Trinity School for Ministry: 2010 Lenten Devotionals

I just updated our L&B Lent links and resources sidebar (finally!)

In the process, I discovered that Trinity School for Ministry (TSM) has a 2010 Lenten Devotional available.  You’ll find it here.

Note: there will be weekly installments posted (see the sidebar on the TSM page).  I’ll try to post all the links here.

Lent week 1: Feb 17-20

Lent Resources – An Online Lenten Calendar: “40 Ideas for 40 Days”

This falls into the “how could I have possibly missed this resource?!” category… Do check this out!

Thanks to a blog that I just discovered this morning and linked below, Catechist’s Journey, by Joe Paprocki, I’ve discovered an online Lenten Calendar:

40 Ideas for 40 Days

(Note: Click on the activity title on each day to visit the activity detail.)

Here’s how Joe Paprocki describes the calendar:

These activities come from a variety of sources: from my own experience as a catechist, from various Web sites that I credit accordingly, and from catechists like you who shared their creative ideas with me. The activities are grounded in the symbols, Scripture readings, devotions, and traditions of the Lenten season. Be sure to check this calendar each day to find another Lenten activity that you can adapt for your own setting.

Daniel 9:3-11

Then I set my face toward the Lord God to make request by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes. (Daniel 9:3)
      Lord Jesus, help us come to you as Daniel did.

And I prayed to the Lord my God, and made confession, and said, “O Lord, great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant and mercy with those who love him, and with those who keep his commandments,” (Daniel 9:4)
      Father, please help us confess your mighty deeds and judgments and keep the covenant you have made with us through our baptism.

“we have sinned and committed iniquity, we have done wickedly and rebelled, even by departing from your precepts and your judgments.” (Daniel 9:5)
      We, the leaders and teachers and people of the Episcopal Church, have sinned and departed from your word. Have mercy on us.

“Neither have we heeded your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings and our princes, to our fathers and all the people of the land.” (Daniel 9:6)
      Holy Spirit, move in the hearts of Barack our President, the members of Congress, and the Supreme Court to seek after your righteous ways.

“O Lord, righteousness belongs to you, but to us shame of face, as it is this day–to the men of Judah, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel, those near and those far off in all the countries to which You have driven them, because of the unfaithfulness which they have committed against you.” (Daniel 9:7)
      Jesus, because of the unfaithfulness of the leaders and teachers of the Episcopal Church and many of its people, tens and hundreds of thousands have fled the Episcopal Church. Bring the Episcopal Church back to your ways.

“O Lord, to us belongs shame of face, to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, because we have sinned against you.” (Daniel 9:8 )
      Help us, Holy Spirit, recognize our shame; help us recognize our sin and repent.

“To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, though we have rebelled against him.” (Daniel 9:9)
      Father, thank you for the love and mercy you have shown us through your son, Jesus Christ. Help us repent of our rebellion and return to you.

“We have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets.” (Daniel 9:10)
      Holy Spirit, help us obey your voice and walk in the Word of God day by day.

“Yes, all Israel has transgressed your law, and has departed so as not to obey your voice; therefore the curse and the oath written in the Law of Moses the servant of God have been poured out on us, because we have sinned against him.” (Daniel 9:11)
      Lord Jesus Christ, we are a people called by your name: help us humble ourselves and pray and seek your face and turn from our wicked ways so that you will hear from heaven and forgive our sins and help our land and your Church. Thank you. (See 2 Chronicles 7:14)

      A word received: Invite me in at the beginning.

Monday: 44; Genesis 37:1-11; 1 Corinthians 1:1-19; Mark 1:1-13
Tuesday: 47, 48; Genesis 37:12-24; 1 Corinthians 1:20-31; Mark 1:14-28

Albany Intercessor

More on Lent for families / Lent in the home

Somehow I missed Amy’s post at Splendor In the Ordinary last week about how she and her family decorate their home for Lent.

Amy also has a post on Children’s books for Lent, and a lovely reflection and testimony about attending Ash Wednesday services with small children: Worshipping with Little Children.

Also on the family front, I’ve been remiss in not linking Jessica’s Homemaking through the church year blog. (Not being a mom, it’s a blog I don’t visit so often…, but it is excellent.) You can find all of her Lent posts here. Her Lenten posts so far this year have primarily focused on fasting as a family, including a ton of meatless recipes for Lent

Finally today, while looking for something else online, I came across an excellent blog Catechist’s Journey with ideas for Sunday School lessons for Lent – but many of these could also be used by families at home.  This looks like a truly WONDERFUL site.  I think I’m going to add it to our sidebar…  Hie thee hence!

Check out the following entries:

First Sunday of Lent – Needs vs. Wants

A CALENDAR of 40 Lenten Activities!

Lots ‘o Lenten Links

Don’t forget you can find all our posts on Lent resources for family and children here.

Lent Quotes – The Cross … Rubs, Chafes and Hurts

A Catholic blogger, whose blog, Mrs. Pogle’s World, I bookmarked last Lent because of her Lenten Prayer series, has an insightful comment about how so often these days Lent is seen about adopting “postive” practices – taking on some beneficial new practice.

Lent isn’t supposed to be positive, pleasant, easy. If we do take anything up, it should be our cross, which we should take up daily. the Cross is not a miniature one which we can just slip into our pocket and forget about, it is large, ungainly,unwieldy; it rubs and chafes and hurts.

Go read her whole entry.

An Idea for Lenten Reading: Signature Sins

A few months ago, a blog I read occasionally, A Ruach Journey, posted a series of entries about a book, Signature Sins ( Michael Mangis, IVP 2008), which updates the idea of “the seven deadly sins” for the 21st century.  I’m thinking this might make a good resource for study and reflection during Lent.  Here’s a portion of the initial blog entry on this book:

A few weeks ago I read Signature Sins by Michael Mangis (IVP 2008).  He talks about the seven deadly sins:, lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, anger, envy, pride and defines sin as a “failure of our soul to be fully attuned to God’s soul.” 15  He says a  signature sin is “my sin pattern . . . my sin profile.” 14 Signature sins are  “places where sin has most taken root. . . Primary root of sin which lies at the core.” 61 He suggests the following:

“Be in prayerful reflection about your own signature sins. Take note of those sins that cause a twinge of recognition.  Be especially mindful of where your heart may desire not to look.” 29

We need to name our signature sins.  It is a knowing of our secret nemesis.

• Enter the process with reverence and prayer
• Accuracy and thoroughness should be our first priority
• Take great care
• Choosing a name requires a growing familiarity with the sin itself—shades of meaning are important
• Prayerfully submit to God’s naming of our sin.

Read the full entry here

Other blog posts at A Ruach Journey about this book:

Signature Sins: Pride

Signature Sins: Envy

Signature Sins: Anger

Signature Sins: Gluttony

Signature Sins: Lust

Signature Sins: Greed

Signature Sins: Sloth

Revelation—Living from the unseen

Proverbs 25:2 (New Living Translation)
It is God’s privilege to conceal things
and the king’s privilege to discover them.

Triune God,
You put the gold in rocks and placed the oil deep within the earth. Jesus uttered things hidden since the creation of the world by speaking in parables.
I humbly ask You, Lord, to stir hearts of Your people in the Episcopal Church to ask for ears that hear, eyes that see, and hearts that understand. We stand on the promise of Holy Scripture that everyone who asks, receives; he who seeks, finds, and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.
We acknowledge that Your kingdom is here and now. Create in us spirits desperate for You and hearts surrendered to You, that we may change our way of thinking and reach into that invisible realm.
God has hidden our abundant life in Christ Jesus, who is seated at the right hand of God in the heavenly realm. By the grace of the Lord Jesus, help us to die to earthly things, set our hearts on things above, and come into His presence.
May the secret things be revealed. Amen.
Matthew 7:7, 13:35, Colossians 3:1-3, Revelation 22:21

Luke 4:1-2

Then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan (Luke 4:1a)
Father, please fill us anew with your Holy Spirit.

and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, (Luke 4:1b)
Holy Spirit, we want to be led by you, even if that means going into the wilderness with Jesus.

being tempted for forty days by the devil. (Luke 4:2a)
Jesus, please clothe us with your full armor so that we can resist the temptations the devil puts in our path.

And in those days he ate nothing, and afterward, when they had ended, he was hungry. (Luke 4:2b)
Jesus, please restore the discipline of fasting to the life of your church. Give us compassion for those who go hungry because they have nothing. Please help the people of Haiti and the other places of desolation. Thank you.

Sunday: 103; Daniel 9:3-10; Hebrews 2:10-18; John 12:44-50
Monday: 44; Genesis 37:1-11; 1 Corinthians 1:1-19; Mark 1:1-13

Notes from the Front Line

***** Please pray for Fr. Hap Carrier. Because of cancer, one doctor has given him 6 months to live; another has given him 3 months to live. I am calling for a committed prayer vigil for Fr. Hap next Friday, February 26th. Pick any 30 minute time in the day or night and pray intensively for him. He needs a miracle of healing. Please pray every day for him between now and them.

***** Check out what the Lord has said to us in the Sunday School Lesson for today which has been posted on http://christchurchsundayschool.blogspot.com/.

Albany Intercessor

Bishop Mark Lawrence: On Self Examination

On Thursday, Kendall Harmon posted an excellent pastoral letter from Bishop Mark Lawrence of South Carolina, on Lent, and more specifically the discipline of self-examination.  I’ve waited until today to post this as I already had a lot of entries pre-scheduled for Thursday – Saturday, and I wanted to post this on a Sunday, when perhaps many of our readers will have some time for the kind of self-examination Bp. Lawrence counsels us to practice.

Here’s an excerpt:

Lent is a good season to do what Evelyn Underhill calls spiritual stocktaking. In the disciplines of the Christian life this is called “Self-Examination.” It is the first discipline mentioned in the Ash Wednesday invitation to a Holy Lent. The Prayer Book reads: “I invite you, therefore, in the name of the Church, to the observance of a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God’s Holy Word.” (BCP, p. 265)

Although Self-Examination, or “the examination of conscience” as it used to be called, is a long honored discipline of the Christian life, too often the average Christian not only doesn’t know how to do it, he doesn’t even know what it is. This of course is not his fault; it is the fault of us who are pastors and teachers in the Church. Ironically, 12 Step groups like A.A. and N.A. make important use of this discipline. The Fourth Step of A.A. reads: “Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.” The Fifth Step follows up: “Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.” Sixth Step: ” Were entirely ready to have God remove these defects of character.” These steps are part of the process of self-examination and repentance. As St. Paul counsels in 2 Corinthians 13:5, “Examine yourselves….”

There are two fundamental sources of help for practicing self-examination. The first and most important help, which seems almost superfluous to mention, is the Holy Spirit. The Spirit indwells us as believers. The Holy Spirit knows us thoroughly and searches the deep things of our lives. (Read for instance such passages as Psalm 139, John 7:37-39, John 14:16-26, Romans 8:26-27). To invite Him to search your heart is an invitation not merely to compile a list of sins to be gotten through; it is an opportunity for growth, learning, discovery, making new connections, receiving insight and to seek His help in putting things in order.

The second help for self-examination is a written list to be worked through with self-honesty. Some people use the Seven Deadly Sins–(Pride, Envy/Jealousy, Anger, Sloth/Melancholy, Greed, Gluttony and Lust), others, the Ten Commandments, or the Litany of Penitence in the Ash Wednesday Liturgy (BCP, p. 267). One possibility that is often forgotten is to use not those lists that accentuate the negative dimensions of our lives but to ask the question about the place and pursuit of virtue. After all we have spent, as a culture and Church, far too much time with the clarification of values and given too little attention to the cultivation of virtue. So to take the Beatitudes, or the Fruit of the Spirit listed in Galatians 5:19-26, or even Seven Saving Virtues (Justice, Courage/Fortitude, Prudence/Wisdom, Temperance, Faith, Hope and Love) as the focus, after scrutinizing our sins of omission, can be a profitable exercise indeed. Such written forms might nudge us into areas we might be unconsciously avoiding and yet towards that which God would have us go.

I thought the emphasis on an “inventory of the virtues” and fruit of the spirit in our lives was unusual and it was really helpful to me.  I pray this may be an encouragement to others and that the Lord would help us apply these words.

Be sure to read the whole letter – it is TRULY must reading and very edifying and helpful!  And may the Lord help us all examine our hearts this Lent – for both vices and virtues, so that the Lord may work in us what is pleasing to Him.

Massachusetts

Origin of name: From Massachusett tribe of Native Americans, meaning “at or about the great hill”
State motto: By the sword we seek peace, but peace only under liberty.

Hebrews 4:12-13 (New Living Translation)
For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God. Everything is naked and exposed before his eyes, and he is the one to whom we are accountable.

O Lord,
We pray that the hearts of the people of Massachusetts will be stirred to embrace Your Holy Word. Cut away the doubts, the pride, the vanity, and the fears so that Your light and Your liberty may blaze forth and this state be like a city on a great hill. Amen.

An Easter Prayer for Lent: Grant us to die daily to sin

This is actually an Easter collect from the Book of Common Prayer, but I like it as a Lenten prayer – in praying to daily die to sin, it helps to remember the power of Christ’s resurrection, and rejoice that the same power is in us through the Holy Spirit (see Ephesians 1:18-20, Rom 8:10-14)

O God,
who for our redemption
gave your only-begotten Son
to the death of the cross,
and by his glorious resurrection
delivered us from the power of our enemy:

Grant us so to die daily to sin,
that we may evermore live with him
in the joy of his resurrection;

through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Prayer Table Report

Christ Church Schenectady Prayer Table Report, February 20, 2010, 9:25 -10:30 AM Torre Bissell and Dave Carlson

+–indicates received wooden cross made by Dennis Adams of North Carolina

Many folks turned down our offer for prayer. We prayed for each one as they walked by that they would come closer to the Lord and experience His love and provision in their lives. Many motorists waved to us as they drove by. It was a nice morning, with warmer temperatures.

Carolyn — she said “I’m a little big incognito today” – prayed for an infilling of the Holy Spirit. She said she’ll see us in church on Sunday.

Jim — one of our regulars at the prayer table – “I’d like to give thanks to God for the improvement in my mental health.”

+ Maritsa — very shy, timid woman, asked prayer “for my family”

+ Johnny — man who rode up on a bike and asked for prayer “for myself” – we gave him a Bible and invited him to attend church tomorrow

+ Moohan — young Hindu man in his 20′s perhaps, very polite with a pleasant smile; we prayed that He would come to know the Lord and His love; he asked if he could make a donation; we do not accept donations at the prayer table but we thanked him for the privilege he gave us to pray for him and his family

Elaine – on her way to participate in the ’40 days for Life’ ministry in front of Planned Parenthood – we prayed for the unborn and for an end to abortion (Elaine said people can find out more by going online to http://40daysforlife.com/schenectady/)

Father Peter Schofield – on his way to lead the monthly service at Summit Towers – we prayed for the folks who will attend

+ Diane – asked us to pray for her husband Tom – he has been depressed and overwhelmed by finances and circumstances at work

David

Albany Intercessor

A dream

I’m not sure why, but I feel led to tell a story of something that happened to me lately. It is not ordinarily something I would share, for several reasons.
On December 28, Feast of the Holy Innocents, I had posted an article on StandFirm regarding a “lost” pro-life diocesan resolution. During the day, my mood became more and more dour. I found myself saying, “I hate this church. I hate this church.” My husband is a priest who is called to stay in TEC, and I didn’t want to cause strife. So I went into the bathroom and closed the door and said, “I hate this church. I hate this church.”
I went to bed. I awoke in the middle of the night. It crossed my mind that perhaps my increasingly dour mood was because I had been “slimed.” (This is a strange concept for most of you. Intercessors are typically behind the scenes. Cyberspace intercessors are on the radar screen for people who speak curses, hexes, and spells. During big prayer campaigns, we have found that we tend to get chewed up one way or another if we don’t say prayers of protection.) Well, you never really know, but I said a cutting free prayer and went back to sleep.
Then I had the dream. There was a knock on the door. I opened the door. Jesus was standing there. He gave me a great big bear hug. This is the only dream of Jesus I’ve ever had.
When I awake in the mornings, I attend to the first words and images that flood my consciousness because they are frequently inspiration for that day’s prayer. This morning was Revelation 5:12, followed by the memory of this dream.
The morning after the dream, these words flooded my consciousness: “I love this church. I love this church. I love this church.” I knew they were Jesus’s words.
He loves us. Despite all of our sins, He loves us.

O Lamb that was slain, You are worthy.
You are worthy to receive the allegiance and praise of the government employees within the Episcopal Church, to receive the wealth and praise of the entrepreneurs within the Episcopal Church, to receive the wisdom and praise of the teachers within the Episcopal Church, to receive the strength and praise of the families within the Episcopal Church, to receive the honor and praise of the clergy within the Episcopal Church, to receive the glory and praise of the artists within the Episcopal Church, and to receive the tribute and praise of the media within the Episcopal Church.
Worthy is the Lamb! Amen. Amen. Amen.

A meditation on John 4:1-10

            Jesus Talks With a Samaritan Woman
      The Pharisees heard that Jesus was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John, although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. When the Lord learned of this, he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.
      Now he had to go through Samaria. So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.
      When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
      The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)
      Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” (John 4:1-10)
      A meditation on John 4:1-10 given by Deacon Howard Smith of Christ Church Schenectady after Stations of the Cross on Friday, February 19th:
            Thirsty at the Well — Would God Talk to Me?
                  Dedicated to Beverly Rose

In the voice and the person of the Samaritan Woman:

      I thirst.
      I thirst, and it is almost midday and so I sit here in the house with the curtains drawn, watching him sleep and hearing him breath.
      He’s a good man, when he’s sleeping.
      Hugh, he is drooling. He should be after drinking all night.
      I don’t mind him drinking, because when he drinks, he doesn’t beat me.
      Usually.

      He’ll be waking up soon —thirsty.
      And he’ll be angry that I didn’t get water from the well in the morning — like a good woman should.
      But I hate going out there.
      The whole town hates me. The whole town despises me.

      Mostly I’m invisible. Do you know what it is like to be invisible?
      No one sees you, no one hears you. And if your eye do meet some one else’s eyes — you get hatred, loathing and a quick turn away.

      None of the good merchants will sell me, and the bad ones will when no one else is looking.

      Oh what it would be like to seen, just seen, with out scorn or repute.
      What is there to look at? I’m garbage. I’m crap. I’m a woman who has had 5 husbands. Five!
      And this man sleeping before is not my husband. Though I act like his wife when and how he wants me.
      He looks at me. He sees me.
      And the yelling and the screaming, at least his is communicating with me.
      That is more than I deserve.
      I am lucky to have him, — for without him, I would have to be a prostitute.
      And I thank God I am not a prostitute.
      So here I sit, thirsty.

      He is waking. He is going over to the water bucket. He’s angry. Why am I so surprised we go through this every day.
      Except today he throws the bucket at me.
      ”Good for nothing… worthless piece of crap….”
      ”Why can’t you get water in the morning like all the other woman?”
      So I grab the bucket and run out the door, answering his question in my own mind.
      Why don’t I go to the well with the good woman of this town. Because they are so vishes, they snarl and the glare.
      I have had sand thrown in my face, and water dumped on me.
      They tell their daughters to stay away from me.
      ”She’s no good,” they say, “She’s dirty.”
      There has to be some part of me that’s clean.
      There has to be some part of me that worth something.
      If they would really look at me and knew me, they would see it.

      I’m almost at the well, —good because I’m thirsty.
      There is someone there, in the heat of the day?
      It’s a man. It’s a Jew. That’s all I need. They don’t like us Samaritans.
      Today I get to be looked down on by a Jew.
      Like being despised by my own people isn’t enough.

      I reach the well and let down my bucket. The man turns and looks at me.
      I’m afraid and act like I don’t notice him.
      I’m so thirsty.
      I hurry up my bucket and take a drink.
      I see the man and our eye meet, and yet I am not frightened.
      He looks at me like he knows me. Like we are closer than a brother or father.
      His eyes, are filled with love, real love and hope and light and love!
      He sees me, yet he does not despise me.
      And He says to me, “Please, may I please have a drink?”

Saturday: 42, 43; Ezekiel 39:21-29; Philippians 4:10-20; John 17:20-26
Sunday: 103; Daniel 9:3-10; Hebrews 2:10-18; John 12:44-50

Albany Intercessor

Lent quotes: Amy Welborn – shattering walls, all for Love’s sake

This isn’t to say, either, that we need to “try harder” or judge our spiritual lives according to any measurable sense of what we do or sacrifice. That’s not it either.

It’s simply recognizing that we are not in as close a union with God as we could be as God wants us to be, and that the obstacles are those that we erect: the idols we put in God’s place, the fears that we harbor, the love that we stifle, rather than share with others. There are walls that must be shattered, paths that must be avoided, illusions that must be shattered – all for Love’s sake.

Lent gives us a small way there. We look at our lives and see what needs to be “given up” – not for any ulterior purpose like losing weight, but for the purpose of loving God more deeply.

- From a 2005 blog entry at Amy’s old blog Open Book which we posted back at the old CaNNet version of Lent & Beyond