Provisions for Along the Way: Lent

Now that we are entered into Lent, we think of all the things we could do to make it meaningful to us as we anticipate the events that inevitably come, the moderated joy and the coming sorrows. I have found a blog created by our Scottish Episcopal branch and if you seek something from a fresh perspective, then I encourage you to journey to Beauty From Chaos.

Among the blogs I read, there are two that stand out as great examples of Lenten focus. The Psaltery blends the Word with hymnody in a unique and moving style. For a different view into another's Lenten journey, I encourage you to visit De Die In Diem where the visual compliments the written...both of these are truly excellent.

If you prefer more visual or creative ways in which Lent is express, then I bid you visit The Episcopal Church and Visual Arts page. There is some moving and amazing art inspired by this contemplative season in our Church. I find that there are time when a visual image helps me attain a better focus on what is truly spiritually important and life changing. Prayer, being a vital part of our spiritual lives, can be beautiful in its simplicity, as well as in its complexity. Many people use a form of the Jesus Prayer to help guide their way in not only contemplative prayer but also in centering prayer. My own priest once shared with me how she uses the Jesus prayer for becoming centered in spirit. The portion of the prayer that I use as a result is:

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, Have mercy on me, a sinner.

This and other related prayers can be found at King of Peace--Anglican Prayers. One could pray these prayers with an Episcopal rosary. Sources for these warm and quietly lovely rosaries--also known as simply prayer beads--can also be found on this site and on InnerLight, a place where you can choose the types of materials that reflect your spiritual person.

Another of my particular favorites for prayer is Interlude: Prayers. Here you will find a wide range of prayers for Lent or any other season of our Church year. Thomas Merton is featured among other writers, known and unknown. I encourage you to visit and perhaps find a prayer that will become a special blessing to you. Related to the Interlude: Prayers site is the Interlude Internet Retreat page. There you will discover prayers from around the world that may move you in ways unknown during this holy Lent.

There are prayers and litanies from other countries that have moved me in ways that only a new culture's perspective can lend. One unique prayer that I simply love is the "Prayer for Light in the Darkness", a prayer from Africa:

O Father God, I cannot fight this darkness by beating it with my hands.
Help me to take the light of Christ into it. Amen.

It is my hope that some, or all or even one of these resources will be an inspiration to you along this Lenten way with one another, no matter where we are, we journey with our Lord Christ. Will you be my companion along the Way?

Catherine+

Ok, maybe NOT the Great Litany....

Well, give me a break already...it's not like we DO Ash Wednesday every Wednesday. Instead of page 149, its 267. HOWEVER, I think The Great Litany is appropriate for the angst-filled times our Church is in, so it would not be a bad idea to pray it a few times if not more through out Lent.

Ok. All done.

Catherine+

Of "Lint", Buzz and Doing...

What's the buzz in the blogosphere? For Episcopalians and Anglicans, it's Tanzania...all the time for now. And as interesting as Tanzania and the Primates' meetings are, thankfully, the rest of the world as we know it does not revolve around that one event. For some, it certainly does, but for most of us, Episcopalian or not, there are more important and life-changing events going on in the wider world. I suspect Our Kate would not want us to be focusing solely on our Episcopal selves but reaching into the world as Christ asked us and extending our hands...
This is Our Kate, courtesy of USA Today...

Some of us are thinking of the Lenten season fast approaching on Wednesday the 21st to be more specific. Some of us are thinking about our neighbors and how they are managing on a fixed income with all the recent cold weather and consequent heating bills. Others of us are contemplating our spring garden preparations, drawing colored planning diagrams to figure out where all the plant stuff will be going in the small scheme of things. While others are wondering what job is coming up that they might apply to, either for financial reasons or career change reasons. Volunteer opportunities abound here at home and abroad. Whether it's volunteering for CASA, working on saving the county libraries, making time for the local Red Cross or training with them to help victims of domestic or foreign disasters, these and thousands of other ways are all over the place, calling us to help, or serve in some capacity.

As we have learned over the weeks of Epiphany, everyone has one talent or another, a skill or a gift, that we can offer or give to the wider world, beginning with the world right outside of our front door to the front door of a grass hut in Africa or the doorstep found in an urban setting of concrete and asphalt. We all have something to give to someone, as much as they have to give to us.

As I consider the approach of Lent, I realize that the world will not slow down for those who observe it, this time of waiting and contemplation. We don't wait easily nor do we whip out our Blackberries to input time for contemplation. But I think that's the beauty of each action: waiting with Christ and considering Him in our everyday life should not be something we have to schudule like a meeting or class, or evening a manicure. It should simply BE part of our intangible life that comes automatically to us but in itself is not automated or performed by rote.

Ideally we should be able to slide into time with Christ and slide back into our human existence as if it were first-nature. Some people have accomplished this, but not many. It is something I strive for but not with any great physical exertion. That's not what its about. It's a state of mind, a state of heart...a state of soul. And often times we do it and we are completely unaware that it has happened. Others may wonder where we have drifted off to, and sometimes we don't know either but that's how time with Christ should be...so simple and easy.
As some people volunteer time to help others, they also unknowingly or knowingly, configure this time in such a way as to be in a moment of waiting with Christ, helping the poor, the sick, the less fortunate, and the act itself becomes their contemplation.

The waiting and the contemplating do not have to be static; it can be active as it occurs. That's the beauty of it.

So, as we come to the last Sunday in Epiphany, let's take but a moment to consider how we can be active in our waiting and contemplation with sharing our gifts and skills, regardless of what they may be. I believe in so doing we will know great quiet joy.

Catherine+
quietly preparing to slowly live Lent in the fast lane of this life...