“Listen to your life. See it for the fathomless mystery that it is. In the boredom and pain of it no less than the excitement and gladness: touch, taste, smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it because in the last analysis all moments are key moments, and life itself is grace.” ~Fredrick Buechner
Posted by David B. at 8:55 AM 0 comments
As I have shared in some previous posts, I am reading a Psalm a day during Lent. I am using a suggested reading schedule from a book I found here in Cape Town. Here is another series of Psalms for the days ahead for some of you reading along with me!
Wednesday, 2/28 – Psalm 51 (yes, again)
Thursday, 3/1 – Psalm 138
Friday, 3/2 – Psalm 130
Saturday, 3/3 – Psalm 119 (Whoa, a long one today! Not sure if I will read the entire thing.)
Sunday, 3/4 – Psalm 27
Monday, 3/5 – Psalm 79
Tuesday, 3/6 – Psalm 50
Wednesday, 3/7 – Psalm 31
Thursday, 3/8 – Psalm 1
Friday, 3/9 – Psalm 105
Saturday, 3/10 – Psalm 103
Posted by David B. at 7:54 AM 0 comments
This morning I started a book for Lent, The Joy of Your Salvation: Reflections on the Psalms of Lent by Deborah McCann. The title of the book is taken from Psalm 51, the first Psalm of Lent this Ash Wednesday. “Restore to me the joy of your salvation…” (Ps. 51:12). In the introduction the author of the book recognizes the importance and value of the season of penitence and introspection during Lent, but she also recognizes Lent as a “season of profound, abiding joy, a time for celebrating God’s overwhelming mercy and love for us.” She goes on to say, “Through these songs [Psalms] of yearning, loss, repentance, and triumph, you may hear you’re your own voice, and can join in praising the wonder and glory of a God who restores to us the joy of God’s salvation (Psalm 51).”
Here are the Psalms for the rest of the week, if you are interested…
Ash Wednesday – Psalm 51
Thursday – Psalm 1
Friday – Psalm 51 (again)
Saturday – Psalm 86
Sunday – Psalm 91
Monday – Psalm 19
Tuesday – Psalm 34
I am looking forward to listening and praying with these Psalms during these 40 days of Lent. I pray that they will renew the joy of God’s salvation afresh in my own life this season of preparation for Easter.
Posted by David B. at 7:05 AM 3 comments
Eugene Peterson in Eat This Book: A Conversation in the Art of Spiritual Reading provided some good stuff for me as I begin Lent this year…“The Scriptures are our listening post for learning the language of the soul, the ways God speaks to us; they also provide the vocabulary and grammar that are appropriate for us as we in our turn speak to God. Prayer detached from Scripture, from listening to God, disconnected from God’s words to us, short circuits the relational language of prayer.” Peterson goes on to share how the Psalms and Jesus specifically help shape our personal and relational practice of prayer…
The Psalms “speak for us…and oh, how they speak. They don’t simply say, ‘Yes, God, I agree…No, they argue and complain, they lament and they praise, they deny and disclaim, they thank and they sing.” Peterson calls the Psalms a “school of prayer, praying the prayers we get a feel for what is appropriate to say as we bring our lives into attentive and worshipping response to God as He speaks to us. Virtually everything human is appropriate as material for prayer: reflections and observations, fear and anger, guilt and sin, questions and doubts, needs and desires, praise and gratitude, suffering and death. Nothing human is excluded.”
On Jesus Peterson says, “If the Psalms are our primary text for prayer, our answering speech to the word of God, then Jesus, the Word made flesh, is our primary teacher. Jesus is the divine/human personal center for a life of prayer. Jesus prays for us – ‘he lives to make intercession for us’ (Heb. 7:25)…Prayer is shaped by Jesus, in whose name we pray…God, revealed in the Scriptures that we read and meditate upon and in Jesus who we address, gives both form and content to our prayers.”
What is really cool is that I read these quotes yesterday after already deciding to focus on listening to the Psalms and Jesus in the Gospel of Luke this Lenten season! This afternoon I will attend my first Lent service ever at Saint George’s Anglican Cathedral here in the City Bowl. Later today I will post the Psalms I will read and meditate on this week, in case any one wants to join me.
Posted by David B. at 10:47 PM 0 comments
As I said in a previous post, I have been trying to find resources for Lent this year that begins this Ash Wednesday, February 21. Both Advent and Lent are pretty new to me, as my church didn’t typically observe these church calendar seasons leading up to Christmas and Easter. I am still a novice in my understanding and observance of Lent, so I wanted to pass on a few web sites that I have found helpful. I was able to find a book for Lent at a Catholic bookstore here in Cape Town. The book focuses on a Psalm each of the forty days of Lent. This was a perfect find for me, as I am trying to spend more times in the Psalms - joining the Psalmists in worship, lament, prayer, and thanksgiving to God. I am learning and experiencing how the Psalms can often provide a language to our prayers. So, I am really looking forward to my Psalm of the day during Lent!
Here are the web sites on Lent that I have found helpful (if you are interested):
- CRI, Christian Resource Institute on “The Season of Lent” - http://www.crivoice.org/cylent.html
- CRI on the “The Stations of the Cross” –
http://www.cresourcei.org/stations.html
- Mark Roberts, a pastor from Southern Cal, wrote a blog summary on Lent last year (This blog is becoming a favorite of mine, so I assume he will have some good stuff to say about Lent next week, as well) –
http://www.markdroberts.com/htmfiles/resources/lent.htm
- Anglican Lent & Easter Resources, a web site that has some cool Lent links -
http://anglicansonline.org/special/lent.html
Here are some other possible reading & prayer web sites:
- The Daily Psalm (From Pastor Mark Roberts) –
http://www.thedailypsalm.com/
- Praying the Gospels (From Pastor Mark Roberts) –
http://www.praythegospels.com/
- Book of Common Prayer Readings for Lent (For Year One) -
http://www.crivoice.org/lent1.html
- Sacred Space, a prayer site run by the Irish Jesuits –
http://www.sacredspace.ie/
Posted by David B. at 11:57 PM 0 comments
Next Wednesday is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. I think I will go to an Ash Wednesday service here in Cape Town...a first for me! I had a book all picked out on the Stations of the Cross to read this year during Lent. But, somehow it didn't make it into my bags and sits at home on my dresser. I guess it will still good next year!
Anyway, I am looking for any good internet resurces, daily reflections, scripture readings, etc. to read during Lent this year. Any ideas out there? Post a comment or email me. Early next week I will post what I found to share with you all!
Posted by David B. at 10:52 PM 1 comments
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