Update of Bishop Sharma Lewis' best-selling Lenten study. Dates have been updated to correspond to each day during Lent, with a devotional for individual or group study.Thousands of individuals and hundreds of churches used Journey to Transformation as their guide during Lent 2020. Sharing her individual journey, Bishop Sharma Lewis (Virginia Conference, United Methodist Church) invites readers to observe Lent by introspection, repentance, forgiveness, renewal, prayer, fasting, and Biblical Study. A Journey to Transformation is divided into four sections: Lenten Devotional, Prayer, Reflection, and My Action. Since Lent is a time for self-examination and renewal, Bishop Lewis offers a "My Action" section each day to allow readers to continue to put into practice what they have read and reflected upon, and as an opportunity to transform someone's life.Since Sundays are not counted during the Lenten Season, this study will allow individuals and groups to further engage in introspection. On Sundays, "My Personal Reflections Notes" will ask you to reflect and journal on the past week's study with the following questions: (a) What day stood out during this Lenten journey? (b) What did you learn about yourself and your relationship with Jesus Christ? and (c) under the heading of My Action - What day brought you great joy or difficulty? Why? Finally, readers are invited to journal their own thoughts in spaces provided.
We've all been let down by so-called community. Why is it so hard for us to connect and grow together for the long haul? Veteran spiritual director Ruth Haley Barton helps us get personal and practical about experiencing transformation together. This interactive guide allows us to grow through and by the experience of transforming community.
Focuses on the journey from darkness to light inherent in Lent. By using an easily accessible liturgical format, the book provides a pathway for those who walk from Ash Wednesday to the empty tomb of Easter. Chapters begin with a prayer or poetic excerpt, followed by scripture for the day or week. A narrative then expands on the themes introduced by the prayer and scripture. Exercises following the narratives are simple—mostly collage exercises using differing techniques—and are accessible to a wide audience. Soul Questions guide the spiritual exercise following the narrative, and Thoughts for the Journey, complete each chapter with suggestions for further reflection.
Spiritually hungry readers who want to breakthrough to a deeper experience of prayer and want practical help for Lent need look no further than to Martin Smith's A Season for the Spirit. Originally commissioned by the Archbishop of Canterbury in 1991, A Season for the Spirit provides forty daily meditations for Lent, leading us on a journey of discovery in which we find that Christ, through the Spirit, embraces every aspect of our humanity. Each meditation concludes with a prayer and passage of scripture or quotation for further reflection and study. While it aims to assist a daily practice of personal prayer, it is also widely used by groups who pledge to meet regularly so that members can share their thoughts, reactions, and spiritual experiences.
Church boards and other Christian leadership teams have long relied on models adapted from the business world. Ruth Haley Barton, president of the Transforming Center, helps teams transition to a much more fitting model—the spiritual community that practices discernment together.
From the author of the best-selling book "Rediscover Catholicism" comes an inspiring new way to rediscover Lent. In this new book, you will find: a brief citation from a daily lectionary reading; a reflection on the beauty and importance of the Catholic faith and practice; a thought-provoking questions for meditation; and a brief prayer. These timely and inspirational words will help renew your enthusiasm for being Catholic, while encouraging you to delve more deeply into the spirituality of the lenten season.
Rohr's meditations on the daily readings of Lent are not for the sake of mere information, or even for academia (although the author hopes it will satisfy both), but for the sake of our transformation into our original "image and likeness," which is the very image of God. What always and finally matters for all of us is encounter! Father Rohr begins each meditation with a single title or phrase that sums up the point. Then he offers the meditation followed by key passages from the readings. He ends each meditation with a Starter Prayer that invites you to self-disclosure and to enter the wondrous divine dialogue with clarity, insight—and holy desire! "There are two moments that matter. One is when you know that your one and only life is absolutely valuable and alive. The other is when you know your life, as presently lived, is entirely pointless and empty. You need both of them to keep you going in the right direction. Lent is about both. The first such moment gives you energy and joy by connecting you with your ultimate Source and Ground. The second gives you limits and boundaries, and a proper humility, so you keep seeking the Source and Ground and not just your small self."—From the Introduction
Biblical and poetic reflections on Lenten themes of salvation, forgiveness, sin. A Practical Christianity: Meditations for the Season of Lent is a devotional book that challenges readers to take up “practical Christianity”—proposing Christian faith as something we do, not something we merely believe in. The starting point for Christianity lies within its practice, says the author, and not in the blind acceptance of a chunk of undigested doctrine. The book samples fiction, poetry, art and music, combined with the wisdom of scripture and theology, to help pilgrims make sense of faith in the context of everyday life. Shaw reconsiders the central doctrines of Christian faith through the lens of how we practice them. She explores five themes: dust, forgiveness, time, doubt and love—devoting a chapter to each. This thematic approach is a way of presenting (covertly, since it’s not revealed until the end of the book) the doctrines of Creation and Sin, Forgiveness, the Trinity, Salvation, and finally Love.
Discussions about the Sabbath often center around moralistic laws and arguments over whether a person should be able to play cards or purchase liquor on Sundays. In this volume, popular author Walter Brueggemann writes that the Sabbath is not simply about keeping rules but rather about becoming a whole person and restoring a whole society. Importantly, Brueggemann speaks to a 24/7 society of consumption, a society in which we live to achieve, accomplish, perform, and possess. We want more, own more, use more, eat more, and drink more. Keeping the Sabbath allows us to break this restless cycle and focus on what is truly important: God, other people, all life. Brueggemann offers a transformative vision of the wholeness God intends, giving world-weary Christians a glimpse of a more fulfilling and simpler life through Sabbath observance.