SOMETHING DIFFERENT FOR LENT 2012

First Sunday of Lent ~ 26th February 2012

“The Spirit sent him out into the wilderness”

Welcome to the first week of our Lenten retreat. Each week these reflections will be a guide for you to spend some more time in prayer and throughout Lent. It is also an opportunity to focus in on the Lenten themes each week and to take some ‘time out’ each day.

Our theme for Lent this year is Live Lent. Transform Your World. We begin our Lenten retreat by allowing ourselves to be led into the ‘wilderness’. We need to remove ourselves from our hectic world for a few minutes each day to give ourselves space and time. In the Gospels we are told that Jesus frequently goes away to a quiet place to pray, to escape the crowds, to spend time with God. This is a good place to start.

Tasks for this week:

First you are invited to create a simple sacred space in your home. This could be in the corner of your bedroom or sitting room. It should be somewhere that you can go for some quiet time each day. You may use some symbols in your space – such as a cross, candles, a bible or some significant symbol for you. The colour for Lent is purple so you may like to use that colour in your sacred space. You could even create your own mini-desert using some sand and stones. Be creative, yet keep it simple.

Secondly, some people like to carry something with them during the weeks of Lent, like a stone or pebble. This is a reminder of the things that weigh you down, preventing you from living as freely and as fully as you can. Take your stone out once everyday and hold it in your hand. By the

end of the five weeks you will know every part of it as you will know your inner self. You can place the stone/symbol in the sacred space each night as a symbol of giving those burdens to God.

The following suggestions on these pages are meant as a guide.You can do some of them or all of them. Take your time – you have a full week.

Prayer suggestions for the week:

1. Breathing exercise: Be still. Take three deep slow breaths. Then, focus on your normal breathing. This is the breath of life. Thank God for this gift of breath and life. Repeat the following: “Lord, you are closer to me than my own breathing” (St. Teresa).

2. Read Sunday’s Gospel, two or three times (Mark 1:12-15)
Sit with the text, and pick a word or phrase that stands out to you. Repeat that word or phrase in your mind. Why is that word or phrase relevant to you at this moment? Is it calling you to action? That action might be thanksgiving, a call for prayer, or a more specific action.

Something to think about:

Jesus went to the desert to prepare for his public ministry. How will I prepare for this season of Lent? Where is my ‘wilderness’? Where can I go to reflect/pray/ ‘BE STILL’? I can take up something as well as or instead of giving up something. What will I do this Lent? How will I live in solidarity with those who ‘have not’?
Lord, help me to change on my Lenten journey.

God created me in His own image and likeness. He always sees the good in me. God is always close to me and with me. Do I sometimes priorities other things in life because I am so busy working, caring, cleaning, rushing ~ I move further away from God? This Lent I will try to spend some time in prayer each day, even if only for a few minutes.
Lord, help me to change on my Lenten journey

Thought for the Week:
‘The question is not “How am I to find God?” but
“How am I to let myself be found by Him?”
The question is not “How am I to know God?” but
“How am I to let myself be known by God?”
And finally, the question is not “How am I to love God?” but
“How am I to let myself be loved by God?”
God is looking into the distance for me,
Trying to find me, and longing to bring me home.’
(Henri J. Nouwen)

Embrace the Wilderness, LIVE LENT.

The gospel for the first Sunday of Lent sends us out into the wilderness. And it’s good. The text says that it is the Spirit who drove Jesus (not literally!) out into the wilderness, therefore it is God who is in control here. It may be an uncomfortable situation “with the wild beasts” but wilderness can be a great thing. We often have to remove ourselves from the hum drum of daily life so that we can breathe a little. It’s a bit like a stock take. What’s here? What’s here that shouldn’t be? What’s missing?

Lent calls each of us to transform our lives and our relationships with the world around us. We won’t automatically wake up on Easter morning transformed. It takes time, it takes practice. But we are KINGDOM PEOPLE, building, transforming, and working in solidarity. With so much to do, we must take example from the first Sunday gospel of this transforming season and allow ourselves to be led, like Jesus, “into the wilderness”.

LOVE LIFE; LIVE LENT; TRANSFORM YOUR WORLD

Fierce Friendship (Mk 2:1-13)

This is one of the many conflict stories in Mark where Jesus is challenged by the religious authorities. They are non-too pleased that he is forgiving sins because as far as they are concerned, only God can do that. It is easy for them to use the words of forgiveness, but how many of them can heal the paralysed man and let him walk? Jesus wants to heal the man but also to show people that he has authority! And what of the faith of the paralysed man’s friends ~ fierce friendship? They literally took the roof off so that they could get him to Jesus. You can imagine Jesus sitting there, teaching, and then the dust starts to fall…

“And I look out and I see paralysed men and women, paralysed congregations, paralysed ministries and I want to cry; ‘Your sins are forgiven. Rise, take up your bed and walk!’ And I treasure those moments of intrusion, when the heavens are torn apart and the Spirit descends and I rise from the water and I know there is hope” (William Loader).

Sssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

One of the features of Mark’s Gospel is the big SECRET, what scholars call the ‘Messianic Secret’.

Whenever Jesus heals people in Mark, he tells them not to tell anyone. On the odd occasion when the disciples show a little bit of understanding, he tells them not to say anything to anyone about his miracles. You would think that Jesus would want it shouted from the rooftops, never mind the torture it would be for people to try and keep something like this quiet. But Jesus is not that kind of Messiah. He doesn’t want the publicity, not yet. He doesn’t want people to have the wrong idea about what his MISSION involves. It is not about the glory, it is not meant to be easy, it is not without the difficult paths, the cross! It is all about service.

We can think of the leper as all those people in society that we don’t want near us… they are easily identified by this question: ‘who do you not want living next door to you?’ Jesus reaches out to the alienated and by doing so, in today’s Gospel, he himself becomes alienated.

Jane Mellett ~ Intercom 2012
Just for fun:

February 5th

It was still dark, deserted and prayerful.
The Gospel today is a busy one. Jesus goes from teaching in the synagogue, to healing Peter’s mother-in law, to curing everyone in the city who was sick or possessed. But there is one line in the midst of this text which stands out: “In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed”. We don’t have to think too hard about the busyness of our own lives to realise the importance of stopping at some point in the middle of the mayhem to breathe, to give some space, prayer, reflection, whatever we can to focus our minds on the purpose of all the madness… God’s Kingdom.

The Difference
I got up early one morning
And rushed right into the day;
I had so much to accomplish
That I didn't take time to pray.
Problems just tumbled around me,
And heavier came each task;
"Why doesn't God help me?" I wondered.
He answered, "You didn't ask."
I wanted to see joy and beauty-
But the day toiled on, grey and bleak;
I wondered why God didn't show me,

He said, "But you didn't seek."
I tried to come into God's presence,
I used all my keys at the lock;
God gently and lovingly chided:
"My child, you didn't knock."
I woke up early this morning
And paused before entering the day;
I had so much to accomplish
That I had to take time to pray.
(Author Unknown)