Lenten Study, Week 1 and 1/2
How is your Lenten journey going so far? The desert listening?
One writer, Wendy Wright, described a Catholic parish that she visited during the Lenten season. She said visually the church was as she expected it to be, complete with purple banners. But the one thing that stood out to her was that they had filled the holy water fonts that are at the front of the church with desert sand instead of water. Typically, one comes in and dips one's fingers into the holy water and makes the sign of the cross. But this year at Lent, people were arrested by the fact that as their fingers went in and out of that font, they encountered the dryness of sand.
Just as Jesus went "down" into the desert/wilderness, we too go down. Like the desert ascetics of the fourth century, we go to the desert to be transformed and to listen.
This is what Wright says about these desert fathers, "In silence and solitude they cultivated a hearing attuned to catch the voice of God. They learned that going apart from the noisy environment of daily life to the silence of the desert enabled them to perceive deeper levels of noise and silence. In the desert's quiet they discovered the noisiness within, the restless cacophony of voices raging in their hearts. Yet if they persevered further, they found that beneath that was another level of silence, an abyss of stillness that encompassed all that exists. There, in the primal silence within the human heart, the voice of God could be clearly heard. The patient process of untangling the threads of voices, of settling down to the center was the lifelong work of the desert. It is our work as well."
So my question again is how is our listening going? Surely, it's an art that we must develop.
This week I know many of you have taken on the 40 day challenge (discipline really) to listen to the New Testament. This takes a different kind of listening skill as well. As you've heard through Matthew, Mark, and now Luke, perhaps it stood out at least once that Jesus did his share of desert listening, going away to pray.
This Sunday night, I will leave space at the opening of our study together for people to share what you've been hearing from God. It can be one word, a phrase, a sentence, a story...
Let us continue to dip into the sand,
Julie
One writer, Wendy Wright, described a Catholic parish that she visited during the Lenten season. She said visually the church was as she expected it to be, complete with purple banners. But the one thing that stood out to her was that they had filled the holy water fonts that are at the front of the church with desert sand instead of water. Typically, one comes in and dips one's fingers into the holy water and makes the sign of the cross. But this year at Lent, people were arrested by the fact that as their fingers went in and out of that font, they encountered the dryness of sand.
Just as Jesus went "down" into the desert/wilderness, we too go down. Like the desert ascetics of the fourth century, we go to the desert to be transformed and to listen.
This is what Wright says about these desert fathers, "In silence and solitude they cultivated a hearing attuned to catch the voice of God. They learned that going apart from the noisy environment of daily life to the silence of the desert enabled them to perceive deeper levels of noise and silence. In the desert's quiet they discovered the noisiness within, the restless cacophony of voices raging in their hearts. Yet if they persevered further, they found that beneath that was another level of silence, an abyss of stillness that encompassed all that exists. There, in the primal silence within the human heart, the voice of God could be clearly heard. The patient process of untangling the threads of voices, of settling down to the center was the lifelong work of the desert. It is our work as well."
So my question again is how is our listening going? Surely, it's an art that we must develop.
This week I know many of you have taken on the 40 day challenge (discipline really) to listen to the New Testament. This takes a different kind of listening skill as well. As you've heard through Matthew, Mark, and now Luke, perhaps it stood out at least once that Jesus did his share of desert listening, going away to pray.
This Sunday night, I will leave space at the opening of our study together for people to share what you've been hearing from God. It can be one word, a phrase, a sentence, a story...
Let us continue to dip into the sand,
Julie
What a great reminder.
Yes, the spiritual journey with Christ does not always feel like cool water. Sometimes we are in the desert of life spiritually, and it never feels "cool" when you are there.
In my darkest moments, the only thing that gave me peace was that Christ was there too, he experienced a wilderness and he gives me the strength to pass though it as he did.
He left the comforts of heaven to experience "our" wilderness because he chose to live the human journey. I believe he did this so I am never alone in my own wilderness of life. Its hard to imagine, but it is true, in Christ I am never alone or abandoned. Can any religion claim such a thing? Such a sacrifice? Such a friend? No. I am in awe that my God made such a choice. In my awe, I am propelled to respond with gratitude and courage to follow this God - who calls me friend.
I do not need just rules from my God, but understanding for the pain I go through.
This gives me peace especially in the darkest and loneliest moments of my journey. Why would God do such a thing? I guess he must love us pretty much. I hope my response to him is a display of the same love he has shown toward me.
I don't need just a role model, I need a God who knows my pain and who has conquered the sin that causes all human pain. Because of what he has done in the desert and on the cross, I am not afraid.
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