Suggested Lenten Practices

Pentecost, 2011: Rekindling the Fire…Spreading the Spirit!

Pentecost Week: June 12-June 18, 2011

The Spirit is given not just to us individually, but to the community of believers. It is our choice and our commitment to become a community “animated by the Holy Spirit” – so each of us needs to tend the Spirit’s fire and share it “to the ends of the earth.” Christ in this weekend’s gospel connects forgiveness with the coming of the Spirit. Commissioned to forgive, we foster right relationships that open doors, allowing the peace of Christ to replace the fears and anger that stifle our connecting to one another.

Spiritual Practice:

Easter, 2011: Rekindling the Fire…Spreading the Spirit!

Sixth Week of Easter, May 29-June 4, 2011

We live the resurrection by being attentive to the Spirit in our midst, and nurturing the resurrection life that is emerging in and among us. If we love Jesus, we will live as he lived, with a love expanded to include the whole of our living. We proclaim the living Christ by the way we heal hurts in others, strengthen those who are weak or paralyzed by fear, doubt or selfishness, encourage those weighed down with too much stress, work or indecision… We are able to live this way because he sends the Spirit to dwell within us.

Spiritual Practice:

Easter, 2011: Rekindling the Fire…Spreading the Spirit!

Fourth Week of Easter, May 15-21, 2011

We live the resurrection by being attentive to the Spirit in our midst, and nurturing the resurrection life that is emerging in and among us. We stay close to Christ for the abundant life he wishes to give us, but Jesus can only be our guide if we are familiar enough with his “voice” so that we can follow. How do we come to recognize the voice of the true Shepherd, among all the contrary and competing voices vying for our attention?

Spiritual Practice:

Easter Season 2011: Rekindling the Fire…Spreading the Spirit!

Second Week of Easter: May 1-7, 2011

Spiritual Practice:

• Come into presence…Take a walk, walk the labyrinth, or work in your garden. Notice the “lay of the land” around you and in your heart. What is here, now? What new life is emerging, around or inside you? How does it need to be nurtured? Does anything need to be trimmed or dug out to give this new life space to grow?
• Rekindle the fire… Light a candle and call to mind the fire of the Spirit of God. What corner of darkness, pain or habit needs illumination by the Truth? Pray that the Spirit will open your heart and mind to recognize the truth you don’t want to see.
• Spread the Spirit… Find a time this week to support someone in need of reassurance and hope – spiritually (through prayer and presence), emotionally (through relationship and faith-sharing) or physically (through gifts of labor, food, or finances).

Lent 2011: Embracing Transformation in the Non-Violent Christ

Spiritual Practice, Fourth Week of Lent: That our eyes and hearts be opened…

We are members of a society that has become increasingly blinded by the false promises of violence...to the point where we, too, can claim that we have been blind from birth. Our blind violence seems as hopeless and impossible to heal as that of the man who called out to Jesus on the road...but like him, we too can call out of our darkness. What in me is needing healing and transformation by the presence of Christ? What in me needs to be let go of, softened or smoothed in order to allow transformation to happen?