By Lilly Lewin
I’m on my annual silent retreat this week at the Abbey of Gethsemani in Kentucky. It’s the monastery of Thomas Merton and Father Matthew Kelty and the place that has taught me the value of silence in my busy life. It’s also the place I first discovered Father Edward Hays and his Lenten Hobo Honeymoon, that is still in the guest library I am happy to say! And since it’s Valentine’s Day, I thought I’d add to a post from last year about falling in love with Jesus for Lent this year.
It was Father Hays who introduced me to the concept of using the 40 days of Lent to fall more in love with Jesus rather than the sack cloth and ashes stereotype or tradition of Lent. It was also Father Hays who said that giving up chocolate for Lent never helped anyone get closer to Jesus, it just made them grumpy and angry…so he’s my kind of guy!
So in honor of Valentines, and since the season of Lent is fast approaching (Ash Wednesday is February 26), what if we choose to spend the 40 days of Lent falling more in love with Jesus? What would that look like?
When we fall in love with someone we often get a little crazy and we do things to show just how much we love the other person. My first real boy friend was in 8th grade. I went to an all girls school in town and he went to the all boys school. We met at church and were in youth group together. I was smitten! And since I am an artist, I expressed my love for him with a hand crafted Valentine. I took a piece of cardboard and collaged it with words and phrases and pictures cut out of magazines glued on to a piece of card board. I even used my mom’s “pinking shears” to cut out the heart and give it a special edging. And since i was too young to drive, I had to get my dad to drive me across town to the boy’s house to give him this created treasure! I’m not sure he really appreciated the time and effort but for me it was an act of love to create something special. My husband expresses his love to me through amazing meals and fun cards. I have friends who write songs for one another. I know friends who go on hikes together and even take retreats to plan together and reflect on their lives. There are just as many ways to express love to someone as there are people!
Consider how you express love and how you experience love yourself. How have you shown someone you loved them in the past? How do you show some one you love them now? How do you show love to your friends? Your family? Your co workers or teammates? How do you like to experience love? Is it through Time, Gifts, Conversation, Creativity? Something else? Take some time to think about this and make a list.
Years ago, I created a sacred space prayer experience based off Father Ed Hay’s book The Lenten Hobo Honeymoon. Father Hays and I are kindred spirits when it comes to experiencing God and practicing our faith in touchable, tangible, symbolic ways. This book is still my all time favorite Lenten devotional. After hosting this Sacred Space for my church and youth group, I was invited to do something at the near by convent. Since it was still Lent, I didn’t create anything new, I just set up the same Sacred Space and sent nuns on a honeymoon with Jesus!
What if we saw Lent as a honeymoon with Jesus? How could this help you focus your time and Lenten practices? What would a honeymoon with Jesus look like for you? Where would you go? What would you do? How would you spend time together and get to know each other better?
Like in any relationship, you have to start small. Usually you date awhile before you get married and go on a honeymoon. So since we have a couple of weeks before the beginning of Lent, let’s start! What will your date with Jesus look like? I’d love to hear about it! Mine definitely will involve chocolate!
Plan a date with Jesus. What do you do? Do you go out for a walk? Do you get out in nature? Do you go out and have coffee and take your journal? Could you find some old magazines and create a collage Valentine with words and phrases and pictures expressing your love to Jesus? or cook dinner for someone who is lonely? Bake some cookies for the neighbors or take flowers to friend who is sick?
Think about Being a Bride. What about being the Bride of Christ…what does that mean to you? Consider how much love Jesus has for you just as you are! Consider all the things brides do these days to plan a wedding. Planning, prepping, pinning on Pinterest! Do we put that much effort into our relationship with Jesus? Can we plan and be more intentional in how we fall more in love with Him between now and Easter? 
What if we planned to focus on how much Jesus loves us this Lent? What things would you add into your daily life to help you remember and receive that love? Maybe eating a chocolate heart or a hershey kiss as a reminder. Or posting a Valentine on your mirror to remind you that you are greatly loved by Jesus. Or carrying a heart around in your pocket as a tangible reminder of His love for you! What would be the reminder that you need? 
Maybe you could set the alarm on your phone at 2:14pm each day to remind you that you are greatly loved by Jesus! or find special candle to light daily to help you remember. Or listen to a favorite song that will keep you close to Jesus and help you know that you are held in his great love! Listen to one of my favorites here ” I am Held” by Pat Barrett
We have entire season between now and Easter for experience more love and fall more in love with Jesus. Let’s give up hate, and blame, and self criticism this year and add Love instead!
And if you’d like a resource to help you practice love this Lenten Season, or any season for that matter, check out the 40 Days of Love prayer kit that is for individual use or the one for small groups, youth groups and entire church communities. It’s a kit that involves praying with prayer hearts daily and practicing love in your neighborhood.
©lillylewin and freerangeworship.com
By Cathy Lawton —
One night I was very ill and out of nowhere, it seemed, the vision of this poem came to me. I thought of the woman in Luke 7 who anointed Jesus’ feet. And it just came to me like never before that, in Jesus, God was physically present in our world and to people. I like this story because of the physicality of it. Christ is in us and Christ is in all.
When one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. 37 A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume. 38 As she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.
39 When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner.”
40 Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.”
“Tell me, teacher,” he said.
41 “Two people owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii,[a] and the other fifty. 42 Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he forgave the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?”
43 Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt forgiven.”
“You have judged correctly,” Jesus said.
44 Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. 45 You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. 46 You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. 47 Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.”
48 Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”
49 The other guests began to say among themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?”
50 Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”
By Joy Lenton —
A profound sense of the ineffable runs through our veins but we might mistake it for murmurs from another place. Perhaps we hear instead the pulse of impulse, the throb of desire, the heat of our own emotions racing fast. It could be coupled with a sudden, burning brevity of insight that dissipates like mist before returning again.
Each small flare of recognition and recollection stirs our remembrance of sacred echoes even if they are barely discernible sometimes. Maybe we can learn to distinguish between these holy echoes and the clamour of our soul’s noise?
A holy heartbeat
You are here, present within
but I fail to hear you sometimes,
so caught up am I
in the daily grind.
And yet you remain, still
gently breathing out your love,
sighing out your grace,
whispering an invitation
to every one of us.
Come, come, my child, you call,
come sit with me
and rest awhile
and practice listening
for my gentle voice.
Come lean yourself, your cares,
your weary, troubled head
against my breast
and hear
my holy heartbeat.
It pounds continually,
steadily throughout
the years,
throughout eternity itself,
it never disappears.
As you abide close to me
you will receive
heavenly joy and peace,
and be given space
for your soul to breathe.
Perhaps, if we look closely enough, we might observe the essence of holy heartbeats in practice. It threads through our days in creation’s worshipful beauty, or in relationships, because that’s primarily how God manifests Himself to us. We hear the very heartbeat of God Himself within our souls as Holy Spirit influences and inspires how we live and love.
And as we get to grips with the messy and thorny issues of loving and living well, they present themselves to us as fresh opportunities for humility and hope, compassion, forgiveness, goodness and grace. But it all begins with seeking to develop a greater awareness of sacred echoes in our minds, hearts and lives, and being responsive to God’s voice.
“There is no part of our existence which [God] cannot touch. There is no place in our varied experience where He cannot meet us. His humanity is as broad as ours…. This is the secret of all-sufficiency —the friendship of Jesus, the indwelling life of Christ, our union heart to heart with One who, as no other friend could possibly do, lives out His very life in ours.” — Tozer on the Holy Spirit: A 365-Day Devotional by A. W. Tozer
By Carol Dixon —
God in the heart of a snowdrop
Sometimes my faith is fragile, God,
as frail as a snowdrop.
Help me to be so earthed in you
that I can stand firm,
weathering the winter of the soul,
nodding defiance in the storms of life,
bending with the winds of change,
not breaking, bowing my head
in reverence to you, my loving God,
who causes me to dance for joy
and, in companionship with others,
give glory to you.
I wrote it one January on the anniversary of the death of my mother (who died 44 years ago this year) when my faith in God, who I had believed in from childhood, was shaken to the roots. Despite having a beautiful 6-month-old daughter, I felt desolate and bereft, even of God. Then one day, I saw a tiny snowdrop rising up from the darkness of the frozen earth, defying the bitter cold of winter and I felt the tiny stirrings of faith again rising in my frigid heart, beginning to melt my unbelief through the broken heart of God, who gave his life so that death would never defeat love.
I wrote the prayer years afterwards but the feelings that stirred all those years before remained with me, warming my heart in times of adversity, much as the Easter hymn ‘Now the green blade rises’ reminds us of God’s unfailing love (verse 4).
‘When our hearts are wintry, grieving, or in pain,
Your touch can call us back to life again,
Fields of our hearts that dead and bare have been,
Love is come again like wheat that springs up green.’ (J.M.C. Crum)
Today, the snowdrops started blooming in our garden and I thought of my prayer again and of God’s wonderful love at the heart of all things.
by Christine Sine
I am a strong believer in our call to be creation keepers and earth stewards of this beautiful world in which God has placed us. I am delighted by it but also saddened by what is happening to it.
For the last month the focus of my morning prayer has been a barren garden dotted with seeds, feathers and dried out eucalyptus leaves – a stark reminder of the scorched earth of not just Australia but of so many parts of the world where God’s beautiful creation has been stripped away, polluted and destroyed. My heart aches as I read about the devastation from fires in Australia, flooding here in Seattle, earthquakes in Puerto Rico and droughts in Africa. Sea levels are rising and already threaten low lying island nations. Our world is in peril and as we head towards Lent this year I have been challenged to make this my focus and invite you to join me.
Part of what convicted me was the gift of For the Beauty of the Earth from Chalice press which I plan to use this year as my Lenten devotional. Second was the reminder that on April 22 we will celebrate the 50th anniversary of Earth Day and as you can imagine it has started me thinking about what I already do, small though it may be, to fulfill my role as a creation keeper and what more I could do. My third stimulus was reading that the Archbishop of Canterbury is challenging Anglicans around the world to celebrate a Green Lent. Then I looked at the pile of books I am putting together for a new writing project on restoring the rhythms and seasons of life and I knew this had to be my focus this year.
What a lot of rich resources there are out there. I have grabbed a few of the best for the Lenten season and thought that you might like to join me in this reading and in practices I am thinking about for Lent (and hoping that our small community will also participate in.) And if you wonder where to start look over this list on Green Lent by Dianne Sheper
Reading For Lent
In his encyclical Laudato Si: On Care For Our Common Home, Pope Francis calls us to see that the unprecedented destruction of ecosystems we are visiting upon the earth is rooted in urgent spiritual and moral questions, and requires from us a spiritual and moral response. I think that Lent is a season for identifying with the poor and it seems to me that there is no better time to consider our impoverished earth and what we can do to bring back its beauty than this.
I am currently reading Spiritual Ecology: The Cry of the Earth a collection of essays on creation care from a variety of perspectives that I am finding both encouraging and convicting.
The signs of wonder are all around us, from the simple mystery of a sunrise to the laugh of a child. So too are the signs of desolation we have created – the rubbish we scatter on our streets, the toxins in our water, the species we have depleted. And amidst both the beauty and the desolation is the cry of the Earth, the suffering of this most generous being who gives us life and sustains us. (i)
The suffering of the earth is as real as the suffering of the poor on whom the burden of the crisis falls most heavily; we must (Pope Francis) tells us hear both the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor. The earth herself, burdened and laid waste, among the most abandoned and maltreated of our poor. (Spiritual Ecology (ii-iii)
At the same time I am skimming through Spiritual Ecology: 10 Practices to Awaken the Sacred in Everyday Life . This little book by Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee and Hilary Hart, the editors of the book above, has some great suggestions on practices that help to connect us to the earth and to the world around us – nothing beyond your reach – like walking and breathing exercises (You can probably see why I like this as these are practices I already do regularly).
Morning Altars
To contract some of these challenging books I am also reading Morning Altars: A 7 Step Practice to Nourish Your Spirit Through Nature, Art and Ritual. This is my most cherished and inspirational find of the last month. It not only has gorgeous photos in it, but spells out a wonderful reflective process for how to wonder, wonder, and create out of the natural world around us.
A few others I am leaving (at least trying to) until the beginning of Lent are:
Wild Hope: Stories for Lent from the Vanishing by Gail Boss and David Klein. This is one I have not looked at yet but it has been recommended by several friends.
From Nature to Creation: by Norman Wirzba who suggests Christians start by developing an imagination for the world as created, sustained and daily loved by God. If we call the earth a nature or the environment it loses it sacred presence – returning to the use of creation as a description of our glorious earth restores our sense of connected to God in and through it.
The Rebirthing of God by John Philip Newell in which we are encouraged to move back into relationship with everything else that is of God. I read this several years ago and realize it is time to revisit it.
God’s Good Earth: Praise and Prayer for Creation by Anne and Jeffery Rowthorn is a great resource for prayers and liturgies for creation care during this season.
This may sound like a lot of reading and you probably want to restrict yourself to one or two of these – For the Beauty of The Earth and Morning Altars would make great reading companions.
Spiritual Practices for Lent.
A couple of years ago I posted these Ten Simple Ways to Help Heal The Land and Sustainability One Yoghurt Jar At a Time which I have just prayerfully re-read as I think about what I should do this year for Lent.
Here is what I am hoping to institute the following practices for Lent:
- Be thankful and enjoy life – this advice from Chief Oren Lyons in Spiritual Ecology really resonated with me. The place we start in Lent is not with cutting back but with being thankful. “Thankfulness inspires respect” he says. If, each day we express thankfulness for one aspect of creation – the rising of the sun, the wind in our hair, the grace of birds in the air, the beauty of flowers and of passersby in the street, then our respect for creation grows. On top of that we realize how intimately connected to creation we are.
- A plant based diet. I remember several years ago when we were in Lebanon during Lent and had lunch with an Orthodox priest and his wife. They presented us with a lavish meal but restricted themselves to the traditional lenten diet of lentils, beans and rice. Tom and I are discussing how we can implement this at least partially during Lent (not planning to give up milk in my tea and coffee though)
- A carbon fast This free download gives some great ideas for a carbon fast. I plan to focus on one each week rather than one each day so that I don’t get overloaded.
- Seed planting. This is not really a new practice for me. We grow at least 50% of our own fruit and vegetables on our urban lot and Lent coincides with prime seed planting season in Seattle. Strangely I have never really made a conscious connection between these two practices – this year I plan to probably by planting tomato seeds inside at the beginning of Lent and greens outside at the end of Lent (still thinking about how this will be lived out)
- At least two car free days a week. We work at home so in some ways this is not difficult for us but again it is the conscious decision to walk, bike or take public transport that I need to instill into my thinking. We have three supermarkets within a mile of us. Walking rather than driving to these is an option, and possibly like my mother I need a wheeled shopping trolley to make that easier.
- Spring clean and refuse to use plastic where possible. Lent was traditionally a season of spring cleaning as a symbol of our inner need for cleaning and I think that getting rid of plastic as much as possible from our lives is one way to symbolize the change of thinking that we want to adhere too. And of course it is not just things like plastic bags, plastic storage containers, or plastic cutting boards that we need to think about getting rid of. Micro plastics are ubiquitous in our world and though the jury is still out on how harmful they are there are some concerning reports that we need to think about. And Microplastics occur in everything from tea bags to fleece garments and cosmetics. So it might be time to buy only natural fibers and cut back on cosmetics or research those that do not contain Microplastics.
As a community we are also thinking of some earth friendly practices that we have not yet instituted – solar power and rain wise gardens are some to consider. Our church recently installed rain wise gardens and water cisterns to
Last week we updated our Lenten and Easter resource lists and there are several other suggestions for creation keepers to consider during this season. Here are a few others that my not have made the list.
- Creation Care as a Hopeful Spiritual Practice for Lent Devotional by Lynne Baab is a great resource to consider
- Carbon fast
- Ten Simple Ways to Help Heal The Land
- Getting Rid of Plastic One Yoghurt Jar At a Time
What Is Your Response
What are you considering doing for Lent this year? How could you incorporate your care for creation into these practices?
More Resources for Lent and Easter
We also wanted to let you know that we have now updated all our Lent and Easter resources for 2020. There are general resources, ones for families with kids, music, suggested devotionals and a number of FREE resources. So check them out
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This unpacking of the Lord’s Prayer is both challenging and exciting. It is refreshing not just to revisit some of the interpretations that bloggers to Godspace have submitted in the past but also to re-read some of the books on prayer that it has reminded me of.
One of these is E.Stanley Jones book The Way, a Christian classic that is, I think, a must read for every person of Christian Faith.
First I love his definition of prayer
Prayer is co-operation with God. In prayer you align your desires, your will, your life to God. You and God become agreed on life desires, life purposes, life plans, and God you work them out together. That is prayer. Prayer is not trying to get God to do your will. It is the getting of our will in line with God’s will.(Sunday week 29)
Reading further I was particularly struck by his reminder of the corporate nature of the language used in the Lord’s Prayer. This is not a prayer that we can pray alone or live out alone. The language is “our” and us. Jones comments:
There is a qualifying word to Father, the word “Our”. That “our” determines the nature of religion. Suppose it had been “my”? That would have changed the nature of religion. Instead of being social and we-cntred, it would have been individual and I-centred. That would have started us off wrong, the whole prayer would come out wrong. That word “our” means a shifting of the emphasis from me to the Father and to my brothers (and sisters).(Tuesday week 29)
My interpretation of the Lord’s Prayer for today came out of my meditating on these words.
Our Father,
Not mine alone but stretching beyond family, race, class, and religion,
Reaching to everyone everywhere.
Our Father,
The One who takes responsibility for us as family,
The One who cannot do anything but the loving thing,
Hallowed be your name.
May we reverence in thought and word and deed your name, your character,
May we see as holy the very nature of who you are.
Your kingdom come,
Your kingdom of peace, justice, wholeness and abundance.
May it come because we seek it above all else,
And put it in our prayers and in our actions where Jesus did,
first in consideration and allegiance.
Your will be done,
Your will for my life desires, life purposes, life plans,
Your will for kingdom life to be revealed,
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
Not bread for me alone but for everyone, your entire human family
Not bread for the rest of my life but for today,
For we know that when we seek first your kingdom,
all these things – food, clothing, all we need- shall be added,
As and when we need them.
And forgive us our sins,
Forgive us our desires for luxuries that make others do without necessities,
Forgive us our holding onto tomorrow’s bread that should be shared today.
Forgive us as we forgive others, not resenting what they have, who they are,
how you have gifted them,
Lead us not into temptation but away from evil,
Guide us, all of us, until evil is not longer a temptation for us.
For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory,
You still rule, now, in our world today,
You rule with kingdom power and kingdom glory.
Amen
By Lilly Lewin
I spent last weekend at the Opryland Hotel, creating a Sacred Space prayer experience for the Warmth in Winter Conference. I’ve had the honor to curate a Sacred Space for WNW ( the annual winter conference for Methodist students and leaders) for the past eleven years. This year our theme was SEEN...Jesus sees us! We are SEEN by Jesus …with love and compassion and with honor. And as we realize we are SEEN by Jesus, then we are able to SEE others with love, honor and compassion too. 
I need the reminder today that Jesus truly sees me, SEES each of us! I need to remember that Jesus sees all the things around you and me, and all the horrific suffering happening in our world. Honestly, I haven’t been doing very well with all the pain of this week. I’m feeling the weight of the blindness and fear of our elected officials. I am saddened by deaths of immigrants deported from our country rather than allowed to seek asylum. There is still destruction and devastation due to fires in Australia and earthquakes in Puerto Rico, just to name a few of the painful heavy things that are weighing on me. BUT TODAY I AM SEEN! Today, You to are SEEN by Jesus!
PSALM 56:8-11 NRSV
You have kept count of my tossings;
put my tears in your bottle.
Are they not in your record?
Then my enemies will retreat
in the day when I call.
This I know, that God is for me.
In God, whose word I praise,
in the Lord, whose word I praise,
in God I trust; I am not afraid.
PSALM 56:8 THE MESSAGE
You’ve kept track of my every toss and turn
through the sleepless nights,
Each tear entered in your ledger,
each ache written in your book.
PSALM 56: 8-11 New American Standard Version
You have taken account of my wanderings;
Put my tears in Your bottle.
Are they not in Your book?
Then my enemies will turn back in the day when I call;
This I know, that God is for me.
In God, whose word I praise,
In the Lord, whose word I praise,
In God I have put my trust, I shall not be afraid.
What can man do to me?
In the SEEN Sacred Space we had a SEEN in GRIEF STATION. At this station we had two ways to respond to our grief and sorrow. First, we wrote down our pain and prayers of grief in a large blank book. Second, we poured water from a pitcher into a beautiful vase to represent all the tears we’ve cried and all the sorrow we have, giving these to Jesus to hold. Here is the Station:
BEING SEEN In GRIEF & LOSS
Being seen and SEEING JESUS in the midst of Grief and Loss
Jesus wants to you to know you are SEEN and loved even in your Grief and Sorrow.
Even in Loss,
Jesus is with you!
There are many hard and painful things happening in our lives.
Jesus says,
“Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted.”
ACTION 1:Write your prayers of Grief and Sorrow in the Book
Know that Jesus sees them already.
Allow Jesus to hold them for you!
ACTION 2:
POUR SOME WATER in the Jar
Allow this water to represent your tears. Know that God is holding them and God sees them! Talk to Jesus about your pain as you pour in the water.
Allow this water to represent your tears.
Know that God is holding them and God sees them!
Talk to Jesus about your pain as you pour in the water.
Jesus SEES you in your pain and is holding you close.
You might be feeling pain or sorrow this week too. Find a beautiful vase or simple jar to hold your tears. Pour water into the vase or jar and allow Jesus to hold your tears for you. Give your heaviness to him. Or Write down your pain and grief and give that to Jesus in a letter. Let Jesus love you and hold you today.
Your grief may be heavy. Your tears may be many. Know that you are SEEN and loved deeply by Jesus in even in your grief.
Featured image by my friend Artist Amy Poole , London
©lillylewin and freerangeworship@gmail.com
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