Living Lent

Lent begins on Wednesday, March 6th.   There are many wonderful resources available that can help us complete this Paschal Journey, individually and together.  Here are just a few resources that have come my way in recent days that may help us to make this a ‘Living Lent’.

Poem for Lent

The cosmos dreams in me
while I wait in stillness,
ready to lean a little further
into the heart of the Holy.

I, a little blip of life,
a wisp of unassuming love,
a quickly passing breeze,
come once more into Lent.

No need to sign me
with the black bleeding ash
of palms, fried and baked.
I know my humus place.

This Lent I will sail
on the graced wings of desire,
yearning to go deeper
to the place where
I am one in the One.

~ Joyce Rupp, osm

 

The ‘Living Lent’  resource

‘Living Lent ‘is about recognising that changing our climate is not just an activity, but a lifestyle.  We can buy a reusable coffee cup, but not ask who grew our coffee and how much they were paid, or we can refuse a plastic bag whilst buying fast fashion from a child sweatshop. This Living Lent resource can help us to explore as a community, what it means to open ourselves up to whole-life change for the climate.

That’s why ‘Living Lent’ invites us to become part of a community who will respond to the call to climate action by making significant personal commitments to changing our lifestyles during the 40 days of Lent.

“As the Living Lent community, we will share in this together, encouraging and challenging one another as we journey through Lent”.

If you sign up as a member of the Living Lent Community, you make a commitment to changing your lifestyle.  You are invited to choose something that will stretch you by considering: What do you rely on most? or  What would be something that would change you daily habits?  As a ‘lenten community’ you will be making commitments alongside others and you will have the opportunity to share in reflections, devotional practice and  creative resources.

“It’s about our Christian call to love our neighbours. Climate change impacts the poorest and most vulnerable people in the world already. Our Christian call to bear the burdens of our weakest members means that those of us in the affluent west need to recognise our own abuse of the earth’s resources”.

See: Living Lent Resources

‘Laudato Si – Stations of the Cross’

Columban Fr. Charles Rue has written this year’s Lenten resource  ‘Laudato Si – Stations of the Cross’ . He brings together his ecological expertise and knowledge of prayer and liturgy to give us a Stations of the Cross that is up-to-date and deeply prayerful. He has listened to the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor.

In the introduction to this resource which you can download from the link – Fr. Charles says:

“In 2015 Pope Francis wrote the Encyclical letter, Laudato Si’: On Care for Our Common Home. He wrote that he wanted not only to clarify Catholic Social Teaching on the environment but advance it. Looking to reality, he linked the suffering of marginalised people with the disruption of the life-support systems of Earth: the twin cry of poor people and Earth itself. Pope Francis invited all believers and people of good will:

• to SEE the disruption of the support systems of planet Earth which underpin human and all species that call it home;
• to JUDGE that human self-absorbed lifestyles and the dictatorship of economic greed combine to cause the cries of pain rising up from the Earth and the poor;
• and to ACT-pray-listen leading us to change our minds and ways of living, to love every part of creation with passion”.

[…]

“This Way of the Cross is a medium of involvement. We are reconciled not only with our sisters and brothers but with Earth and all it holds. It helps us live with hope in our hearts”.

See: Link to Laudato Si Stations of the Cross 

See pdf resource book: HERE

Catholic Apptitude – Lenten Apps 2019

‘Catholic Apptitude’ have shared the top ‘Lenten Apps for 2019’ that offer Gospel-based ideas for living the season in such a way as to foster a more loving response to our neighbour and bring us closer to God. These ‘apps’ offer gentle ways to help you to engage your faith and to live a Christian life more fully.

Catholic Apptitude is a  world-wide community of Catholic app users, so you can also let them know about any other great finds you have.  See full list of their recommended  Lenten apps for 2019 in the link  HERE

Happy journeying.