A Consideration of Biblical Views of Atonement

Lent Day 31:

For the last five years during Lent I have led a discussion at RCHP on Biblical Views of Atonement. There is nothing more mystical than the death and resurrection of Jesus.  My suggestion for your prayer and meditation today is simply to consider what Atonement means to you.

Lent Day 30:

(This beautiful piece titled "Contemplation: Dog Art Painting" was created by Sharon Cummings and can be purchased at http://fineartamerica.com/ as well as redbubble.com  
I'm saving my money to get a print.  It's perfect!)

A suggestion for your prayer and meditation:

Find a tree.  Sit and stay.

Lent Day 29:

Meditation is not merely the intellectual effort to master certain ideas about God, or even to impress upon our minds the mysteries of the Christian faith.  Conceptual knowledge of religious truth has an important place in our lives.  The spiritual life needs strong intellectual foundations, and reading theology helps us understand faith experience.  But meditation itself is neither study nor intellectual activity as such.  Its purpose is not to acquire or to deepen our speculative knowledge of God or of revelation.  Rather than seeking to know about God, we are seeking to know God directly, beyond all the objects which God has made.  We are seeking to experience God's presence with the awareness of loving faith.

A suggestion for your prayer and meditation:

Seek out a quiet place.  Find a comfortable, upright position in which you are relaxed but alert, with your eyes lightly closed.  Remain as still as possible.

Silently, begin to say interiorly a single word or phrase selected from the context of Christian faith.  Listen to it as you say it gently but continuously with faith and love.  Do not think or imagine anything, spiritual or otherwise.  If thoughts and images come and your attention strays, as soon as you become aware of this, return to saying your word.

all of the above is taken from Prayer of Heart and Body by Father Thomas Ryan

Lent Day 28:

As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, 

so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. 

To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. 

To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over 

the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives.

~ Henry David Thoreau

A suggestion for your prayer and meditation:

I walk a pathway;

Of rocks, roots,

Leaves and mud.

Traveling alone at times,

But more often with trusted companions.

We are cutting a trail of holy thoughts.

Lent Day 27:

In the face of the struggle for freedom,
Give us strength.
In the face of decision about freedom,
Give us wisdom.
In the practice of freedom,
Give us guidance.
From the dangers of freedom,
Give us protection.
In the life of freedom,
Give us joy.
In the way in which we use our freedom,
Give us a clear vision

South American Council of Churches
"A Litany for Human Rights," All Year Round
British Council of Churches, 1988

A suggestion for your prayer and meditation:

In what way do you act on your own freedom?
In what ways are you enslaved?

Lent Day 26:

Home is a movement,
a quality of relationship,
a state where people seek to be "their own",
and increasingly responsible for the world.

from The Journey is Home by Nelle Morton (theologian and Christian Educator)


A suggestion for your prayer and meditation:

Take a moment to sit quietly.
Consider when you have felt most "at home".
Imagine that place or time or experience.
Recall the sounds, smells, the texture of it.
Breath in a blessing and exhale a blessing
for the home that allows you to be "your own".

Lent Day 25:

Life is
A blue sky framed by firs.
Guilt, joy, frustration, contentment;
So many moments
That make up a day.
In all of this
Gratitude spills out
Like sap running freely from the tree.
God is good
We fail
We harm 
We forget 
but God is always good.
And this God 
Lives in me.


A suggestion for your prayer and meditation:

How would you describe your day?  
Where do you see God in the moments of your day?