Lent begins with an opportunity to stop and reflect

LYNN – The first day of Lent found Marjorie Kayondo finishing one journey and beginning another.Fresh from a trip to Uganda, where she found her homeland peaceful but politically restless, Kayondo joined other St. Stephen?s Episcopal Church congregation members Wednesday in receiving ashes to mark the start of their 40-day journey to Easter.?It?s a day of recommitment and refocus of my faith and then everything that follows – work, marriage, life,” she said.Kayondo has worshipped in the towering stone-and-brick church on South Common Street for 10 years, in part because the Episcopal faith most closely resembles Anglican services she attended as a child.Rev. Jane Gould led Kayondo and about 40 other worshippers through Ash Wednesday services and – after giving each one of her congregation members a hug – reflected on the meaning of Lent.?It is a time for seeing what we are doing and not doing. It?s not a question of particular behaviors – ?doing it the right way? – it is anything that can lead us closer to God,” she said.Miguel Soto made St. Stephen?s a stop Wednesday on his journey to open a faith-based group supporting Lynn immigrants. He said founding the group is a way to translate his personal interpretation of Ash Wednesday?s meaning into a goal with a larger purpose.?We want to congregate in good faith to put people in the right positions,” he said.Soto said Ash Wednesday has been celebrated in his family as an important day of faith generation after generation.?It is very powerful: We ask, ?Where are we going? Where are we coming from? Where do we want to be??” he said.Like Soto, St. Stephen?s congregation member Timothy Potter said Ash Wednesday and Lent are opportunities to contemplate personal changes and change impacting the world.?It means new beginnings. It gives us the opportunity through repentance to clean the slate and see what needs to be done personally and for the community,” he said.Founded in 1844 and occupying its faith home on Lynn Common since 1880, St. Stephen?s – like St. Mary?s and other Lynn churches – draws worshippers from countries around the world into its pews.Some of its services are said in the African language of Kiswahili, and Gould typically ministers to 175 worshippers on Sunday. For her, Lent is “a journey inward.” For Kayondo, it is a journey that leaves her energized in time to welcome spring.?I?m usually renewed by Easter,” she said.