Lent

Lent begins after Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday. Lent takes us on a journey towards Holy Week and Easter. It is a time of preparation and it is a time of fasting and restraint, so not so much a time of celebration and feasting
See separate listings for Lent 1C, Lent 2C, Lent 3C, Lent 4C, Lent 5C, Lent 6C (Palm Sunday/Passion Sunday).
Lent, those 40 day’s leading up to the crucifixion of Christ, when we commemorate his 40 days spent in the wilderness preparing for his ministry, inspires people of all traditions to fast, or voluntarily give things up for a season. But it is often just that, a voluntary giving up. Historically the fasting of Lent was, for many people, a necessity rather than a choice. This was the hunger season, that season of the year when there were no fresh crops and the stored goods from last year were dwindling. Hunger and starvation was at its height. Yet it was also a season of hope and promise. New seeds were being planted in the expectation of abundance to come. (Christine Sine). So as you get ready to walk through Lent and look forward to the celebration of Easter this year what gnaws with hungry pangs at your soul – is it God’s call for transformation within yourself? Is it your passion for justice and healing? Is it your desire for the restoration of polluted areas of our earth? or is it something else that comes to mind. There are many studies that can be accessed on the web, including A Journey into Wholeness by Christine Sine (available as a PDF here). Each week of Lent emphasizes a different area of brokenness in our world. Over the five weeks of Lent we will deal with issues of inner healing, hunger, homelessness, stewardship of creation and the brokenness of God’s family.It is our hope that the daily reflections in the book and the additional reflections on the blog will help draw people more fully into those themes, beginning a few days before Lent with reflections on preparing for Lent and Easter.

There’s also a new downloadable e-version incorporating daily reflections, updated resources and weekly litanies (cost, available on Amazon etc).

Lenten Studies
Ecumenical Water Network (WCC): Seven Weeks for Water (Lenten series)
Water for the Journey‘ by Craig Mitchell NEW
Where do we go from here‘ by Steve Daughtry and Matt Anstey NEW
(explores Book of Acts and 5 Marks of Mission – online version here)
Christine Sine has listed a number of Lenten study books and practices here. Definitely worth exploring!
NEW We will Rise: Rising from the ashes to a new beginningThis is a new 46-day devotional study which focuses on building hope out of loss following the aftermath of the Australian bushfires. The booklet offers daily devotionals and prayers, encouraging people to turn to Jesus for hope, healing, comfort and courage. Sample here. Order through MediaCom.

New Common Grace has prepared a Lenten Study on the 7 ‘I Am’ sayings of Jesus. You can subscribe online and you will receive a video, Bible reading and reflection each week. Here’s a promotional video with Brooke Prentis. You can also ‘like’ the Common Grace Facebook page for updates.

TEAR Australia, Lent 2020:Becoming a people of hope today

Lenten liturgical resource, Wilderness (A Sanctified Art)

Lenten resource: Called to Wilderness

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Fasting:  Catholics fast on Ash Wednesday and on Fridays during the Lenten season, and many other people—religious or not—take up this increasingly popular discipline during the year. Pope Francis: “fasting must never become superficial”. He often quotes the early Christian mystic John Chrysostom who said: “No act of virtue can be great if it is not followed by advantage for others. So, no matter how much time you spend fasting, no matter how much you sleep on a hard floor and eat ashes and sigh continually, if you do no good to others, you do nothing great.”
But this isn’t to downplay the role of sacrifice during the Lenten season. Lent is a good time for penance and self-denial. But once again, Francis says that these activities must truly enrich others: “I distrust a charity that costs nothing and does not hurt.”
Francis suggests that even more than candy or alcohol, we fast from indifference towards others. In his annual Lenten message, the pope writes, “Indifference to our neighbor and to God also represents a real temptation for us Christians. Each year during Lent we need to hear once more the voice of the prophets who cry out and trouble our conscience.” Describing this phenomenon he calls the globalization of indifference, Francis writes that “whenever our interior life becomes caught up in its own interests and concerns, there is no longer room for others, no place for the poor. God’s voice is no longer heard, the quiet joy of his love is no longer felt, and the desire to do good fades.” He continues that, “We end up being incapable of feeling compassion at the outcry of the poor, weeping for other people’s pain, and feeling a need to help them, as though all this were someone else’s responsibility and not our own.”
But when we fast from this indifference, we can began to feast on love. In fact, Lent is the perfect time to learn how to love again. (from an article by Christopher J Hale).

About admin

Rev Sandy Boyce is a Uniting Church in Australia Minister (Deacon). This blog may be a help to people planning worship services.
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