by Christine Sine
It’s official, Seattle has accumulated more February snow than any time since 1916. Last Saturday we all woke to a beautiful white winter wonderland, we pulled out our sleds and went off to have some fun. We weren’t the only ones. The local park was full of families sledding, skiing, snowshoeing and walking. I came home refreshed, renewed and revived.
I cannot remember the last time I took a whole day for play like this. It is sad that it takes such a rare event for many of us to get out and have some fun. Yet according to Stuart Brown of the National Institute for Play nothing lights up the brain like play. He believes it is as important as oxygen for our survival and may be God’s greatest gift to humankind. (The Gift of Wonder 54) Not just to humankind but to dogs too as you will see in this short video I put together (more fun for me). enjoying the snow with community members Dan and Lisa and my dog Goldie – she makes a great sled dog!
As I reflected on this I was reminded of what I had read in David Whyte’s Consolations just a couple of days before. He is talking about the feeling of being besieged but I am using it here in a broader sense
Being besieged asks us to begin the day not with a to do list but a not to do list, a moment outside of the time bound world in which it can be reordered and reprioritized. In this space of undoing and silence we create a foundation from which to reimagine our day and ourselves.
Beginning the daily conversation from a point of view of freedom and being untethered calls us to re-see ourselves, to re–enter the world as if for the first time (David Whyte, Consolations 28)
Snow forced me to do this.
- My not to do list embraced all the things I planned to do on Saturday – no gardening, no swapping that out for other hard work, no getting caught up in what I though still needed to be done, but allowing myself to let go of all I had intended and enjoy the wonder of this rare snow day in Seattle. We began the day with a community waffle breakfast. We had planned this to be a rather hurried pre-gardening event but it was such fun to sit round the table with all the members of our small community, enjoying the fun of each other’s presence. Yes we did talk about what we would like to see happen in the garden but it was fun, not work.
- Reimagine our day and ourselves – I am not just created for work. I am created to enjoy God and to have fun, laugh, play and delight in the joy of being alive. Delight in the unexpected, let the joy of God fill you through the wonderful experiences that unfold.
- Begin in freedom and untethered. What do we need freedom from? As I thought about last Saturday I realized how easily I could have spent the day fretting about the things I couldn’t do. I could have lived in the guilt of not doing what I originally planned. I would have been frustrated and miserable. My frustrations would have created walls that stopped me enjoying the rich experience God had planned for me and the prayer above would not have bubbled up inside.
Unfortunately as I look out after a week of snow and with the promise of more on the way, I am very aware that it is not fun for everyone. This important article tore at my heart. Not only have people suffered the hardship of lost work hours and electricity, but for vulnerable kids the loss of school lunches means the loss of their one nutritious meal for the day. Being untethered however enables me to reflect on this and reach out to help those with this unexpected burden.
What Is Your Response?
Think about your own day. What would happen if you started with a “not to do” rather than a “to do” list? What might you end up doing? Who might you end up helping? How could you discover the freedom of being untethered and of reimagining your day and yourself as a child of God, made to enjoy the God of all creation and delight in the things that delights God’s heart.
Lord help us to live untethered lives, not restricted by our preconceived ideas of what we should do each day. Open our eyes to see the freshness of each new day and the opportunities for unexpected delights to emerge.
Each year, I post prayers from some of my favourite saints ancient and modern throughout the season of Lent. I will continue to do that but thought that some would like to have access to these prayers in one easy step so that you can plan your own use of them during the season.
Today, I came across this Lenten devotional that has excerpts on several of Mary Oliver’s poems that relate to Lent. It is well worth a read and some reflection.
- Lenten Prayers by St Augustine of Hippo
- Do It Anyway – A Lenten Prayer by Mother Teresa
- Prayers for Creation by John Birch
- Prayers from Teresa of Avila for Lent
- A Lenten Prayer by Thomas A Kempis
- Christ Has Walked this Path – Lenten Video by Jeff Johnson
- Morning and Evening Prayers for Lent
- Fall In Love – A Prayer for Lent by Father Pedro Arrupe
- The Lord’s Prayer – An Adaptation
- Prayers for Lent by Desmond Tutu
- I Cannot Do This Alone – A Lenten Prayer by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
- Thomas Merton’s Most Famous Prayer – A Good Prayer for Lent
- I Choose To Breathe in the Breath of Christ – A Prayer by Joseph Tetlow
- A Prayer fo Lent by Cesar Chavez
- A Lenten Prayer for Creation
- Columba’s Prayer – Helping Me Through Lent
- The Prayer of St Brendan
- Brigit’s Feast – My Favourite Celtic Prayer
- God of the Ashes – Black Liturgies
Please check out our complete list of Godspace resources for Lent through Holy Week
Last year, we started the Lenten Season on Valentine’s Day. Thankfully this year we have a few more weeks to prepare ourselves and consider what we’d like to do, or not do during the season of preparation. Here are a couple of ideas and resources you can use to prepare your heart for the season of Lent.
CHANGE JAR: Not everyone likes, or celebrates Valentines Day. So a few years ago, I came up with the idea to change Valentines Day! You start by finding a Jar with a lid. Take the jar and collect your spare change (coins) between now and Easter. It will be a few weeks longer than Lent this year because we don’t start that until March 6th. If you do this as a family, decide where you’d like to give your change in order to make a change! It could be to your favorite charity in your neighborhood. It could be to a friend in need, or to a missions organization. You choose! That is putting love into action ! It’s a post Valentines day everyone can participate in ! And it doesn’t involve the calories of chocolate!
40 Days Toward Love Prayer Kit : this is a prayer kit that Kara Root and I created last year for Lent. It is a downloadable kit involving praying with Prayer Hearts. This kit can be used by individuals, families, small groups and entire church congregations. You print out the prayer hearts and use one a day to pray with during the season of Lent. In the kit you will also find ways to use the prayer hearts as prayer stations and activities to take action in your community to live out love. Find out more at freerangeworship.com.
Finally, one of my very favorite devotions for Lent is the Lenten Hobo Honeymoon. What if instead of a “sack cloth and ashes Lent,” we went on a honeymoon with Jesus? Father Ed Hays invites us to fall in love with Jesus over the 40 days of Lent.
I will be posting more resources in the weeks ahead. Let’s all consider moving towards love this Lent!
As part of my preparation for Lent each year, I write a prayer for Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent. Over the last couple of years, I have preferred to revisit and reflect on prayers from previous years which I have collected here. It seems a little ironic that in 2018 I posted this on Valentine’s Day because Ash Wednesday coincided with Valentines Day and Easter with April fools Day, giving us the theme: For love of the world God did foolish things so it really does make it appropriate.
I am also broadening my own perspectives by reading liturgies and prayers from Cole Author Riley who hosts black liturgies on instagram, twitter and Facebook and am also being enriched once more by reading Howard Thurman’s Meditations of the Heart which I will start reading on Ash Wednesday.
I also think that this Black Lives Matter communion liturgy is a powerful one to use for Ash Wednesday
I have updated the links to previous prayers and added more links to other inspirational prayers that you might like to check out.
- In 2022, I introduced a couple ideas for art practices including using this ash paint recipe.
- In 2021, I wrote a Meditation Monday on the ritual of burning a mask I used and Carol Dixon offered this prayer and hymn
- In 2020, I wrote this prayer for Ash Wednesday.
- A few from from 2019 include this Ash Wednesday prayer and another for 2019.
- My 2018 Ash Wednesday prayer was inspired by an earlier prayer I wrote.
- View my 2017 Ash Wednesday prayer which reflects on the idea of burnt ashes.
- Here is a link to my 2016 Ash Wednesday prayer.
- The 2015 Ash Wednesday prayer was adapted from Isaiah 58 – one of my favourite scriptures to meditate on at this season.
I suggest that after you read through the prayer, you then read the scripture Isaiah 58:5-12 in The Voice translation, and then again in the New Living Translation, and finally in The Message. Spend time thinking about the implications of these verses for your life and how God might challenge you to live them out during the season of Lent.
My prayer for Ash Wednesday 2014 comes out of my own deep desire to be transformed and to see something new of God’s image emerge in my life.
You might also like to check out some of the prayers from previous years.
This prayer was adapted by Odyssey ministries in the following video. Putting prayers like this to music with photos is a practice that I find very faith building. Perhaps it is a practice you would like to enter into during this Lenten season.
- Another prayer for Ash Wednesday 2012
- Ash Wednesday Prayer 2011
- Ash Wednesday Prayer 2010
And our Lenten meditation video from 2012 below:
The featured music: “O Redemptor” from the CD “Prayers of St. Brendan” by Jeff Johnson
© 2011 Ark Records Used with permission. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Other inspirational Ash Wednesday Prayers
- Prayerlist.com has a great collection of prayers for Ash Wednesday
- Global Christian Worship gives a huge list meditations, devotionals, and prayers as well as songs for Ash Wednesday
- Faith and Worship has a great Ash Wednesday Liturgy
- Church Marketing Sucks shares from the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer while looking at Lent and Social Media.
- From the United Methodist Church another Ash Wednesday Prayer
- Resources from Textweek.com are always worth revisiting.
- From Catholics Online links to a rich array of Ash Wednesday prayers
- An Ash Wednesday Collect from Bosco Peters in New Zealand
- Prayer + Possibilities offers an Ash Wednesday Prayer and Reflection
- Large list of Ash Wednesday Prayers from Catholic Online
- A Beautiful Prayer for Ash Wednesday provided by Crosswalk.com
- Journey with Jesus shares the “Marked by Ashes” poem by Walter Brueggeman
- I enjoyed this interesting reflection on the contrast between Lent and Carnival
You may also like to listen to T.S. Eliot read the first part of his famous Ash Wednesday poem and reflect on what he says. Or read the entire poem and commentary.
Please check out our complete list of Godspace resources for Lent through Holy Week
I couldn’t resist just one more poem for Valentine’s Day. This one was commissioned by the Daily Telegraph in the UK some years ago. It is the prize winning poet Wendy Cope.
Our love is old and sure, not new and frantic.
You know I’m yours and I know you are mine.
And saying that has made me feel romantic,
My dearest love, my darling valentine.
Have a happy love filled Valentine’s Day.
Celebrating Lent with kids is a passion with so many people and this list keeps expanding. I have tried to provide a number of activities and devotional suggestions from a variety of theological perspectives. If you know of “must have” additions please let me know. You might also like to check out my Pinterest Board Lent and Easter for Kids. I update this regularly throughout the year as I come across new resources that look interesting.
This is another updated list that I am reposting as so many are looking for resources and often miss the Godspace resource page where you can find all of our resources for Lent, Holy Week and Easter, including a number of free downloadable.
Enjoy!
Celebrating Lent With Kids
- Praying in Color has several Lenten calendar templates available for free download this year — fun to do for both adults and kids.
- Holy Week Ideas for Families, Kids and Small Groups from Lilly Lewin
- I love these ideas for kids and adults to “Love Yourself Through Lent” and “Together @ Lent” from Together @ Home – Easter Resources for 2021.
- Five Ways to Foster Creativity in Kids During Lent
- From Living Montessori Now – An extensive and very helpful list of resources
- Homegrown Catholic has a huge list of interesting activities for Lent and Easter.
- Catholic Icing has a range of activities for kids.
- Katie Warner provides Lent Resources for the whole family.
- Explore and Express has some beautiful ideas including a nature garden.
- Check out these Easter Traditions from Around the World for some new ideas to incorporate into your Easter traditions.
- Children’s Ministry has a variety of suggestions for Holy Week.
- Engraving a Tin Foil Cross – A Great activity for kids and adults.
- Making a Tiffany Style Cross
- April Fiet has put together a great children’s sermon Making a Paper cross to teach Good Friday to children.
- I like this design for making a Stained Glass Cross that would make a great children’s activity
- Feels Like Home offers a Lamb of God craft suitable for preschoolers or older kids.
- Or try a sand craft for Lent.
- A resource I used a couple of years ago: Wild Lent: Discovering God Through Creation
Making Easter Eggs
I am not usually a fan of Easter egg hunts which I often think move the emphasis of Easter from Christ to chocolates and sweets. However, I do think that the making of eggs can be a wonderful way to explain the Easter story to kids. Here are some possibilities
- Learn Pysanky the ancient Eastern European art of egg decorating.
- Make Resurrection eggs
- Make your own chocolate eggs with fair trade chocolate.
- For more ideas check out my Pinterest Lent and Easter for Kids
And some great videos to look at:
Dig Deep For Lent: – In some ways this is an advert for CAFOD but I love the idea of encouraging kids to think about other kids who lack resources and what they could do to help.
This cartoon version is interesting and would probably hold kids attention.
Please check out our complete list of Godspace resources for Lent through Holy Week
by Christine Sine
This morning has been a time for me to contemplate the love of God and I hope that you will join me.
From the moment we were first crafted from the soil and breathed into with divine breath, we have been surrounded by the love of the holy and eternal One, the depth of which are summed up in these words in Romans 8:35-39.
Nothing Can Separate Us from God’s Love
35 Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? 36 (As the Scriptures say, “For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.” 37 No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.
38 And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. 39 No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.
However this love looks very different from the love that we see in movies or that is sold to us in fragrances and jewelry. God’s love is both eternal and all embracing. It is both individual and communal. We cannot love God without loving those around us. And we cannot love ourselves unless we love others too.
Listen to what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13
If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. 3 If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it;but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.
4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
8 Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages[b] and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! 9 Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture!10 But when the time of perfection comes, these partial things will become useless.
As you read through these words and contemplate the deep and enduring love of God, how do you feel? Does it draw you closer to the one that longs for an intimate relationship with you?
As an Amazon Associate, I receive a small amount for purchases made through appropriate links.
Thank you for supporting Godspace in this way.
When referencing or quoting Godspace Light, please be sure to include the Author (Christine Sine unless otherwise noted), the Title of the article or resource, the Source link where appropriate, and ©Godspacelight.com. Thank you!