. Love your neighbor, love your enemy, pray for your enemy, take a cup of cold water. Those people who are outcasts, welcome them to your table. Those people who you dislike to seek what's best for them and to see them as beloved people of God. These are not.

ways in which we naturally live. And yet these are the ways of the gospel. And in recent podcasts, and I've said this a few times to me and to everyone else, if our opinion does not match the gospel, it is not the gospel that needs to change or be watered down. It's our opinion that's wrong. If we think that we can look at our neighbor with hatred or disdain or dehumanization and still feel that we are just fine,

then we have not allowed ourselves to feel the conviction that the Holy Spirit is calling us to a different way of being. We can never look at anyone with anything but love and an affirmation that they're beloved child of God. This doesn't mean we agree with everyone. This doesn't mean we don't say no. This doesn't mean we're, you know, milk toasty or.

Bishop DeDe (04:41.652)
or roll out the rug because we're going to get tromped on. This means by choice, we stand for something that's very different. I always think of Jesus before Pontius Pilate and Pontius Pilate accusing him and saying, what are you about? And Jesus saying, well, you say so. And Jesus has this very clear understanding that he is choosing to do what he is doing. Knowing the consequences because he's called to do it.

So his agency is fully intact. He's not succumbing to the cross. He is triumphing over the cross. And on the cross looks at the thieves to the right and left, still conscious, still in the fullness of his being, even in the time of extreme suffering. Woman, here is your son, and you'll be with me in the kingdom. Even in the darkest moments.

His sense of call, purpose are completely intact and these are acts he is doing. And so that is something for us as followers of Jesus to both recognize and emulate, but then to go back to that moment of conviction to recognize.

What feels right isn't always right. And it's hard to know sometimes the difference. Sometimes it feels great. Like when, like Schadenfreude, when something happens to someone we really don't like and we just feel like, ooh, ha ha, they finally got theirs. There is a sweetness in that moment with a revenge, but it is a, it is a false sweetness. It's bitter in the mouth. It's bitter in the heart.

Because when we dehumanize or put someone else down, it may feel good for a moment, but then that moment passes and we recognize that we need redemption. So conviction, when we feel that, when someone preaches something and we kind of want to take offense or we feel that kind of in our gut, one way to respond is to take a minute and breathe and pray about it and hold it before God.

Bishop DeDe (06:56.32)
and say, God, is there something that I'm unwilling to see because of my pride or my selfishness or whatever may be standing in the way? Is there something you're calling me to be about that I'm unwilling to change? When Jesus comes to us, he says, repent therefore for the kingdom of God has come near. In that New Testament and that gospel passage, the original language, it's

change your mind. That Greek is to change your mind, to shift your focus to something new. In Hebrew, repent is to turn with sorrow back to the ways of God, back to God. All of us have had those times in our lives where we have known that we have strayed very far from God. We've gotten caught up in the moment or caught up in the zeitgeist, caught up in our own thinking, and we suddenly realize that really what's happening

is we just want it our way. We're just tired of trying to do the right thing and we just want to break. And in those moments, God's compassion and mercy and grace are so profound that God will love us in that space and say, I'm here. Jesus died, rose again, because we need redemption. However we understand that redemption.

For some of us, we understand it, and we've talked about this in podcasts, when we emulate Jesus, then we are saved. For some of us, there's a real atonement that is paid with the death of Jesus. But in the season of Lent, however you understand soteriology, however you understand the way that God saves us, it begins with a need to change our mind, a need to turn with sorrow back to God. And so when that moment of conviction strikes our heart,

Instead of repelling it or being defensive or being defiant or being angry with the preacher, we stop and say, Lord, where are you in this? What are you calling me to be about? I don't have to like a sermon to hear truth in it. I don't have to like what is said, but I always want to serve Jesus. The prime directive of my life and I hope of your life.

Bishop DeDe (09:15.438)
is that God will be the source of our lives, that we will be looking through the lens of our faith at all that is around us, welcoming a moment of conviction so that we may learn to go therefore and do better. So I've said a lot about a hard topic. think conviction's very tough matter. I I think,

being willing to be transformed by the love of Jesus Christ is a brave, courageous thing to do and it also is such life, such redemption. Because the thing about that conviction, it hurts and it's hard and then when you yield to it and you give it over to God and say, Lord, I want you and no other, you and what's best in my life. There is a peace that does pass all understanding that comes in, a sense of.

belovedness and belonging and healing and wholeness. Everything we seek comes next after that. So what are some of your thoughts, Adam? And I don't know if we've had questions from our listeners. I am very interested.

Diocese of Central New York Communications (10:15.397)
Hmm.

Diocese of Central New York Communications (10:22.549)
So the first, hold on. Start over. So I know for me, Bishop, and I've talked about this with Ken and Megan on her podcast a lot. And so I'm going to, I'm going to build the bridge over to here because some of you listeners may know I was born and raised in the Roman Catholic tradition. And repentance is a very different conversation in that context.

Bishop DeDe (10:26.444)
He's all choked up. know. It's just, I got going on conviction a little too much. All right.

Bishop DeDe (10:37.164)
Mm-hmm.

Bishop DeDe (10:41.752)
right?

Bishop DeDe (10:46.488)
Right.

Bishop DeDe (10:50.335)
my goodness.

Diocese of Central New York Communications (10:52.197)
So much of the way that I was raised and listener I know some of you were maybe raised in a similar context is Repentance is about the bad things that we do and making sure that God's not mad at us anymore about the bad things that we do So we have to say the right things and do the right actions to make sure God doesn't feel that way about me anymore But when I hear you talk about this bishop, I hear that this is not a one

Bishop DeDe (11:06.306)
Mm-hmm.

Bishop DeDe (11:13.633)
Right.

Diocese of Central New York Communications (11:20.321)
So much of repentance in my life, my early life was moving from moment of repentance to moment of repentance to moment of repentance to make sure I don't go to the bad place. This, what I hear you saying is repentance is an everyday thing and an ongoing thing and that we're not bad people because we acknowledge our need to repent. So this is kind of a two parter on repentance. When you talk about repentance, what does it look like in our everyday life?

Bishop DeDe (11:26.348)
Mm-hmm. Right.

Bishop DeDe (11:34.946)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Bishop DeDe (11:44.494)
Mm-hmm.

Bishop DeDe (11:50.146)
Mm-hmm.

Diocese of Central New York Communications (11:50.499)
And how can it shape the way that we see our neighbors, our community, our world, and our relationships? So that's one part of that question. And I can come back and renew the second part and like, how do we embrace repentance as a journey of growth rather than just that one time decision that I was talking about before?

Bishop DeDe (12:10.702)
and I think that's these are such good questions and it's so important to raise that because I was raised repentance meant You're not good enough for God and you're bad And so you keep saying you're sorry and just like you say maybe eventually God won't be so mad at you Instead of understanding that when we put our theology all together when we look at creation When we look at all through scripture when we read I mean whether you're talking about Hebrew scriptures

know, Psalms, Proverbs, Apocrypha, whatever you want to pick out of the canon of our Bible. The movement of God is that we have been created by God and that God's redemption is available to us and that we're invited into a different way of living. We're invited into a different way of being. Whether you talk about Jesus standing at the door and knocking of your heart or whether you're talking about baptism and being made new in the image.

whatever listener your theology or background in whatever church or denomination may be, we often talk about that God loves us. And so if we start from an understanding that God loves us, God wants good things for us. So we're invited into a different way of being, not because God is mad at us. I think that's a reductive way to look at God, like God is sort of churlish or something.

but rather that God is calling us to be whole and be in relationship with God as partners with God. You know, let us therefore make man in our image. These are quotes from Genesis, you know, and so when we look at the whole of scripture, we see God inviting us to be about a movement, to be part of a kingdom of God where this is how we live. So it's an ongoing everyday reality.

that in our lives to love our neighbors ourselves means we're gonna do something different. If we're truly repenting or changing our mind, it means we look at the person who we love to hate or love to dehumanize and we take personal responsibility for the fact that we may be playing out our own issues on that person. We may be looking at places where we have been deficient and sort of making them.

Bishop DeDe (14:29.054)
even more deficient so we feel better about our deficiency. And so loving our neighbor may be as simple as saying, you know, I've really gotten in the habit of disliking those people, whoever those people are. So maybe I need to befriend someone and not so that they can take responsibility for educating me, but more so that I can change the way I hear them. I can learn a new language.

think we all, if we've been around children, you've been around anyone, any relationship you have, there are moments with your spouse or your sister or your brother or your mother where we have to learn to hear what they mean by these words. To start with, when you say this, help me understand, help me see through your eyes. Let me listen to your experience with compassion and mercy and not with my hard-heartedness, not with me trying to prove to you that your opinion is really wrong.

but rather listening to try to understand how your opinion is important to you. We've really stopped listening to each other a lot. And so our repentance may look like in everyday life, attuning our ears to listening to in a different way. We pass over things that seem familiar to us, because they're comfortable. Part of the Christian faith is discomfort.

take up your cross daily and follow me is not an invitation to sit on the couch with a blanket. It is really not. So when we read the scripture rather than reading the scripture as if it's a nice story to say, know, God is actually serious about this. When Jesus says to love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, he's not kidding. He's not making it up. He's saying,

with all your money, your talent, your hours of your day, how you spend your life, what you do, that you're honoring the gift God's given you in life, and you're loving God with it, you're yielding it to that it can be used to its fullest capacity. And then the second is like unto it, to love your neighbor as yourself. Not cause if I'm nice, they'll be nice back, but rather because I love my neighbor.

Bishop DeDe (16:51.158)
because that is how I love my God. I've been saying a lot lately, if you have, because I've had people say to me, I tried loving my neighbor, but it just didn't work. And then I said, you know, it really didn't, because if you were loving your neighbor thinking they were gonna be nice back, or was gonna somehow change them into people you liked, or somehow they was gonna convert them to be what you want, you're not actually loving them yet. And so you haven't really.

Loving your neighbor is a whole other muscle. And so I think both your questions, the ways we do it each day is to be attentive. And I think there used to be a practice of imagining the presence of Jesus with you. So when you go into the store to have this image of God being present with you, surrounding you in light or other people in light, can, whatever imagery works for you.

But as you're going through the store, how you're pushing your cart and how you're talking to people, are you compassionate to the well-being of another person? It is a real hard skill. And people pass over loving your neighbors or yourself or make it trite or talk about it being a golden rule or kind of pass it over, because it's so absolutely impossible. Loving God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength.

loving your neighbors yourself, it will take all our attention, all of our life to even start to get close to it. So why do it? Because when we do it, we experience something that's transcendent of this life. We're no longer earthbound, we become people of eternity. And we're invited into that sacred space of eternity in these actions. So repentance is an invitation of God with love and hope, with goodness, with

God is, think, Jesus, in fact, if you look at the scriptures, Jesus is very unconcerned about the afterlife in a way. He talks about in times a lot, there's a lot of eschatological speaking, but he isn't really talking about, you know, heaven as much. Yes, on the cross, you'll be with me in paradise today, but really what Jesus focuses on is how we live every day in this moment.

Bishop DeDe (19:17.454)
and that is the call. That is the gospel. However we understand it.

Diocese of Central New York Communications (19:23.157)
Hmm. So I do have one listener submitted question, and this one's got a little bit of a preamble to it, but I'm going to go ahead and give Sarah, who is in Syracuse, I'm going to kind of go through all of this. Sarah says that they are not a church going person and they are not an Episcopalian. So Sarah, whoever you found us, welcome. And whoever shared this with Sarah, wherever you found it, thank you.

Bishop DeDe (19:42.734)
you

Yay!

Bishop DeDe (19:49.528)
Love it.

Diocese of Central New York Communications (19:50.301)
Sarah says that, I'm realizing I need to make some changes in my life. And listeners, by the way, I know that sometimes we get, let me start that again. This is not a self-help podcast. It's not an advice column, but these things do have an intersection sometimes. So Sarah says, I'm realizing I do need to make some changes in my life. I was raised in a very conservative evangelical home and I'm realizing many of the things I was taught are wrong. How do I move past

Bishop DeDe (20:13.912)
Mm-hmm.

Diocese of Central New York Communications (20:19.934)
the guilt that I am feeling and make real changes, even if I'm not necessarily a, and she uses quotes, Christian. It's a big one.

Bishop DeDe (20:30.61)
Well, it is a very big one, Sarah. And I would say, first of all, we all need community. And this is not a how-to. mean, we're just talking here. know, this podcast is speaking of faith. We're talking about it. And we need community, first of all. And I don't know, the not being Christian is fine. Let's set down some of these.

guilty things that we've inherited from people and to sort of let them go. And you may need some, I think there are the church, some people have been really traumatized by the church and need therapy and need real counseling and need someone to walk with them and maybe a pastoral presence, whether or not it is about, you know, conversion to a faith, it's more about being freed of the harm that has been done or the coercive way we've been treated. And so,

first to take those steps that need to be taken so that you have that support. I think the Christian faith, and this is my opinion, this is, you may listen or have a different one, when I read the Gospels, it's a faith of community. It's about the kingdom of God, it's about people together. And so we need each other, we need community. I know that in some of our Episcopal parishes, we actually have folks who've come there and said, I'm an atheist.

But I need people to talk with about what I believe and how I live. And, you know, not every Episcopal church, don't wanna, you know, but a lot of our churches, especially the Diocese of Central New York are pretty good at that. They're like, okay, come on in and we'll, you know, come to the thing and we'll talk together. We'll kind of reason together and we'll listen with respect together. But I would say first and foremost, when we're trying to heal from trauma that the church has caused.

We need real help with each other. I think also forgiving the people who have traumatized us and recognize that most of the people who caused trauma are people who were trying so hard to get it right, they got it wrong. There are people who are just not safe people and really that isn't true for. But I think a lot of the times, I think of people

Bishop DeDe (22:51.478)
Sunday school teachers and different people in my life who meant well. They were talking with the truth they had at the time and they weren't aware of how destructive it was for me. The church really, and I think the Episcopal Church is working on this, if you're talking about LGBTQ plus persons. We have a lot of repentance we need to do around bad teachings and negative theologies that have been pandered around as if they're God's teachings.

If you really look at scripture, not a lot in there about this, it turns out. The Bible doesn't say a lot about homosexuality, especially, it's just, but humans trying to get it right can be very destructive. So forgiving them, getting the help we need if it's in counseling and otherwise, and then having a community where we can talk and say, you know, I feel bad about this. I wanna be released of this guilt. I wanna, let's set this down.

I want to figure out what I actually believe. What do I believe is the meaning of life? What do I believe God is about? I have great faith in God. I think the Holy Spirit is bigger than our opinions. And I think the Holy Spirit is bigger than our doubts. And I think our doubts are how we often find the Holy Spirit. And so Sarah, I encourage you to find good people who have whole lives, whose theology is healing.

and redemptive and to have community with folks like that and to seek God together and in community.

Diocese of Central New York Communications (24:30.973)
So last one I have Bishop and for all of you listeners who are joining us, you're going to be joining us during the first week of the season of Lent during the church's calendar. And we actually had a question, no name submitted, but they wanted to know, Bishop, what is it that you are giving up or are doing this Lent? So I think that this person has maybe been paying attention in church in some capacity because I've heard a lot of people from the pulpit talk about

Bishop DeDe (24:52.318)
You

you

Diocese of Central New York Communications (25:00.177)
things that we're giving up or the things that we're going to do for Lent. So it's not necessarily about like, I'm not going to have chocolate or whatever it is. So they want to know from you Bishop Dee Dee, what is it that you are doing to dive deeper into Lent this year?

Bishop DeDe (25:00.864)
huh.

huh.

Bishop DeDe (25:06.487)
Mm-hmm.

Bishop DeDe (25:13.194)
That is such a good question. And I love the put me on the spot part. No, I didn't give up chocolate. I'll just say that right out. Nope. That's never been one of my practices. I do find it lent. is really helpful for me to, to do it both give up something and take on something. And so, one of the things that,

This, this lens a little different for me because what I took up is that I'm walking every day for 30 minutes, because I generally speaking get so busy that that's the thing I push off. work out regularly just to put in a plug for physical health. And I, I do that, but I find walking to be very helpful for me mentally, but it's the thing that I always should do. So I decided that this land I'm going to walk for 30 minutes, every day. And so far.

I'm on track to do that and that has actually been a lot harder than it seems because that means that the other night at about nine o'clock I went walking because that was when I was done. The other thing is I've been praying for people who I need to forgive and so I've been praying for them and so those are the two things that this Lent season I've really been focusing on.

There's some other things I started reading scripture to. I kind of take Lent as a whole season for me to really think about where is God, what's keeping me from knowing God, and how do I grow closer, how do I repent of whatever it is in my life. So praying for the people who either I hold, feel a grudge about, which is not, I'm not a big grudge holder, but people that when I think of them, I'm like defensive about feeling, I have feelings.

And I've been praying for them and praying for their wellbeing and then the walking every day. This year, I really prayed about giving something up. Typically I've given up Facebook or Instagram or social media posts, but this year, no, not about it. think I really affirm that this year for some reason, it felt like I needed to not totally do that. Although I will say I am not a big poster on those things. So.

Diocese of Central New York Communications (27:22.389)
Never a bad idea. Never a bad idea.

Bishop DeDe (27:36.942)
But I just prayed about it. Those were the things that really felt like I needed to be doing them. And so that's what I've been doing for my Lent.

Diocese of Central New York Communications (27:49.436)
So Bishop, what? So this is actually, so this is interesting. A while ago, I've done a lot of weird stuff. When I was in my very evangelical Catholic days, had somebody dare me to literally fast for all of Lent, and I did it once, and it was the worst thing I ever did in my life. So I didn't eat the entire time, and it was crazy uncomfortable.

Bishop DeDe (27:50.124)
What, Adam, what are you giving up for Lent? So I'll put this on you.

Bishop DeDe (28:13.292)
Wow.

Diocese of Central New York Communications (28:18.164)
And it was nothing, there was nothing spiritual about it. It was, it was, it was something I would never recommend to anybody. And I think that the whole reason God let me do it is so I could tell people don't ever do that. That's horrible. Like I ate nothing. I had broth and water and coffee the whole time and it was horrible. Horrible. but one, but one of the things I, but one of the things I heard and,

Bishop DeDe (28:24.867)
Mm-hmm.

Bishop DeDe (28:33.882)
yeah.

Was it bad? I'm just kidding.

Diocese of Central New York Communications (28:44.411)
There's a priest, Jesuit priest named Father James Martin. And if you were a frequent watcher of anything Stephen Colbert, he's the official chaplain to all things Stephen Colbert. So he was the chaplain the, he was the chaplain, using it in the air quotes, for the Colbert report. And he was also now the chaplain of the Tonight Show, or not the Tonight Show, excuse me, the Late Show. And he has said in an interview with Stephen Colbert that he has a friend of his that picks what he gives up for Lent each year.

Bishop DeDe (29:03.906)
Leave it.

Bishop DeDe (29:13.422)
Mmm.

Diocese of Central New York Communications (29:14.808)
And so I've gotten in the practice of asking different friends the things that I should give up for Lent each year. And so like one year it was, I had a friend who said like, you can't use anything with salt. Like you can't eat salt. And I said, that's going to be rough. And then it was one without coffee. And I said, that's an even worse idea. So one of the things, so my friend this year, I go to a different friend each year and this year, and I've already failed. I, I, I'm giving up swearing and I've

And I don't want to say that like it's necessarily a bad thing to have bad to use bad language listeners But it happens to the best of us and God can understand our bad language But you know as a parent somebody's trying to be conscious of people around them. have failed already, but I'm renewing myself every day To try and not use bad language So I'm trying not to swear. That's one thing but the other thing that I am trying to do

As I've mentioned before, I'm a relatively new Episcopalian. I've only been really practicing the Episcopal tradition for about two and a half years now. I'm trying to get more into understanding and praying with the Book of Common Prayer. This is a really new practice for me. There's some very similar things within the Catholic tradition, like the Liturgy of the Hours and things like that. But I really have appreciated, I've come to appreciate

Bishop DeDe (30:23.502)
Mm-hmm.

Bishop DeDe (30:29.959)
I love it. Yeah.

Mm-hmm. Yep.

Diocese of Central New York Communications (30:42.584)
this unifying thread of everything in the Book of Common Prayer, especially for me, there's so much similarity in Episcopal liturgy to Catholic mass, but like I can go anywhere and I can have the priest or the deacon, say, you can like at our church, shout out to Grace Syracuse, our priest, Father Steve will say like, our service continues on page six of the bulletin or on page whatever in the Book of Common Prayer. So if I forgot.

Bishop DeDe (31:08.269)
Mm-hmm.

Diocese of Central New York Communications (31:10.922)
grab a bulletin, I can bring up the BCP on my phone or I have a copy sometimes in my day bag and I can just grab it. Or there's really beautiful like morning prayer, stuff like that in the Book of Common Prayer that I can go through and pray.

Bishop DeDe (31:19.662)
Yeah, and the prayers for families and the prayers in the back, there's some, it's a, and it came out of the brevaries. mean, this, can get a nerd out on this, it, that is a great resource for that. And yeah, no, that sounds really good. And I think it's not about the, you know, failing as much as it is about the, the focus really is about our faith and getting back closer to God. I mean, this year, I actually felt bad for about a day or so, cause I,

Diocese of Central New York Communications (31:24.376)
Yeah.

Bishop DeDe (31:49.078)
I kept praying about like some years I've given up meat, some years I've given up. I'm not a big drinker, so full confession, I actually already haven't been having alcohol, so that seemed a little, you know, when we take it up, so I can give it up, I don't know. I'm not drinking right now anyway, so that's not happening. But I just felt like this for me to be closer to God meant doing something different with my time that I...

I think getting maybe I'm giving up the shoulds. I should go walk. So I'm giving up that should and actually walking. But I think, you know, it sounds like a great thing. And you're right. Praying with the Book of Common Prayer, their prayer for families is actually that mimic the prayer of the hours and that are shorter, you know, for to pray with kids and things at breakfast, lunch and dinner or whatever. So it's really great that you're getting into the prayer book because it's such

I think it's one of our great resources, no matter what our denomination is, but especially in the Episcopal Church, it is our common gathering for prayer, again, very communal. well, listener, it's been great to have this conversation with you. Whatever you've given up or taken on for Lent may draw you more closely to God. May you feel yourself centering in on God. And when we feel those convictions in our spirit, when we hear something and know,

I shouldn't be doing that. I pray that we will all know that God loves us immeasurably and is always inviting us to come back, to change our mind, to start again, and to renew our life following the teachings of Jesus. May you be blessed and be a blessing. May you know the love of God and know that you are treasured. And I look forward to speaking with you soon. Take good care.