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LENT 2007
RENEWED FOR LIFE
THE SEASON OF LENT AT THE KIRK OF KILDAIRE
OPPORTUNITIES FOR SPIRITUAL GROWTH AND WORSHIP
KIRK OF KILDAIRE, PRESBYTERIAN
Dear Family and Friends at the Kirk of Kildaire, I am excited about spending my first season of Lent–Holy Week–Easter with you. During this season we are given a chance to deepen our spiritual life and probe the depths of the faith that has inspired Christians for more than 2,000 years. Inside this pamphlet you will discover opportunities at the Kirk to renew your faith through study and worship. I urge you also to make devotional study and prayer a priority during the next 40 days. I encourage you to carve out 15 minutes a day to read the Bible, or a favorite devotional book, to listen to inspiring music, and to participate in prayer. If you read the Bible, I suggest you read a gospel from beginning to end. At the church there will be special services and a special study, “Replenishing the Soul: Discovering the Gifts and Practices of the Faith for Personal Renewal.” This class is based on a course I have participated in that has been very helpful for my own spiritual growth. The class will be on Tuesday mornings and evenings. For more information please see the church newsletter (the Krier) and the bulletin. I read some words by an author that describes what I hope will happen as we journey through the season of Lent together. I pray that we will get beyond what he called “secondhand spirituality”: Some of us have tried to have a daily quiet time and have not been successful. Others of us have a hard time concentrating. And all of us are busy. So rather than spend time with God, listening for his voice, we’ll let others spend time with him and then benefit from their experience. Let them tell us what God is saying. After all, isn’t that why we pay preachers?… If that is your approach, if your spiritual experiences are secondhand and not firsthand, I’d like to challenge you with this thought: Do you do that with other parts of your life?… You don’t do that with vacations… You don’t do that with romance… You don’t let someone else eat on your behalf, do you? [There are] certain things no one can do for you. And one of those is spending time with God.” Max Lucado, Grace for the Moment
I look forward to sharing this journey with you.
Peace,
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April 1st- 8th
1st- Palm Sunday -
A service remembering the events of the last week of Jesus' life 6th - Good Friday - Sunday, April 8th
On Easter morning our flower
cross will be on the lawn ready to receive flowers. All are asked to bring
fresh flowers to help decorate it. |
“But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died. For since death came through a human being, the resurrection of the dead has also come through a human being; for as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ.”
- Paul, 1 Corinthians 15:20-23
DEFINITIONS FOR HOLY WEEK CALENDAR EVENTS
The Labyrinth
The labyrinth is an ancient spiritual tool, used for the purpose of prayer, meditation, reflection and contemplation. It is a universal image representing the path of life, and its winding walk in toward the centre and out again symbolizes a pilgrim’s walk with God, a symbolic journey in the form of a walking meditation. Walking the path is a sacred ritual that can provide insights, courage, and understanding in facing life’s challenges. The labyrinth is found in various forms in all religious traditions around the world and throughout history. The labyrinth is not a maze: there are no tricks to it, and no dead ends. The labyrinth has only one path (uni-cursal) which leads to the centre and out again. If you make a misstep, you will simply end up at the centre or at the beginning. The path winds throughout and becomes a mirror of the way we live our lives; it touches our sorrows and releases our joy. Notice how the labyrinth is a non-lineal experience. The journey is not to figure out how to get to the centre, but how to take the next step with God. So walk it with an open heart and mind.
The rediscovery of the medieval labyrinth, a twelfth
century mystical tool, may be one of the most important spiritual
developments of the late twentieth century. Throughout human history there
has been the practice of making a spiritual pilgrimage – a search for the
holy. The Hebrew Scriptures refer to God’s people journeying to a land of
promise, to
In the Middle Ages Christians
were expected to travel to the
- Explanation from Gracefield Camp and
Maundy Thursday
The night remembering the last night Jesus spent with his disciples before he died on the cross. He shared the “Last Supper” with them (which we remember at every communion service), and he washed the disciples’ feet, setting before them the model of disciples as servants. “Maundy” comes from the Latin mandatum (“commandment”), in this case the great commandment Christ shared at the meal: “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.”
Tenebrae
A service of Tenebrae (“Darkness”) remembers the last hours and utterances of Jesus’ earthly life and is a dramatic reminder of the growing darkness that surrounded the followers of Christ at the crucifixion. This is a helpful reminder that Holy Week is not all light and triumph, but also a time of Christ’s suffering.
RENEWING YOUR LIFE THROUGH PERSONAL DEVOTIONS AND PRAYERS
Below are Scripture readings, prayers, and devotional sites as resources for your personal spiritual renewal.
1.
Scripture
a. See the daily readings in
this booklet. There are many. You may want to choose one of the “streams” -
Psalms, Old Testament, epistles, or gospels.
b. Read through a gospel or through the Psalms.
c. Pick a Psalm for each week and read it daily. Live with the words of a
Psalm and let it “sink” into your spirit.
2. Prayers
Below are two prayers to pray daily for the 40 days of Lent. As you pray them and learn them, they will guide your spiritual growth, deepen your faith, and guide your life as a follower of Jesus Christ. They come from Forward Movement, an Anglican devotion.
For Today
O God: Give me strength to live another day;
Let me not turn coward before its difficulties or prove recreant to its
duties;
Let me not lose faith in other people;
Keep me sweet and sound of heart, in spite of ingratitude, treachery, or
meanness;
Preserve me from minding little stings or giving them;
Help me to keep my heart clean, and to live so honestly and fearlessly that
no outward failure can dishearten me or take away the joy of conscious
integrity;
Open wide the eyes of my soul that I may see good in all things;
Grant me this day some new vision of thy truth;
Inspire me with the spirit of joy and gladness;
and make me the cup of strength to suffering souls;
in the name of the strong Deliverer, our only Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ
A Morning Resolve
I will try this day to live a simple, sincere, and serene life, repelling promptly every thought of discontent, anxiety, discouragement, impurity, and self-seeking; cultivating cheerfulness, magnanimity, charity, and the habit of holy silence; exercising economy in expenditure, generosity in giving, carefulness in conversation, diligence in appointed service, fidelity to every trust, and a childlike faith in God.
In particular I will try to be faithful in those habits of prayer, work, study, physical exercise, eating, and sleep which I believe the Holy Spirit has shown me to be right.
And as I cannot in my own strength do this, nor even with a hope of success attempt it, I look to thee, O Lord God my Father, in Jesus my Savior, and ask for the gift of the Holy Spirit.
3. Devotional Websites: