passion or any of the other practices described on these pages (23-25)— take us to those places where we fall, again, into the river of God’s endless grace as it flows through our time and place.
Spiritual practices or disciplines
are actions and patterns of life through which we encounter, expe- rience and express God’s grace. Through them, the Spirit accom- plishes the work of grace in our lives.
ways to serve God with my whole heart, mind and soul. That word, repent, had a moralistic sound. It ground into me that I was unwor- thy of knowing God and receiving grace.
Each year Lent came as a nag-
ging killjoy, pointing out failures to be what God wants: quit doing bad things, stop having evil thoughts and overcome small-souled selfishness. My focus was wrong, as I fear the
church’s focus often gets misplaced. My anxiety about Lent grows when we read prayers and sugges- tions for the season that have more to do with human failure than with the God revealed by Jesus, the one who loved his own and loved them totally, right to the end (John 13:1). If focused upon ourselves and our sins, Lent becomes a misguided exercise that magnifies our greatest obstacle to true relationship with God: the belief that the relationship depends entirely on us. We are created in the love of God for no other reason than to know and be complete in God’s love. What changes us is not knowledge of sin but absorption into the one who is love. What transforms our vision and lives is falling again and again into the river whose streams make glad the city of God.
For me, Lent has become a differ- ent kind of season, having lost some
22 The Lutheran •
www.thelutheran.org
of its penitential cast. It’s a time for drawing close to the river where one is more easily drawn into the cur- rents of unspeakable grace, there to forget every sadness and despair, there to have every haunting failure and preoccupation with self and image swept away in the endlessness of an eternal mercy. Several years ago I prayed through the Gospel of Mark, medi- tating on each story. As each episode in Jesus’ ministry came alive I was drawn closer to him. Sometimes he touched my heart. At other times he frightened me, made me angry or shattered my illusions.
Jesus wants us to know every- thing that is in him. He wants us to experience the love that flows between him and the loving mystery he calls the Father. He wants us to share their joys and sorrows, their holy dream for creation and their work of loving the world into life and beauty.
Nothing unusual in this. Jesus
invites his followers of every age to follow along, listen to what he says and watch what he does as he surren- ders his will to the loving mystery of God. Surrendering to the Father’s will, he extends his arms on the cross in God’s loving embrace of all that is—and all that we are.
Our Lenten practices—whether praying through Jesus’ ministry and
Practices often involve what ancient Celtic Christians called “thin places,” where we see, feel and know the glory of God shin- ing from eternity into the present moment.
These place us before God so the Spirit may more fully carry out the divine work within us, transforming us into the image of Christ for the sake of the world, loving what God loves, and sharing God’s passion for mercy and justice.
The purpose of spiritual practice is to personally, existentially know the unbounded love who is the source of all that is so we may know ourselves as love’s creatures, created in, by and for the one who is love. Christian spiritual practices deconstruct the socially conditioned self, rooted in the values that bom- bard us from media and popular culture, so a new self can emerge, shaped by the triune life of God, a life of receiving and sharing the river of life and love that flows from the heart of God.
Some practices, such as fasting, confession and absolution, shar- ing the eucharist, forms of prayer and meditation on Scripture, are well known. But we can also create our own practices that help us pay attention to God and be drawn into God’s love, awakening a love for God with our whole heart, mind and soul. M
NICK KIRIAZIS
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52