The Lenten Journey

Letting Go
by Douglas VanHouten, Jr.

Lent is a time of emptiness and of emptying.

What are you carrying which causes you grief and burden?

Why are you holding on to it so tightly?

Take a moment to write down something from which you'd like to be free.

Then, shred it into a jar of water, let it go and walk away.

Even if you were to take the shredded pieces--the burden--back out of the water, you'd see that they have been changed for ever. If we let go and let God in, so will our burdens be changed for ever. Perhaps they won't be lighter, or easier to bear, but they will be changed, as will we.

May the waters of baptism, freely given by God, cleanse you of your burden.

Lenten Meditation Booklet

These booklets are from Episcopal Relief and Development. Click here for an online version.

Click here to sign up for daily meditations sent by ERD via email.

A Carbon Fast
by Suzanne Carlson from St. Augustine's Episcopal Church, Wilmette, Illinois

Taking on the ancient practice of a Lenten discipline allows us to create a space in our busy lives for a deepened relationship with God. Making sacrifices may not sound fun, but sacrifice is related to the word sacred. To sacrifice something then is to make it holy. Here are some suggestions of actions we can make sacred this Lent. Many of these are good projects for the whole family. Feel free to adopt another idea of your own. And help spread the word to others about what you are doing! You may inspire someone else.

Change #1: Change Your Buying Habits

Say no to bags. Each year, Americans use an estimated 12 million barrels of oil to make plastic bags and cut down 15 million trees for paper bags. Carry tote bags, reuse your old bags, or sometimes just say "No bag, please."

Buy recyclable or recycled items. Recycling saves energy. Try to buy products with packaging that can be recycled. Purchasing items made of recycled material helps to sustain the market for recycled products.

Buy only necessities. Use Lent as an opportunity to examine the need for any purchase you consider. Do you really need it? Can you make do? Can you borrow or rent? Can you find it second hand?

Change #2: Change Your Diet

Carry your own insulated cup. Energy and trees are used to manufacture and transport the 25 billion disposable cups Americans throw away each year.

Avoid canned or bottled drinks. Beverages, including bottled water, all take energy to produce, transport, and recycle. Drink water from the tap (which is better regulated and according to EPA may be safer than bottled water anyway) or carry filtered water from home.

Give up meat one or two days a week. It takes more fossil-fuel energy to produce and transport meat than other types of protein. Eat more fruits, vegetables, grains, beans, cheese, eggs, tofu, and nuts.

Buy more regionally produced food. To reduce greenhouse emissions from air transportation, buy from farmers markets and eat foods in season rather than foods shipped in from around the globe, such as sweet cherries or peaches in Feb.

Change #3: Change Your Energy Use

Turn off lights. At home, at work, or wherever you are, turn off the lights when no one is in the room. Involve the family or anyone you can!

Turn down the thermostat. If it is cold, set the thermostat to 68° during the day and 60° at night or when you are away. Even lowering the thermostat by 1° is a large energy saving. (This is easiest to accomplish with a programmable thermostat-easily installed by a handy person.)

Run only full loads. Conserve water and energy by running only full loads in the dishwasher and washing machine.

Undertake a media fast. Limit Facebook, texting, email time. For a deeply refreshing change, unplug your TV, computer, or video games for set periods. This is an excellent choice for including all members of a household.

Change #4: Change Your Driving Habits

Slow down. The fuel economy of any car declines at higher speeds and drops off sharply at any speed over 55 mph.

Walk, bike, or use mass transit. Give up your car for Lent or find another way to get to church, school, work, or specific activities.

Be mindful about driving. Use Lent as an opportunity to assess how you spend your time, perhaps giving up an activity; choosing nearby stores, restaurants, or activities; or simply doing less and staying home more.

Forgiveness and Healing
adapted by Shawn Schreiner from the materials of the Office of Christian Education, Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut

Tears are expressions of forgiveness and repentance.

I call to the Lord for help

I plead with God,

I tell God all my troubles

When I am ready to give up

God knows what I should do.

Exercise One

Sit quietly and think of the last time you cried. Ask: Were you hurt physically? Did someone hurt your feelings? Did you lose something you wanted? Were you frightened? Did you dread something? Have you ever cried because of something you did wrong?

Tears are a way of saying "I'm sorry." Every one of us has done things for which we are sorry. None of us is as strong or as brave as we would like to be. God knows this and always forgives us.

Remember that when we bring our tears to God, God forgives us and helps us. In the Old Testament, the prophet Jeremiah looked at the sorrows of the people and cried to God: "Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there?" Jeremiah 8:22

"Balm" is a lotion used for healing or relieving pain. Use the hand lotion and draw a cross on your hand. Today marks a new beginning of faith.

"Go now in peace surrounded by the forgiveness and love of God."

Exercise II

Please use these tears to write the names of anyone for whom you would like the community to pray. Place the tears on the Cross in the front of the church. Take a moment to pray for all of the names that are hanging there.

Ashes
by Dennis E. Northway

We are earth.
We are clay.
We become, by the grace of God, animate.
We touch, we feel, we smile, we cry.

Do we treasure life? Do we sense and deeply feel life in us and around us?

The burned palms, the ashes in the bowl are not unlike the cremains in the cubicles behind it. Feel them, sit with them. These are saints who have gone before; their remains are here. They, however, are in LIGHT. + ETERNAL LIGHT. + LIGHT PERPETUAL. + Think on their lives, your life, our life as a community.

Seven Weeks for Water
(Taken from The Ecumenical Water Network (EWN). EWN is a network of churches and Christian organizations promoting people's access to water around the world. Click here for the EWN Seven Weeks for Water website. )

Week 1: Waters of Baptism, Water of Life

Reflection by Anne Louise Mahoney

With joy you shall draw water from the wells of salvation. -Isaiah 12:3

My parish church features a large baptismal font where infants and adults alike are baptized. During Sunday liturgies for most of the year, the soft sounds of flowing water provide a peaceful backdrop during moments of silence and prayer and remind us of our baptism.

But on Ash Wednesday, things change. The font is drained and then filled with sand and rocks - dry, lifeless, muted. It always catches me by surprise. We are now in desert time, whether we like it or not.

For seven long weeks I pass by the sand-filled font each Sunday. I miss the water - its moisture, its gurgling, its cooling presence. I am prompted to face the desert areas in my own life - dried-up relationships, destructive habits, empty prayer, selfishness, pride, lack of compassion. I linger reluctantly in that barren place, trying to rediscover what is life giving.

As the anticipation of Easter builds, I begin to imagine the water's return. I feel hope stirring during Holy Week, knowing that when I enter the church for the Easter Vigil, the water will be flowing once again, music to my ears and my spirit.

It is always worth the wait, worth the deprivation, to experience the water anew on this night. Before we even get to the glorious moment of baptism, the readings overflow with references to water. God's spirit swept over the face of the waters of creation. God makes springs gush forth in the valleys. Weeping may linger for the night, but joy comes in the morning. Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.

From the moment our lives begin, water is key to our future. Without it, we will die. We drink it, cook with it, bathe in it, wash clothes and dishes and floors with it, nourish animals and plants with it, and use it in manufacturing of all kinds. As Christians, we are baptized in it. Water is a primary force in our lives that is often beyond our control. When it unleashes its full strength through hurricanes or floods or blizzards, and when it dries up completely, we recognize its true power over us.

Today, we stand accountable for our mismanagement of water. We face the shameful fact that this essential resource is not available to all people. We watch passively as Arctic ice melts, threatening the precarious ecological balance of our planet. As Christians, reborn in Jesus through the baptismal water, we are called to restore the balance.

Each year, the Easter Vigil offers us a stark reminder that water is God's gift to us - in baptism and in our everyday lives. Indeed, water is life. In baptism, Christians touch this source of life in a way that has the potential to change our lives completely. We rise with Christ to newness of life. As we go forth in Christ, we must remember that water is a blessing to be treasured, to be shared with all people, to be protected for future generations.

Anne Louise Mahoney, a Roman Catholic lay person, works as a freelance editor for various Christian and secular organizations. She lives in Ottawa, Canada.

Together we can make a difference:

Reflect on the 'desert spaces' in your own life, those aspects of your life that make you feel vulnerable and thirsting for something. Remembering that the desert in the Bible is also a place of ascetic meditation, think also about those situations and places that make you feel closer to God.
With your family of faith community, list three ways to use water more respectfully or efficiently and put them into action.
Think about the 'deserts' in the community or city where you live, in the sense of places affected by the misuse and mismanagement of water, or lacking access. Can you find out which networks or organizations address this issues and how you could support them with your prayers, time or other resources?