Lent is my favorite time of the Christian year. Ash Wednesday is my favorite service of the entire year. I appreciate the constant reminder to keep spiritual intention throughout my day. It is a way to recharge my spirituality each year and a way to discover new spiritual practices to sustain me throughout the next year.
I invite you to discover your own new journey of faith and spirituality
for the season of Lent.
We will expand the stations available during worship each Sunday. We invite you to bring images (pictures, drawings, other artwork) or items that represent your journey through Lent. Get creative—write a poem, finger paint, sculpt with Play Dough, sew, knit, take a picture of your sandcastle. We will create our own altar for these objects. Bring your object on any Sunday. You can leave it, so it will be in the altar for the duration of Lent, or you can take it back home with you.
In January, I took a class with 10 Episcopalian priests. Tom Theoni, a
priest in a small town in South Florida, and I became pastoral colleagues in
this class. We ended up collaborating on the following list of 40 ideas to
observe Lent, though we made some contextual changes to each of our lists to
accommodate urban San Francisco and small town Plant City, Florida. What a cool
way to share Lent with fellow Christians so far away! These are suggestions and
please feel free to create your own…
Forty ways to keep Lent
1. Write a note to someone just because. Try actually writing it and putting it in the snail mail.
2. Say no to at least one request of your time each week for the right reason.
3. Consider how you can declare a blessing each time you utter a curse.
4. Eat from your freezer and/or pantry.
5. Give the money you have saved to a hunger ministry.
6. Make sure each Sunday is a celebration of something.
7. Change one habit for the sake of the environment.
8. Consider very carefully any discipline you choose. Will it bring life or be a burden?
9. Try a quiet day, a day of retreat.
10. Give up any news source that propagates anxiety, anger or negative feelings.
11. Choose a single day to focus on how many times you say the word, “I”.
12. Only wear shoes that are comfortable.
13. Stop and take a moment of awe at God’s creation.
14. Do something touristy in San Francisco or the surrounding areas that you have never done because you live here.
15. Do something nice anonymously.
16. Pray for your neighbors, especially those you don’t like.
17. Pray daily for someone you need to forgive.
18. Read that book you have been meaning to read.
19. Reread you favorite book or the book that you first fell in love with.
20. Walk.
21. Change the side of the bed you sleep on.
22. Visit a loved one’s grave, in person or in your imagination. Tell them what you have always wanted to say but never got the opportunity.
23. Go to the coast or bay and watch the sun set.
24. Pray for the person behind you in the line at the supermarket.
25. Make a list of three things you do well and enjoy doing.
26. Find a way to do those things at least once a week.
27. Consider the Jewish call to Tikkun Olam—to repair and heal the world. Consider how you can actively participate in a new way.
28. Turn off the TV or Internet or cell phone or Facebook or Twitter.
29. Pray for an international area of conflict at least once a week.
30. Read a novel or rent a video from another culture, e.g. Muslim, Eastern, Native American, African-American.
31. Commute in silence.
32. Tweet or update your Facebook status with a quick prayer five times in one day.
33. Think about what it would be like to pray five times each day as our Muslim friends do.
34. Try a fast from dinner to dinner (this way you only miss two meals).
35. Draw or create your own sacred image.
36. Dance while no one watches.
37. Greet another as your dog greets you.
38. Collect your pocket change and give it to a good cause.
39. Pray before each meal.
40. Eat more fruits and vegetables. Buy them from local farmers, a co-op, or farmer’s market.
Finally, live
so you are able to love. Love so you are able to live.
Comments