Sacred Practices for Lent

Feb 6

The liturgical calendar offers openings throughout the year to pause, reflect upon and renew our spiritual lives. The opportunity to make an interior Lenten journey begins this year on Ash Wednesday, February 17th. Lent is a time for reflection and preparation for Easter as we contemplate the forty-days when Jesus withdrew to the desert for fasting and contemplation, prior to the crucifixion. Lent provides a portal to experience an intentional sacred season. The invitation is to consciously deepen my personal connection with the Divine Presence within. Lent marks a season for healing and renewal. The spiritual commitment to enter into sacred, internal space for daily prayer, contemplation and journaling throughout the Lenten season, provides the possibility for spiritual transformation and rejuvenation.

The Lenten Journal

I have selected a pocket-sized, blank book/journal to designate as my Lenten Journal. It will serve as a sacred container for my spiritual insights and reveal pathways for self-discovery as I journey towards Easter with the celebration of Resurrection.

The four quadrants of time within each day provide four distinct thresholds, a grid, to sacred awareness during Lent and throughout the year. A helpful practice I’ve discovered is to pause for personal reflection, as the earth turns, from dawn to day, dusk to dark. I will keep my journal nearby to make thumbprint notations through the hours, with the passing of time. Weekly in-depth reflections will also be added to mark insights for inner rhythms and patterns, the ebb and flow of my emotions and spiritual awareness.

The following map for a Lenten journey presents the four quadrants of time, accompanied by journal prompts. The invitation is for me to be creative and explore additional questions that naturally arise throughout the hours. The use of assorted colored pens or markers may enrich the experience, as well as, highlight the preciousness of each particular portion of time. The daily journal prompts I’m called to explore include:

Reflect and make note of the patterns of my emotions and spiritual stirrings throughout the day.
Where and when do I feel expansion?
Where and when do I feel contraction?
What portion of the day (each day) is most life-giving?
When do I feel depleted?
When and where do I notice God’s palpable presence?

Marking the Hours
Dawn: Upon awakening the invitation is to reflect upon the blessing of a new day, and to contemplate God’s Creation. I consciously seek the hidden wisdom within my dream images that linger beyond sleep. I reflect as the day begins:
What is my prayer as the gift of a new day is given to me to be savored and lived into with intention?
How will I express gratitude to God today, for my life and the gift of this day?
What symbols/images did I receive in my dreams last night that I might call upon to inform my actions and responses today?
Who in my life needs an encouraging word or phone visit before day’s end?
Where do I recognize illumination for my path (God’s inspiration) being revealed?
How shall I respond to the movement of the Spirit?

Day: The light of day provides myriad opportunities to serve as Christ’s heart and hands here on earth. Reflections for mid-day include:
How may I best serve friends, family, my ministry, my co-workers, today?
Is there something I am carrying in my heart that creates a blockage, hindering my full presence to recognizing and embracing the Christ within others?
What area of my life calls for fasting for my spiritual growth; fasting from spending, eating, gossiping, technology, complaining, etc.?

Dusk: Sunset begins the new day as we move towards the dark. This is the time to shift from “doing” to “being” in preparation for night. Dusk’s invitation is to pause for prayer and contemplation as the light diminishes, I seek to become fully present to the day’s departure. Reflections as the night approaches are:
What do I need to let go of through prayer as I prepare for night?
Who do I need to make amends with/forgive?
What pulls me away from physical, spiritual, or emotional rest?
What does my spirit need in this moment for enrichment and peace?

Dark: Blessed rest. The velvet depth of night arrives. Before sleep and dreams, time for reflection, prayer, contemplation.
When did I offer loving kindness today?
How was I hurtful today?
What correction to life’s course could I make tomorrow?
What am I most grateful for from this day?
I embrace the peace-filled and life-giving image of……….as I go to sleep and enter the realm of dreams.
What is my prayer as night spreads her canopy of stars?
Stitching as a sacred Lenten Practice The process of slow-stitching always informs my heart and spirit, in both subtle and profound ways. I am planning to add a very simple stitching practice as I navigate my way through the season of Lent. If you’d like to join me for this practice, here are a few suggestions for stitching to express the inner rhythms and spiritual patterns.
Choose four colors of thread to reflect the quadrants of time (dawn, day, dusk and dark). It’s possible to stitch directly onto the pages within your journal or choose to create a small “sampler” by stitching onto a 12” x 12” piece of linen or fabric of your choice.
A simple running stitch can tell your story as you meditate upon the hours of your day, choose colors of thread or embroidery floss to represent the four quadrants (dawn, day, dusk and dark).
Make patterns with your stitches to reflect your state of current state of being. Are you feeling peaceful and calm, anxious or frantic, restful and longing, etc. Allow your stitches to reflect your feelings in the present moment.
This practice isn’t about creating a finely stitched piece of work, but rather it’s an intuitive and inspired stitched response to the inner world…free flow, without planning or forethought.
Stitching for 5-10 minutes a day, as a meditative and reflective process, provides an opportunity to create a map, a mirror, a tactile impression of your emotional and spiritual inner movements.

Guided by my intuition, I will also add imagery, drawings, photos, or collage to my journal. In this way, my journal will become a written, stitched and visual Lenten prayer.

May the Lenten season bless you with healing, renewal, deepening, and enrichment for your spirit.