Fat Sunday

Our Worship Together

This weekend, we celebrate Mardi Gras at MCC Austin with an All Alleluia Saturday service and a Fat Sunday service. Mardi Gras, French for "Fat Tuesday," is the final day of the Carnival celebrations as well as the last celebration day before the Lenten season begins on Ash Wednesday.

In faithful New Orleans fashion, we are going to celebrate Mardi Gras with a rousing feast of food and music, and in faithful Christian fashion, we are going to celebrate by reveling in God's joyous love for us and ours for God.

A main focus of our weekend worship will be letting out all of our Alleluias! because during Lent, we don't sing or say Alleluia. As Ervin Knezek, our Worship Team leader, has shared with several of our ministries, "In Lent, we do not profess Alleluia. We use this time to wait in joyful expectation for Easter. This practice enriches and shapes our prayer and our sense of discipline as we anticipate Easter. It is a kind of fasting from 'ecstasy' and ecstatic praise, letting our Alleluia lie dormant for six weeks before we again burst out in joyful and ecstatic affirmation of the resurrection."

Come and lift your Alleluias! with us this week and help us reaffirm that, as Nehemiah says, "The joy of God is our strength." Not that we're in any danger of forgetting that here at MCC Austin, but I've heard tell that some churches think that following God means only fasting and never feasting. If you're of a different mindset (or just different), we'll see you Saturday and Sunday!

Laissez le bon temps rouler!