A Liberating Fast: Feeding Our True Hungers, Embracing Kin-dom Values
What if we began to understand fasting as a liberating practice – a practice of letting go of the patterns and habits that distract us from our true hungers? What if we understood it as a practice of actively resisting the societal pressures and beliefs that hold us captive? What if this letting go creates the interior freedom we need to embrace and embody the life-giving values of the kin-dom?
Each Sunday during Lent, we will enter into a mini-retreat time using a variety of prayer practices including a breath prayer practice, imaginative prayer with scripture, a contemplative walking or sitting meditation, as well as individual and communal rituals.
We will have three contemporary authors/mystics as companions on the journey: Cole Arthur Riley (This Here Flesh: Spirituality, Liberation and the Stories that Make Us and Black Liturgies: Prayers, Poems and Liturgies for Staying Human); Tricia Hersey (Rest as Resistance: A Manifesto), and Christine Valters Paintner (A Different Kind of Fast: Feeding Our True Hungers in Lent).
Lent Devotional
Our worship theme, “A Liberating Fast: Feeding Our True Hungers, Embracing Kindom Values,” is in invitation to pay attention to our inner and outer lives—the stories, practices, and values that guide us and how those shape and are shaped by the world around us. The Lent Devotional is a companion for the journey, prompting you to go deeper and move freer with God. This Lent devotional can be used however you need. It can be used for a solo time of meditation, or with a friend, household or small group.
Faith Formation: Weekly Lent Journey Group
Our Lent Journey Groups will be meeting weekly to build community and nourish your spiritual life this season. Each faith formation gathering is an opportunity to discuss and integrate the scriptures and spiritual practices introduced each week in worship.
Ash Wednesday Service
February 14, 7:00pm
On Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent, we remember that we are made of dust and to dust we will return. In remembering our fragility and mortality we deepen our awareness of how precious life is. The service will include prayer songs, reflection and meditation, and anointing with oil and ashes.
Weekly Themes
Week 1 | February 18
Fast from Unworthiness, Embrace Belovedness
Matthew 3: 13a, 16-17; 4:1-4
Week 2 | February 25
Fast from Individualism, Embrace Collectivity
Matthew 4: 5-11
Week 3 | March 3
Fast from Busyness, Embrace Slowness and Rest
Mark 6:30
Week 4 | March 10
Fast from Worry, Embrace Wonder
Matthew 5:1-2; 6: 25-29
Week 5 | March 17
Fast from Fear, Embrace Liberation
Mark 14: 1-4; 6, 7-9
Week 6 | March 24 | Palm and Passion Sunday
Fast from Apathy, Embrace Resistance
Fast from Denial, Embrace Vulnerability
