We welcome you to our Lent Retreat which begins on Ash Wednesday, February 17, and will end on March 25. The theme for our retreat is " We Yearn to Return to You," taken from Joel 2:12: “Yet even now, says the Lord, return to me with all your heart” and a poem by Ted Loder with the same title (which will be shared later in the week).
Beginning next week, reflections will be posted three times a week (Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday). Each week will highlight a different topic within the larger theme. If you subscribe to our website, you will receive a notification of each post in your email. You may also visit the website (www.practicingsacredrhythms.com) to access the blog posts. All posts will be archived there. If you have any trouble accessing the blog post, or downloading music or videos, please contact us at sacredrhythms@gmail.com.
The format for our sharing will be as follows:
Sunday - Reflection on the week’s theme
Tuesday - Prayer practice related the theme
Thursday - Revisiting the theme and a creative invitation
Below each blog post, will be a space to share any comments or thoughts.
We welcome your responses!
As we look ahead to the beginning of Lent, you are invited to set aside a few moments to listen to the following song, preferably on full screen. It is quite short so you may wish to put it on repeat:
Take a few deep breaths... let your mind become quiet... open to your desire and/or prayer for this retreat.
Lamb of God - Salt of the Sound: https://youtu.be/K5JLMjIoG9
Lamb of God, Lamb of God
Have Mercy on Us, Have Mercy on Us
Lamb of God (Hear our prayer)
Lamb of God
Grant us peace (Hear our prayer)
This we pray…
When Jesus went into the desert, he went with the baptismal waters of the Jordan still clinging to him, and with the name Beloved ringing in his ears. How else to enter into the forty-day place that lay ahead of him? How else to cross into the wilderness where he would have no food, no community, nothing that was familiar to him—and, to top it off, would have to wrestle with the devil? How else, but to go into that landscape with the knowledge of his own name: Beloved.
In this first week of Lent, as we turn our faces toward whatever this forty-day place holds for us, we would do well to have that name echoing in our own ears—to enter into the terrain of this season with the knowledge that we, too, are the beloved of God. As we cross with Christ into the landscape of Lent and into the mystery that lies ahead of us, may we know at least this about ourselves: that our name, too, is Beloved. (Jan Richardson)
Beloved is Where We Begin
If you would enter
into the wilderness
do not begin
without a blessing.
Do not leave
without hearing
who you are:
Beloved,
named by the One
who has traveled this path
before you.
Do not go
without letting it echo
in your ears,
and if you find
it is hard
to let it into your heart,
do not despair.
That is what
this journey is for.
I cannot promise
this blessing will free you
from danger,
from fear,
from hunger
or thirst,
from the scorching
of sun
or the fall
of the night.
But I can tell you
that on this path
there will be help.
I can tell you
that on this way
there will be rest.
I can tell you
that you will know
the strange graces
that come to our aid
only on a road
such as this,
that fly to meet us
bearing comfort
and strength,
that come alongside us
for no other cause
than to lean themselves
toward our ear
and with their
curious insistence
whisper our name:
Beloved.
Beloved.
Beloved.
--Jan Richardson (from Circle of Grace)
We are invited to live into our belovedness in the very ordinary moments of our everyday lives. As Henri Nouwen writes:
“As long as ‘being the Beloved’ is little more than a beautiful thought or a lofty idea that hangs above my life to keep me from becoming depressed, nothing really changes. What is required is to become the Beloved in the commonplaces of my daily existence... Becoming the Beloved is pulling the truth revealed to me from above, down into the ordinariness of what I am thinking of, talking about, and doing from hour to hour.”
Nouwen's words speak into the gritty, wilderness journey of Lent -- where we stumble upon those everyday places and situations where we do not trust in our belovedness -- when we are tempted to fill our empty inner spaces with things that do not satisfy our deepest yearning for God.
As we close with the music below, consider what it means for you to begin this Lenten journey as the Beloved. (You may wish to keep a journal of your experience, questions, insights, prayers that arise in our retreat.)
What might help you on this journey?
Is there anything you need to release?
Is there anything you want to embrace?
Kyrie Elieson (Lord Have Mercy) - Illumination: Peaceful Gregorian Chants
Notes:
1) 40-day Prayer Beads: see below one option to create an ancient prayer tool.
2) Donations: Our retreat is free of charge, but some of you have asked about making a donation towards our programming. We hope to have a Paypal option included with this blog in the coming weeks. You are also free to mail a check (made payable to Donna) at:
Donna Holstein
2917 Village Green Lane
Eagleville, PA 19403
40-DAY LENTEN PRAYER BEADS/BRACELETS
Supplies:
Beads of your choosing. You might select different types of beads to divide the weeks and a cross or other symbol. Amazon, Joann's and Michaels have inexpensive beads you can order.
String (you can use elastic string, or other type you have on hand)
Paper plates - optional
Choose 40 beads – or 47 (to include Sundays through Easter)
Sundays are considered “feast days” and not counted in the traditional 40 days of
Lent. You might want to use different beads to separate the weeks, and a cross or other symbol.
You can use a small paper plate (or other small plate) to hold your beads while you string.
Cut a piece of cord to string your beads. You can make a bracelet or a simple string of beads.
If you’d rather add beads as Lent continues over the next 40 days, you may keep your cord and beads in a small basket or bag. Add one bead per day.
There are many different ways to create prayer beads. Here is a website for creating Anglican prayer beads: https://www.unspokenelements.com/pages/how-to-use-anglican-prayer-beads
Once you create the bracelet – or prayer bead string – you can use it in your prayers:
There are many ways you might pray with your beads. One suggestion is to choose a simple prayer and touch or gently move one bead at a time as you move through the words of the prayer.
Some prayers you might use:
The Jesus Prayer:
“Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me, a sinner” or simply “Jesus have mercy”
The prayer of Julian of Norwich:
“All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well”
The Lord’s Prayer
The Serenity Prayer: "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference."
Intercession: sit quietly and wait for people and situations to arise in your awareness, and then pray for them, moving through the beads as you pray.
Breath prayer:
Sitting quietly and paying attention to your breath, while touching/moving a bead with each in-breath and out-breath, can be a good centering practice.
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