Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Lent Begins!


The Season of Lent begins with Ash Wednesday.  To aid your journey, follow the links below:


40 Ideas for Lent 2015
http://rachelheldevans.com/blog/40-ideas-for-lent-2015

Litany of Penitence 
http://experimentaltheology.blogspot.com/2015/02/litany-of-penitence.html

A Sonnet for Ash Wednesday
https://malcolmguite.wordpress.com/2015/02/17/a-sonnet-for-ash-wednesday-3/

Creating a Lenten Prayer Space at Home
http://www.buildfaith.org/2015/02/09/creating-lenten-prayer-space-home/

It’s time to… Stop, Pray, Work, Play & Love with SSJEhttp://ssje.org/ssje/time/

Lenten Challenge (Pray Worship Serve)
http://www.prayworshipserve.com/lenten-challenge/

Monday, February 16, 2015

Lent 2015

I invite you 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...


Lent begins with our Ash Wednesday Services - 12 Noon & 7:30 PM - All are invited!

Our Discipleship Project - Lenten Challenge:

During Lent, I invite you to begin our discipleship project with the 20+1+5 Lenten Challenge. 20+1+5 is the challenge to pray 20 minutes a day, worship an hour a week and dedicate five hours through the course of Lent to serving your local poor.  Here are some tips and thoughts:

* Pray means to pray, at least in part, with scripture. Read one psalm (or more) a day, remembering that the psalter was Jesus' prayer book. You can start with Psalm 1 ('Happy are they who have not walked in the counsel of the wicked...') and move forward. Don't be anxious about whether you're 'doing it right' or not. An ancient teaching of the church is that the Lord's Prayer includes all we need to say to God.

* One of the great saints of the Episcopal Church was Br. Paul Wessinger SSJE, who died last year. He told this story about worship: In his early days as a monk he was anxious because he noticed that his attention would wander a lot during worship. A wise elder told him to try to remember one word or phrase- that's all- from each service. It was sweet advice that helped him for the rest of his sixty plus years as a monk.

* From Robert Lupton's Toxic Charity: 'Listen closely to those you seek to help, especially to what is not being said- unspoken feelings may contain essential clues to effective service.'


(borrowed from the Restoration Project)




Resources for keeping a Holy Lent:

From Ash Wednesday through Easter Sunday, Living Well through Lent provides daily readings and suggestions for reflection and action, inviting you to engage fully in your Lenten journey—with heart, soul, strength, and mind. Throughout the year, the Living Compass Faith & Wellness Ministry outfits individuals, families, congregations, and organizations with tools and training for the journey toward wholeness and wellness, helping to make Christ our compass in every area of our lives.

Join the Journey through Lent invites spiritual reflection through gentle humor and is a wonderful companion for the Lenten season. The 17" x 22" poster size is just right for hanging on the wall or keeping on a table for daily coloring.

Forward Day by Day (back of Church) and lenten pamphlets (side door) can also aid your lenten journey.



Stop, Pray, Work, Play & Love: A Daily Word, Video, Question - #Lent2015

A Lent 2015 video series and accompanying workbook from the Brothers of SSJE designed to help people with their sense of time, achieve balance and embrace Sabbath wisdom.
The series asks people to think about how they relate to Time in their life over five weeks. The series begins on Ash Wednesday, February 18th 2015 and runs through to Palm Sunday. Each day there is a video, a provocative question and a call to reflect either in the workbook or via social media. Subscribe: www.SSJE.org/time

We will be using the SSJE Lenten Resource for our Wednesday Night Lenten Soup & Study with the Lutherans. (See the attached or the first week.)

Our first Lenten Soup & Study is Wednesday, Feb 25 @ 6:30 PM - at St. Peter's Church.  Workbooks available ($5 each) for those interested (or free online pdf).

Friday, February 6, 2015

20+1+5 - Lenten Challenge

Our Discipleship Project

There is a hunger in the lives of many people, both in and out of church communities, to be in deeper relationship with God.  This is precisely what is promised by Jesus and Christianity.  Jesus is the way to come to know God personally, intimately and reliably, like a loving parent…like a father or mother.

20+1+5 = three ancient practices, commended to all by Holy Scripture and perfected by countless years of human experience:
  • 20 – Pray twenty minutes a day.
  • 1 – Worship one hour a week.
  • 5 – Serve fiver hours a month.
If you want to know God better and be a more faithful disciple, please join us and others around the country in this work. We are The Restoration Project: a movement dedicated to nurturing disciples of Jesus. This is an invitation to spiritual depth.

This Lenten Challenge is meant to introduce the three practices that are the core of a disciple’s rhythm of life.