Moderator Mardi Tindal's blog: Soul, community, creation through Lent

Posted on: 02/24/2011 10:18

When Betty Lynn Schwab asked how I would feel if she adopted “God’s healing of soul, community, and creation” as the focus of this year’s United Church Lenten devotional book, I was delighted. The biblical reflections and prayers of eight extraordinary writers now offer us an unprecedented opportunity for shared spiritual practice and theological discussion on this theme using this book, Rising with the Morning Star. In addition to personal Lenten devotional practice, you may want to discuss the book with a group. It includes a study guide to make that easy.

I invite you to join me in daily devotional practice with this book, beginning on Ash Wednesday (March 9) through Easter Sunday (April 24). With others, I also plan to join the online community of conversation—or “e-book study”—through this year’s Lenten journey and invite you to join as well.

This promises to be a fruitful time of shared prayer and wide-ranging reflection on God’s healing of soul, community, and creation.

From now until the start of Lent I am focused on visits with international partners, who are among my best teachers about these connections and about how to live with integrity given the call to healing in our relationship with God through Christ, with one another, and with the earth.

Who are your best teachers about these connections?

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Mardi Tindal's blog

Comments

spirit wind 7

Posted on: 03/08/2011 11:56

Thanks Mardi, for offering this way during Lent to look and discuss this book. I got the book a while ago and have been trying to wait for the 'time' to arrive. But, this is a nice surprise to know I have others on this journey to connect with.

I think we'll still have weekly 'Come to the Quiet' reflection services here, but can't always get to them.

Blessings... flying in from Manitou!

Diane

Jim Kenney

Posted on: 03/08/2011 15:52

Thank you for the invitation, to you and to Aaron.

I received my copy a few days ago and twice read through the readings for this week. They are well written and thought provoking. I have some comments at this time.

For the Ash Wednesday readings, I taught in a First Nations School where I was introduced to the Medicine Wheel which has many layers, aspects and symbols relating to position, colour, etc. I believe it is important for non-First Nations people to understand that the Medicine Wheel can be a helpful model for looking at the world, ourselves, communities and so on, but most of us cannot see it or understand it the same way as a First Nations person raised with the world view and language associated with it. For us it is essentially an interesting and helpful artifiact -- for them it is part of their being. The meanings we can get from it are different from the meanings they experience.

We have other symbols for wholeness that might be more meaningful including the trinitarian symbols, some of our crosses, or even eggs. One of my favourites are tapestries -- the interwoven strands of different colours that together create beautiful images parallel our varied life experiences (cream for bland, black for painful, reds for high energy, blues for spiritual, greens for creative, yellows for joyful, browns for the non-memorable, and so on). The beauty and wholeness of the tapestry depend on the careful inclusion and use of all of our experiences.

I appreciated the comment about dualisms inherited from our dysfunctional Greek ancestral philosophers who seemed more interested in speculating about the world than experiencing it. We are challenged to recover the Jewish view of being as a community affair, not an individual event.

In reflecting on what our most urgent needs for healing are, I believe it is important to explore why that healing is needed (both what caused the dis-ease, and what good could come of the healing), and what blocks our healing. My personal issue is weaning myself off of the bad habit of allowing non-helpful distractions take away my time and energy from activities that support the achievement of my goals.