Use some or all of this reflection to help guide your personal journey through this week of Advent

Reflect

Prepare to be “not ready”.

The events of the past week have shaken most of us. It is hard to write a Christmas card with words of joy, peace, or hope and wish folk a merry time.

We were not ready for this.

But isn’t “this” exactly where God means to meet us?

Not where we are “ready” because the house is decorated, we’ve got the presents wrapped, the food prepared, the carols sung and we’ve done bit of praying for the world.

But in “this” place, which is uncertain, sometimes feels hopeless, and is devastatingly human and vulnerable; this is the place God entered as Mary accepted her role as a young woman carrying a child. This place, full of darkness and light; this is the place wherein John preached yet still asked “are you the Messiah?” This place where the disciples came to see their own reflected inadequacies perfectly loved into a new way of being.

This was where Jesus came and still comes.

Image: Tim Joyner Incarnation

Perhaps don’t “be ready” this week.

Just be you, coming to Bethlehem, waiting, expanded, different.

Read

Isaiah 9: 2, 6, 7

²The people walking in darkness
have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of the shadow of death,
a light has dawned.

⁶For unto us a child is born,
unto us a son is given,
and the government will be upon His shoulders.
And He will be called
Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

⁷Of the increase of His government and peace
there will be no end.
He will reign on the throne of David
and over his kingdom,
to establish and sustain it
with justice and righteousness
from that time and forevermore.
The zeal of the LORD of Hosts will accomplish this.

Ponder

How can we live in 2025 with the sounds of carols in every store, tinsel and baubles in every venue,  the rush and connections pulling at us, but also where we want to respond to the call that God is making upon our lives, a call that we know so truly begins with love and continues in the story of Christmas – of the incarnation of that love in a baby boy?

Do

In the many ways you will celebrate Christmas this year can you live true to everything that is about you and within you? As God became clothed in skin and bone, can you touch base with yourself about your being at this time -with the body’s aches, the mind’s scars and anxieties, the hungers, delights and sadnesses. Your soul’s restlessness?

Can you wrap these things for Christmas this year?

Each day until Christmas and indeed after the day…how will you mark what is being revealed as you ponder Christmas this year.

• Read a prayer – perhaps even compose it yourself.
• Sing a song (see below… Nil Desperandum)
• Dance a little dance       
• Sit with something beautiful from art, music, or nature
• Be still for a few moments, simply be-ing

Images
Borys Fiodorowicz (Polish), 3,1415926535879323846264338327, 2020. God has fingerprints!
Nabeela Al Khayer (Bahraini), “Shather Alfairooz (Gold Specks of Turquoise),“
Tim Joyner (American, 1987–), “Incarnation,” 2021

Prayer

There is so much to say, to ask for.
Yet, nothing is quite right to say, to ask for.
Please pray in me, Creator and Lover of us and this bewildering world.
I look to the baby, who will become the fulcrum for our Hope, the Beacon of our Peace and the Source of our Love for me, for us, for the whole world.

Emmanuel. Come Lord Jesus.

Listen

For our final week of Advent we have selected several things for you to listen to.

The first is a meditation spoken by John O’Donohue on the way that music can lift us out of despair.

Karl Jenkins Cantate Domino

And just for a bit of delight in the joy of singing, the joy of being together at Christmas time and a message of love – we hope you enjoy this choir.

For a printable PDF of the text of this reflection please click on the link below.

Use some or all of this reflection to help guide your personal journey through this week of Advent

Reflect

Prepare to see differently.

Advent has many nuances depending on your culture, background and traditions.

It depends also on what life is like for you right now. Advent can be influenced by past experiences, plus the anticipation of what might be coming next.

Also, for so many around the world, anticipating Christmas is coloured by their immediate (or past) experiences of war, famine, natural disaster, as well as current life circumstances – unemployment, family violence, illness and grief.

HOW COMPLEX, and how hard! This isn’t quite the story that we might want to be told, but its honest, and within it we find Grace.

Read

Isaiah 35 1-10

1 The desert and the parched land will be glad;
the wilderness will rejoice and blossom.
Like the crocus, ² it will burst into bloom;
it will rejoice greatly and shout for joy.
The glory of Lebanon will be given to it,
the splendour of Carmel and Sharon;
they will see the glory of the Lord,
the splendour of our God.

³ Strengthen the feeble hands,
steady the knees that give way;
⁴ say to those with fearful hearts,
“Be strong, do not fear;
your God will come,
he will come with vengeance;
with divine retribution
he will come to save you.”

⁵ Then will the eyes of the blind be opened
and the ears of the deaf unstopped.
⁶ Then will the lame leap like a deer,
 and the mute tongue shout for joy.
Water will gush forth in the wilderness
and streams in the desert.
⁷ The burning sand will become a pool,
the thirsty ground bubbling springs.
In the haunts where jackals once lay,
grass and reeds and papyrus will grow.

⁸ And a highway will be there;
it will be called the Way of Holiness;
it will be for those who walk on that Way.
The unclean will not journey on it;
wicked fools will not go about on it.
⁹ No lion will be there,
nor any ravenous beast;
they will not be found there.
But only the redeemed will walk there,
¹⁰ and those the Lord has rescued will return.
They will enter Zion with singing;
everlasting joy will crown their heads.
Gladness and joy will overtake them,
and sorrow and sighing will flee away.

Ponder

For this third week can we, who live in places that are relatively peaceful, safe and in circumstances that are relatively comfortable; be with those for whom this time is not safe, comfortable or easy. Can we be present to the complexities within our world, communities, families and within ourselves?

Image: Hosny Salah Girl in Gaza

Do

Can you put yourself somewhere different this week? Or can you be where you are…in all its complexity and need, suffering and hope? Allow time this week to simply be there.

Images:
Mohammed Ibrahim, Gaza
Daniel, Little Girl, Ukraine

However you are drawn, let this week be one where you sit with the deep needs of the world, those close to you -and yourself, and simply be there; knowing that advent actually contains those many spaces, feelings and difficulties. And Advent is preparing us all.

Prayer

Creator God

We come to this time and want to be honest about the brokenness of the planet, global and personal relationships, systems and indeed our own selves. But we also want to hold the deep, joyful expectation of your presence, your love, your promises in the world, so differently offered by a baby born in a manger. Help us to stay present to what is happening but also to keep our eyes upon you.
Amen

Helen Keller, “Prayer for Peace,” delivered April 5, 1936, at the “East of Suez” bazaar at the New History Society’s Caravan Hall, New York City

O Lord, in whose countenance is the morning of all things made new, shine upon us that we may illumine with peace the world-home thou hast given us. Remove from us pride of might and arrogance of possession. Stretch our thoughts, O Divine Mind, that we may see the whole earth as our country, and the inhabitants thereof as our neighbors. Fill our hearts with love that changes discord to trust.

Temper to our good the weariness and the broken hopes we cannot escape. Pour into us the strength of all valiant spirits. Put into our hands constructive tasks of peace. Let not our striving end with condemnation of folly and stupidity in high places.

Quicken in us the will to resist the hysteria that they who take the sword raise to turn us aside from thy commandments. Give us power to the depth, breadth, and height of our souls to prevent the destructions we have lived to weep. Out of the embers of fires that have scorched and blackened thy kingdom on earth, help us create a new order in which we will no more become savages through fear. Unite us, millions strong, against the darkness of hate, as unnumbered sunbeams streaming one way sweeten the sod unto green ecstasy and fruitfulness.

Listen

Two songs to listen to as you reflect on the week.

Audrey Assad Your peace will make us one.

Trio Mandili – Galoba (The Prayer)

Our Father, Who art in heaven,
Mamao ch’veno, romelits’a khar ts’at’a shina,

With tenderness I stand before thee on my knees;
mukhlmodrekili, lmobieri vdgevar shen tsina:

I ask for neither wealth nor glory;
arts’a simdidris, arts’ didebis t’khovna ar minda,

I won’t debase my holy prayer with earthly matters.
ar minda, amit’ sheurats’kh-vhqo me lots’va tsminda…

I would wish for my soul to rest in heaven,
aramed mtsqurs me ganminat’ldes ts’it’ ch’emi suli,

My heart to be radiant with love heralded by thee,
shengan namts’nebis siqvarulit’ aghment’os guli,

Even if they pierce me in the heart:
rom mtert’at’visats’, romelt’ t’unda guls lakhvari mkran,

Forgive them: “Lord, for they know not what they do!”
gt’khovde: ”sheunde, – ar its’ian, ghmert’o, ras ik’man!”

Even if they pierce me in the heart:
rom mtert’at’visats’, romelt’ t’unda guls lakhvari mkran,

Forgive them: “Lord, for they know not what they do!”
gt’khovde: ”sheunde, – ar its’ian, ghmert’o, ras ik’man!

For a printable PDF of the text of this reflection please click on the link below.

Use some or all of this reflection to help guide your personal journey through this week of Advent.

Reflect

Prepare to be expanded.

Author Stephanie Duncan Smith writes of Mary’s yes to God as a choice for expansion over contraction, mirroring God’s own yes in creation:

Genesis tells the story of God’s radical choice for expansion over happiness, and the world is born. Advent echoes and reprises this divine choice, and the world is reborn. First, life from the womb of God, now, life from a woman who made a radical choice for expansion, not just over happiness, but over personal comfort, safety, and reputation. Expansion was the call, and against its many risks, the mother of God said yes—stretching her body as well as her imagination for just what kind of hope this might be, growing now within her.

Stephanie Duncan Smith, Even after Everything: The Spiritual Practice of Knowing the Risks and Loving Anyway (Convergent Books, 2024) pg 16

Image: David Grossman, Rising

We also read about John the Baptist. He became the voice for radically shifting the focus. He used a word that isn’t all that popular today: Repentance. At its core it’s about a change …a change that leads to a deeper engagement, so that we and others experience things differently…it is about Expansion.

The prophets, like Isaiah, probably expected to just be regular folk doing regular things. Each of them was changed dramatically…and each in a way led with their actions, their willingness to announce in some way the good news…they expanded and so did those who heard!

Advent is an opportunity for us consider again the ways we might be being led to repent, change, to live within the ways of the Spirit…to as Duncan Smith describes it, expand!

Read

Matthew 3: 1-12

In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea ²and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” ³This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah:

“A voice of one calling in the wilderness,
‘Prepare the way for the Lord,
make straight paths for him.’”

⁴John’s clothes were made of camel’s hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey. ⁵ People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. ⁶ Confessing their sins, they were baptised by him in the Jordan River.

⁷ But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptising, he said to them: “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? ⁸ Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. ⁹ And do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. ¹⁰ The axe is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.

¹¹ “I baptise you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and fire. ¹² His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

Ponder

• How do the stories of folk being changed sit with you?

Could you simply be with one of the people who stand out for you as having been changed, and let their story seep into your soul?

Take Mary, or a prophet or Paul and perhaps make it a part of your week this week to read their story from the beginning and to let yourself feel what it must have been like to be so changed. Does it feel like an expansion?

• Is there something that perhaps has been tugging at you recently or for some time… something that you want to change…to turn away from or more importantly to turn towards?
•  Is expansion something you can imagine, not as the world might but as Mary modelled?

David Grossman, Spring Apple Tree

Do

It may be that you are already doing something that is a change for you from the first week of advent…maybe it’s enough to continue with that.

It may be there IS an activity attached to your change that you’d like to make real now, or plan for sometime in the future.

It is sometimes helpful to write down what is coming to you as you ponder these things.

• Could you make a list of words that come into mind when you think of ‘repent’, ‘change’, ‘expand’?
• You might just write a few lines or even a poem.

David Grossman, Autumn Tree with Birds, Reaching, Taking Flight

Prayer

Dear creator and lover of me, I’m coming to understand what Mary and John the Baptist and Isaiah were talking about and living. They knew something was coming. That something was Jesus. That something was life changing and expanding.

It feels like an invitation; to join Isaiah, Mary, and John and simply wait as they did for You to expand me.

Come Lord Jesus, come.

Listen

Here are some songs that you may like to listen to as you reflect on the week.

Room for More O Come down
written by Jon Markey, an American pastor who works as a missionary in Ukraine

Voces 8 Magnificat Primi Toni,
Palestrina, English translation below.

1    My soul doth magnify the Lord :
and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.
2    For he hath regarded :
the lowliness of his handmaiden.
3    For behold, from henceforth :
all generations shall call me blessed.
4    For he that is mighty hath magnified me :
and holy is his Name.
5    And his mercy is on them that fear him :
throughout all generations.
6    He hath shewed strength with his arm :
he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
7    He hath put down the mighty from their seat :
and hath exalted the humble and meek.
8    He hath filled the hungry with good things :
and the rich he hath sent empty away.
9    He remembering his mercy hath holpen his servant Israel :
as he promised to our forefathers, Abraham and his seed for ever.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son :
and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be :
world without end. Amen.

The Porter’s Gate – Psalm 126

For a printable PDF of the text of this reflection please click on the link below.

Use some or all of this reflection to guide you through this week of Advent.

Reflect

Prepare to wait and move at the speed of love!

How will you move into this time of advent?

There’s so much to do.

SO much to prepare.

And the pace of life is frantic anyway!

Can you imagine being like the prophets who waited for years for the promises of God to be made human? Can you wait with Mary?

God’s love is slow. Indeed, love is slow.

Love doesn’t work at a fast pace.

It takes its time. It takes patience and it takes attention.

Riki Yarbrough (American, 1975–), She Prepares

The prophets waited. They attended to what God said – in a burning bush, from the sky, from the wind, behind the cleft of a rock. Not easy to catch; but they waited and hoped and believed and attended to the “voice of thin silence” that called and promised.

Mary opened herself to a completely unexpected, and unsettling way. Then she carried the promise for nine months.

Can you listen, can you wait, can you carry HOPE at the pace of LOVE, through this season of advent?

Read

Isaiah 2: 1-5

This is what Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.

² In the last days
the mountain of the Lord’s temple will be established
    as the highest of the mountains;
it will be exalted above the hills,
    and all nations will stream to it.

³ Many peoples will come and say,
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
    to the temple of the God of Jacob.
He will teach us his ways,
    so that we may walk in his paths.”
The law will go out from Zion,
    the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
⁴ He will judge between the nations
    and will settle disputes for many peoples.
They will beat their swords into plowshares
    and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation will not take up sword against nation,
    nor will they train for war anymore.

⁵ Come, descendants of Jacob,
    let us walk in the light of the Lord.

Romans 13: 8-10

⁸ Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law.
⁹ The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,” and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
¹⁰ Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.

Ponder

• How do you want to approach advent? Not Christmas, not preparing for Christmas but
  How can you be in this time of waiting AND moving at the speed of love?
  
  
• What makes waiting hard for you?
  
  
• What is on your heart and in your mind at this time – things you hope for, people you love, the world in need.
  Can you imagine holding them as you wait?
  
  
• What might happen if you attend to the voice of God – the voice of thin silence, in a slow, loving dance, simply waiting, even if you “hear” nothing?

Riki Yarbrough (American, 1975–), She Carries

Do

This week as you begin the advent season, marked by waiting and living at the speed of love, can you open your self to one “new” or even an old way of being with God, of waiting, of loving?

Could you commit to that being a daily or weekly practice for advent? Some options might be:

• If you have a daily/weekly prayer practice, could you do that at a different time of the day – or add something at a different time?
  • Could you plan a regular midday time where you sit and simply “wait” for 10 minutes…wherever you are, whatever else you are doing?
  • Could you take some time each evening to write something about the day and what waiting feels like.
  • Once a week could you reflect on the times in the week you’ve loved and perhaps celebrate that “love has its own speed” that has woven itself into your loving.

Riki Yarbrough (American, 1975–), She Sows, She Labors, She Gathers

Prayer

Creator, lover and coming Hope, may I live this week aware of whatever distracts me, whatever makes me restless. Help me, guiding Spirit to wait; however that is for me this week. Guide me to live at the pace of love.

With Mary can we say:

May it be to me as you will!

Listen

Here are some songs that you may like to listen to as you reflect on the week. Three very different pieces.

Arvo Part The deer’s cry

Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,
Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ on my right, Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down,
Christ in me, Christ when I arise,
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me,
Christ with me.

For a printable copy of the text of this reflection please click on the link below.

Use some or all of this reflection to help guide your personal journey through this week of Lent.

Reflect

We begin in earnest the week with Jesus, and his final Easter journey. It takes courage and also a certain steadfastness to hear again the age-old stories, stories that are familiar, yet… perhaps arrive in our lives now to bring us something new, something deeper… something calling us?

True love demands sacrifice, because true love is a transforming force and really is the birth pangs of union on a higher plane.

The recapitulation of the Lord’s prayer (private publication, British mystic, unknown)

Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
With your one wild and precious life?

Excerpt from The Summer Day, Mary Oliver   New and Selected Poems

Read

²⁸After he had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem.

²⁹When he had come near Bethphage and Bethany, at the place called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of the disciples, ³⁰saying, ‘Go into the village ahead of you, and as you enter it you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden. Untie it and bring it here. ³¹If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ just say this, ‘The Lord needs it.’ ³²So those who were sent departed and found it as he had told them. ³³As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, ‘Why are you untying the colt?’ ³⁴They said, ‘The Lord needs it.’ ³⁵Then they brought it to Jesus, and after throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. ³⁶As he rode along, people kept spreading their cloaks on the road. ³⁷Now as he was approaching the path down from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joy fully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they had seen, ³⁸saying,

‘Blessed is the king
who comes in the name of the Lord!
Peace in heaven,
and glory in the highest heaven!

³⁹Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, ‘Teacher, order your disciples to stop.’ ⁴⁰He answered, ‘I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out.’

Luke 19:28-40 (NRSVUE)

Ponder

• Jesus knows what is coming in this time.
  • Despite this, he chooses to continue toward Jerusalem
• What must the Son of God, the man, Jesus have been feeling?
• Can you sit with what your thoughts and feelings are but also take a moment to suspend your images and place your self in Jesus shoes.
  • In what ways does love pull you forward even in difficult or disheartening or troubling situations?
• Could you have gone on to Jerusalem?

Do

• Is there someone you can offer to join in some way as they walk toward their Jerusalem?
  
  If not now, perhaps in the future?

• This is the week leading up to Eater. It is called Holy week.
  There is a Hebrew word for Holy  -qadash; it means to be set apart.

Can you set apart a piece of each day this week -no matter what you’ve done until now or might do after Easter…for these next days, set aside a time to simply be where Jesus is, to be in his experiences, to ponder his feelings, his thoughts, his choices….To Love Him.

Prayer

Jesus, help me to truly be with you in this week.

Listen

Here are some songs that you may like to listen to as you reflect on the week.

In the Night Andrew Peterson. The first version is a live recording in  valley of stones, the second has the lyrics on screen and some animation.

For a printable PDF of the text of this reflection please click on the link below.

Use some or all of this reflection to help guide your personal journey through this week of Lent.

Reflect

‘Not all of us can do great things, but we can do small things with great love’

Mother Teresa

Mother Teresa, 1910-1997 and Brian Kolodiejchuk. 2007. Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light : The Private Writings of the “Saint of Calcutta”. New York, Doubleday.

Read

¹“Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. ²There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those reclining with him. ³Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. ⁴But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said, ⁵‘Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?’ ⁶(He said this not because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it.) ⁷Jesus said, ‘Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. ⁸You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.’”

John 12:1-8 (NRSVUE)

Ponder

We are moving closer to Easter.

• This is a story charged with emotion, full of physicality , hard words and individual agendas…where would you have been in this story? Can you imagine watching Jesus while this was unfolding?
  • How do you think Jesus might have been at this point in the journey?
  • How are you?
• What did the service of Martha and Mary have in common, and how do they differ?
  • Do you have times you are like Martha? Like Mary? Can you notice when and why?

• Things got in the way for Judas. He didn’t want to accept the love so boldly on display as the ultimate act…
  • Was Judas ‘being a thief’ the only reason he got angry?

Do

• Are there any ways (one or more) that you can offer acts of love this week?
  • Perhaps notice when it feels more like Martha’s love and when it feels like Mary’s love.
  • Is there a difference for you when you offer those acts?

Prayer

This week can you hold this prayer as your own. Perhaps this week, the best we can do is to ask for the courage to be able to pray such a prayer.

Jesus, show me the way to truly follow you on this path towards Life…whether it asks that I toil like Martha, or adore like Mary.

Give me the same courage you are finding, to be truly myself, to be truly loving, to be truly yours. Amen

Listen

Here’s a lovely meditation in song, Little Things With Great Love by Madison Cunningham

For a printable PDF of the text of this reflection please click on the link below.

Use some or all of this reflection to help guide your personal journey through this week of Lent.

Reflect

Something about the reading from Luke this week is so familiar to so many people it is easy to dismiss it. Yet, it holds so much for us to reflect upon, to wonder at, to bring who we are to it, and then, let go and accept the gracious loving invitation from God.

Grace is not something God gives; grace is who God is. Grace is God’s official job description. Grace is what God does to keep alive—forever—all things that God has created in love. If we are to believe the primary witnesses—the prophets, the mystics, the saints, the transformed people—an unexplainable goodness is at work in the universe. (Some of us call this phenomenon God, but that word isn’t necessary. In fact, sometimes it gets in the way of the experience, because too many have named God something other than Grace).  

There’s no way that the Scriptures, rightly understood, present God as an eternal torturer. Yet many Christians seem to believe this, and many are held back from trusting God’s goodness because of this “angry parent in the sky” that we have created. The determined direction of the Scriptures, fully revealed in Jesus, is that God’s justice is not achieved by punishment, but by the divine initiative we call grace, which enables us to bring about internal rightness, harmony, balance, and realignment with what is.  

Richard Rohr Daily Meditations Sun March 9, 2025 From Centre for Action and Contemplation

Read

¹¹Then Jesus said, “There was a man who had two sons. ¹²The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the wealth that will belong to me.’ So he divided his assets between them. ¹³A few days later the younger son gathered all he had and traveled to a distant region, and there he squandered his wealth in dissolute living. ¹⁴When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that region, and he began to be in need. ¹⁵ So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that region, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs. ¹⁶He would gladly have filled his stomachwith the pods that the pigs were eating, and no one gave him anything. ¹⁷But when he came to his senses he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger! ¹⁸I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; ¹⁹I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands.’

²⁰So he set off and went to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him. ²¹Then the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ ²²But the father said to his slaves, ‘Quickly, bring out a robe—the best one—and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. ²³And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate, ²⁴for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!’ And they began to celebrate.  Now his elder son was in the field, and as he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. ²⁶ He called one of the slaves and asked what was going on. ²⁷He replied, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf because he has got him back safe and sound.’ ²⁸Then he became angry and refused to go in. His father came out and began to plead with him.

²⁹But he answered his father, ‘Listen! For all these years I have been working like a slave for you, and I have never disobeyed your command, yet you have never given me even a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends. ³⁰But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your assets with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!’ ³¹Then the fathersaid to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. ³²But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.’ ”

NRSVUE Luke 15: 11-32

Ponder

If you’ve heard this parable once or a thousand times, it has the power to change you.

• Who are you in this parable today? The father, the prodigal child, the hardworking child, an observer, a commentator…
  • Why?
  • Can you sit with the images and let yourself truly be in this story?
• Does something change when you realize who you’ve been playing?
• Can you imagine what other roles there are and what it would be like to be each of them?

Do

• If it’s possible can you get together with a few others and read this story aloud with different people taking the different roles?
  
  If not, perhaps even read it aloud to yourself, be a bit brave or have some fun and read each part in a different way.
  
  
• Watch out for the ways God might be wanting to reach out to you this week -like the father did with both sons. Can you respond to Gods open grace?

Prayer

So many things hold us back from your love -our mistakes, our shame, even our self-righteousness.

Help us to accept what is true and the way things truly are – to live that way – and so continue to walk with Jesus towards our own Easter story in a way that reflects that which is most true in our lives -your Grace. Amen

Listen

You may like listening to some of this music. The first piece is a song based on Hosea’s words, ‘Come back to me with all your heart‘, a setting by Gregory Norbert of the Monks of Western Priory.

As you listen to this last piece, could you imagine yourself, invited into a celebration with the whole house of heaven, with Jesus welcoming you, God embracing you and the Holy Spirit filling you. This celebration is for you. Let the music fill you with joy; you are home.

For a printable PDF of the text of this reflection please click on the link below.

Use some or all of this reflection to help guide your personal journey through this week of Lent.

Reflect

‘There have always been those who speak of God as Wholly Other, inconceivable and remote, utterly unlike our abortive attempts to picture him in our own image. Others have come to see God as the Reality present in all things, the true ground of our being. Here is the paradox of God transcendent and God immanent, God beyond and God within, two approaches which speak both of my undeniable sense of awe and longing, my knowing and unknowing, yet an encounter deep within myself.’

Michael Mayne: Learning to Dance   ( Dartman Longman Todd 2001)

Image – Stained glass window, chapel of the Holy Spirit, St James Church, Sydney

‘Why do we go to church Fynn?’
‘To understand Mister God more.’
‘Less’
‘Less what?’
‘To understand Mister God less.’
‘Wait a minute. You’re flipped!’

‘No, I’m not…You go to church to make Mister God really really big. When you make Mister God really really big, then you really really don’t understand Mister God, – then you do… Mister God keeps shedding bits all the way through your life until the time comes when you admit freely and honestly that you don’t understand Mister God at all. At this point you have let Mister God be the proper size and Wham there he is laughing at you.’

Anna speaking to Fynn from Fynn: Mister God This is Anna (Collins Fountain Paper Backs 1974)

Read

⁶ Seek the Lord while he may be found,
    call upon him while he is near;
⁷ let the wicked forsake their way,
    and the unrighteous their thoughts;
let them return to the Lord, that he may have mercy on them,
    and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
⁸ For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
    nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord.
⁹ For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
    so are my ways higher than your ways
    and my thoughts than your thoughts.

¹⁰ For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven,
    and do not return there until they have watered the earth,
making it bring forth and sprout,
    giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
¹¹ so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
    it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
    and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

¹² For you shall go out in joy,
    and be led back in peace;
the mountains and the hills before you
    shall burst into song,
    and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.

Isaiah 55:6-12 (NRSVUE)

Ponder

What is this passage saying to you right now?

Some commentators talk about this passage as describing prayer – where the rain is like prayer which falls on us making us fertile and bringing us back to life
Has prayer ever felt like that for you?


What do you feel about ‘seeking’ and ‘returning to the Lord’?
What would that mean for you if you took that call seriously today?


How do you live with the paradox of knowing God…but not?

Do

Is there one thing this week you could approach, renewed by this passage

• A way of ‘returning to God’ might invite you to act or think or be in a different way to what you usually act or think or are.
• If the image of prayer being rain has caught you, what kind of rain speaks to you as prayer – a gentle mist, a downpour, a thunderstorm?
• Could you spend time this week simply sitting with this image of God whose thoughts are not your thoughts and ways are not your ways….and just notice what comes?

Prayer

Day by day Lord three things I pray:

To see you with full vision, but knowing I will not see or understand all.

To love you with more of myself – my heart, mind body and soul, but knowing I am often unsure; thinking I know but really I don’t.

and

To follow you more nearly, but knowing that I will stumble, and be diverted, busy or weary along the road.

These things I pray in trust and with hope because I am walking this road with Jesus.  Amen

Listen

Here’s something a bit different to listen to – e e cummings reads his own poem, I thank You God for most this amazing day.

Here’s the same poem in a choral arrangement by Dan Forrest.

For a printable PDF of the text of this reflection please click on the link below.

Use some or all of this reflection to help guide your personal journey through this week of Lent.

Reflect

Now we are moving into the thick of Lent. Of course we have questions, issues, excuses even. But then there is the simple call – ‘return to me’. This is the journey Jesus is making. Can we make it with him?

From Our Town by Thornton Wilder

Emily: Do human beings ever realise life while they live it? Every, every minute?

The Stage Manager: No. The saints and poets, maybe -they do some.

Read

Ponder

What verse jumps out at you?

What about the psalm speaks to you as you are making this journey through this time in our world?

Has there been a moment or period when you’ve felt like Emily? How would her entreaty to ‘realise life’ be connected to this psalm?

Do

Is there something physical you can do this week to make this psalm come alive for you? Use theses ideas or come up with something that speaks to you

• Light a candle and read the psalm each morning.
• Walk as you read it (hint read a verse, then walk a few paces, stop, read the next verse etc.)
• Go outside one night and do a little dance after reading the psalm aloud.
• Write out the verse or excerpt that would be most of benefit for you to be reminded of in times of difficulty and then fold it up and pop it somewhere where you can grab it if you need (a wallet, or in your phone in ‘notes’, or??)
  
  For me it’s the last verse – wait for the Lord, be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!

Prayer

Waiting is hard, Jesus; it feels like I’m doing nothing. I have so many things to do, and waiting seems wasteful of my time. But you waited. You went into the wilderness to pray. You left people to be with yourself and God; to find courage for this walk you are making towards Easter.  

Teach me that way of being too. Amen

Listen

Here are two songs based on Psalm 27 you may like to listen to.

For a printable PDF of the text of this reflection please click on the link below.

Use some or all of this reflection to help guide your personal journey through this week of Lent.

Reflect

We do not have to be out in a desert to be in the wilderness. There are so many experiences that speak to us of this word. And it can be everything from a daily slog, to terrifying weather events, or despairing world news. How does God ‘fit’ into our experiences of wilderness. Does it help to know Jesus lived those experiences in his own wilderness.

James Findlay suggests:
‘God is the presence that spares us from nothing, even as God unexplainably sustains us in all things.’ 

James Findlay, “The mystical Foundations of Nonviolence,” Oneing 10 no 2, Nonviolence (Fall22) , Centre for Action and Contemplation

Read

Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where for forty days he was tested by the devil. He ate nothing at all during those days, and when they were over, he was famished.

The devil said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread.’

Jesus answered him, ‘It is written, “One does not live by bread alone.”’

Then the devil led him up and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And the devil said to him, ‘To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.’

Jesus answered him, ‘It is written, “Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.”’

Then the devil led him to Jerusalem and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written, “He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you,” and “On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.”’

Jesus answered him, ‘It is said, “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.”’

When the devil had finished every test, he departed from him until an opportune time. Then Jesus, in the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding region.”

Luke 4:1-14 (NRSVUE)

Ponder

What are (or have been) some wilderness experiences for you?

How did or do you handle the wilderness?

Where are you tempted to control or find comfort that is perhaps not life giving?
(think about binge TV watching, phone scrolling, using food or other physical comforts, working longer hours, becoming angry or defensive…the options for avoidance are endless and vary on a given  day and between individual humans!)

Have you ever been in a wilderness experience and found a different way of facing it that has given you strength, courage, love – or spirit?

Do

This week as you continue on the journey with Jesus, can you notice your own wilderness experiences, and perhaps ponder where God’s sustaining might come from.

Also can you watch out for someone who is going through a wilderness experience and offer them support -reminding them of sustaining love (a phone call, or visit, a hug, a coffee, a card or even a prayer said alone in your room)?

Pray

Jesus, you went into the wilderness and faced so much that is our own experience in life. As we walk this journey with you can you help us to see the sustaining certain love of the one who held you through that time, give us the courage and love to respond as you would.

We too want to walk in the power of the Spirit.  Amen

Listen

Here are two songs you might like to listen to.

This old hymn sung by Morgantown Methodist in lovely harmony focuses on Jesus’ time in the desert

Sung by Prairie House Hymns, this Lenten hymn comes from a prayer of Saint Ephrem the Syrian, a prominent hymnographer of Eastern Christianity from the 4th century

For a printable PDF of the text of this reflection please click on the link below.