Lenten Voices: Heather Jose on Why I’m Not Fasting

March 4, 2012 by

A table set for a meal evokes many spiritual associations. This is a Shaker table, still set in a visitor’s center. Photo by David Crumm.Lenten Voices is an occasional series of stories by men and women reflecting on their Lenten journey. Beth Miller’s story was our first. Also today, read Benjamin Pratt’s story.

Why We Need
Meals Together
This Year

By HEATHER JOSE

Ahhhh, here it is again—the time for me to feel guilty because I don’t follow through. In other words: It’s Lent.

In my defense, I wasn’t raised participating in Lent. My Baptist church was much more focused on the fact that Jesus was going to rise again than any ritual of deprivation. However, over time and a few different congregations that we have called home, I am much more familiar with the Lenten season. This year, my church began a bit early. In February we were asked to consider one day of fasting  and prayer each week. For a mere 24 hours could we (if we were healthy enough to do so) refrain from solid food and consider the needs of our church, our community and our world in prayer.

Yes, I thought, I am in! I can’t wait! This will be so good for me. When Wednesday rolled around I was ready. I ate breakfast and admittedly, an early lunch, since the fast was to start at noon. I rolled through the day feeling good about myself. I pulled up the Bible on my iPad and spent some time reading and reflecting that night. By the time noon came on Thursday, I decided that was so easy that I would continue to add items to fast from as the month progressed. Maybe next week it would be TV, and after that computers as well. In fact if I kept it up I would be living a perfectly monkish life by Easter.

Then it happened. My mother-in-law passed away that Friday after a short illness. We were in the midst of grief and tears. Over the course of the next week, we were amazed by the kindness of so many people as they reached out to our family. We spent more time together as an extended family than we had in years. We planned the funeral, spent time looking at pictures, took care of the little things that still had to be done, and finally made it through the visitation and funeral.

By the time we returned home to our house late Tuesday night we were exhausted. We wanted nothing more than to sleep in our own beds and find our routine again. As I turned down the lights and passed through the kitchen I opened the refrigerator door. There on the middle shelf sat a beautifully made lasagna, a loaf of rustic bread, and a note that read: “350 degrees for 30-45 minutes.”

The next morning, as I left for work, I psyched myself up for fasting. I was prepared to do it. However, as the day went on I found that all I could think about was making that lasagna for dinner. By the end of the day I called my husband and said, “I’m making dinner tonight.”

I needed that dinner. I needed to sit at my table with my family. To hold hands and pray before eating and to hear the incidentals of the day. By the time dinner was over it felt as though things might be okay.

I haven’t fasted since. I am not opposed to the idea, I just haven’t gotten back there yet. I have seen and felt God in a million other ways through others. I think He would be okay with that this Lenten season.

And there’s always next year.

Care to read more from Heather Jose?

Heather Jose is the author of the book Letters to Sydney: Every Day I am Killing Cancer, co-author of The Healing Agreement—and a contributing writer for the Breast Cancer Wellness Magazine, Coping Magazine and Thrive. Not long ago, she wrote a week-long series about the challenges of caregiving in America. This link takes you to the first of her five stories in that series.

Want more inspirational reading for Lent?

Lent is booming across the U.S. as a spiritual practice.
Learn what’s happening and consider getting a copy of the new 2nd Edition of Our Lent: Things We Carry.

Please help us at ReadTheSpirit
to reach a wider audience

We welcome your Emails at [email protected]
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Originally published at readthespirit.com, an online magazine covering religion and cultural diversity.

Neither Wolf’s Kent Nerburn invites us on a new pilgrimage

February 26, 2012 by

Kent Nerburn ranks among America’s beloved storytellers and spiritual guides. His specialties in past books include the natural world, Native American wisdom, the relationships between parents and their children—and the many ways that fine arts are a catalyst to insight. He began his career as a theologian and sculptor. But, he is most famous, today, for Neither Wolf nor Dog, required reading on Native Americans’ relationships with non-Indians (along with its more recent sequel The Wolf at Twilight). Inspirational quotations from Nerburn’s many published works, especially his book on fatherhood Letters to My Son and his Wolf books, are sprinkled liberally across the Internet these days. Even the celebrated guru Eckhart Tolle sings praises for Nerburn’s newest volume.

In Ordinary Sacred: The Simple Beauty of Everyday Life, Nerburn gives us a handy companion for a personal pilgrimage wherever we find ourselves living today. Even this book’s cover with its barn-wood imagery, compact size and comfortable-to-the-fingers matte finish makes it a perfect book for a long walk or a quiet afternoon in a favorite corner.

At first, the vivid vignettes in Ordinary Sacred may seem like disconnected gems. The book opens with Kent inviting us to travel across the northern prairies, an echo of the Wolf adventures. Then, we drop South for a brief detour along a stretch of legendary Route 66. But, wait a minute! We’re also stopping by Oxford University and, suddenly, we’re in Florence contemplating the works of great masters. Around that point in the book, we discover that these aren’t random gems. Rather, this is a string of beads. This is a pilgrimage. And, in the end, when we stand with the author in “The Circle,” one of this slim book’s final stops, the wisdom of this journey comes home to us like a lump in the throat.

That’s what makes this book, at the start of Lent 2012, a perfect Lenten reader. Of course, ReadTheSpirit is urging readers to consider our own 40-day, 40-chapter Lenten reader, Our Lent: Things We Carry. But Nerburn’s 13-part Ordinary Sacred is another kind of Lenten pilgrimage. There’s no explicitly Christian message here, yet this cycle of stories moves through a long spiritual journey toward a death, a burial and transcendence. Truly, these are Lenten themes. At its root, this book and Nerburn’s entire body of work remind us that all journeys are sacred, all places along the way are sacred and, ultimately, all moments are sacred, if we have eyes and ears and hearts to recognize the truth.

Do you find yourself generally non-religious, but yearning for deeper daily connections between your life and the larger living world around us? Or, do you find yourself deeply religious, yet mired in the sameness of your congregation’s weekly disciplines? In either case, Ordinary Sacred is your invitation to a potent journey into a deeper and a wider world.

This week, we welcome our friend and colleague Kent Nerburn back to the pages of ReadTheSpirit, where Editor David Crumm has interviewed the author and artist at the start of this Lenten season. Later this week, we will publish our full interview, but today we share what Kent had to say about …

Ordinary Sacred by Kent Nerburn
… as a Companion for Lent

In our interview, Kent Nerburn says this about Lent …

I would love it if readers took hold of this book as a reader for Lent. When I began writing this book, I thought of it almost as a classic Book of Hours, moving through the day from Matins to Vespers. That became an underlying theme in this book, definitely a part of its spiritual arc. The sections move from Dawn’s Awakening to Night’s Embrace.

These days, I don’t practice as a Catholic anymore, but the Christian tradition will always be a part of my life. These religious traditions have a wisdom far greater than anything we could create on our own as individuals. So, this book really is an effort to touch both religious touchstones and broader spiritual touchstones, as well.

In my own days of theological training, I was guided by the Imitation of Christ and scripture and in these texts you see always see this shadow of crucifixion behind everything. As an artist, I’ve sculpted figures who are caught up in this deep spiritual experience. I came out of pre-Vatican II Catholicism and my life has been a long journey from those early heavy burdens of teachings like original sin toward my own celebration of the joy and mystery of life.

From my earliest Catholicism all the way through graduate school, I took Lent very seriously. It was the season I found that I could enter into most completely. In about 1980 or 1981, I had a chance to live in a Benedictine monastery in British Columbia so that I could do a sculpture for the monastery. I agreed that I wouldn’t sign the work. There was this medieval notion of an artist doing all to glorify God. But, when I got there, these Benedictines presented some issues that I found difficult to swallow. I didn’t like the abbot. He seemed venal to me. He talked about poverty, but I perceived him as living with a wealth like some King Henry VIII. And, I wound up crossing swords with him more than once. I thought about leaving.

Then, at one point, he said to me: “Stay in the machine, Kent. It’ll clean you out.” And, now, that’s the way I look at Lent. I lived with those Benedictines through Lent and shared their life, their rituals, the Mass. I was back to being that Catholic child, where I began life.

I wasn’t the equal of these men. Their Lenten experience, after their years together in the monastery, was intense—so intense that many of them reached Easter and I saw them finally breaking down in tears. These were quiet men, but they had entered so deeply into the cycle of Lent that they were entirely taken over by the journey. The spiritual clarification of that Lent was beyond anything I could have imagined. I was humbled.

But, if we think about it more deeply, we realize that the year’s liturgical seasons reflect the natural course of life. They work on us, if we open ourselves to it, with an almost subterranean power to reshape our lives. That’s why I’d love it if people accepted Ordinary Sacred as a pocket meditation book for Lent. I would be pleased to accompany them in this season.

REMEMBER: You can order Ordinary Sacred: The Simple Beauty of Everyday Life from Amazon now. And, please come back later this week, for our complete interview with Kenty Nerburn in which the author and artist talks about his life, his work and the inspirations behind Ordinary Sacred.

ANOTHER GREAT LENTEN COMPANION?
GET ‘OUR LENT: THINGS WE CARRY’

Of course, ReadTheSpirit is recommending our own new book, the 2nd Edition of Our Lent: Things We Carry, which now is available for all e-reading devices—as well as in a brightly colored new paperback edition as well. Click this link or click the book cover, at right, to read more about this inspiring guide to this ancient season of reflection.

Originally published at readthespirit.com, an online magazine covering religion and cultural diversity.

On MLKing Day, We Need to Say No to War Again

January 13, 2012 by

Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial in Washington D.C. Photo by Lance Cheung, courtesy Wikimedia Commons.KEN SEHESTED was the founding director of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America. His story and his writing are included in Daniel Buttry’s new Blessed Are the Peacemakers. Ken currently is pastor of the Circle of Mercy congregation in Ashevile, North Carolina, with his wife Nancy Sehested and Joyce Holiday. In 2003, Ken was part of a Christian Peacemakers Team in Iraq just before the US invasion. He also was one of the most effective voices against the Gulf War, engaging in fasting and other anti-war activism during a time when many Americans concerned about peace remained inactive.

King’s Legacy Calls on us …
To Say No to Attacking Iran

By Ken Sehested

On Sunday, our Circle of Mercy Congregation will gather to consider renewing a prophetic call we issued in 2007—the last time tensions were rising between the U.S. and Iran. Our appeal—called “We Say No”—was “a Christian statement in opposition to war with Iran” and urged others to join us in calling our nation’s leaders to avoid an attack on Iran. With the recent assassination of another Iranian scientist—the fourth to be targeted in the past two years—tensions between our two countries are again at a boiling point.

(For background on these news developments, here is a January 13 Christian Science Monitor report.)

This is an appropriate time, on this observance of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, to reaffirm our earlier convictions. Virtually no one in American media, the U.S. Congress or the Obama Administration is willing to talk about these assassinations as an act of terrorism. One can imagine the outcry here if U.S. scientists were being targeted, if Iran’s submarines were patrolling our coasts, if our nuclear program were the target of a cyber attack, if our energy exports and financial transactions were blockaded, or if Iranian political leaders were openly calling for “regime change” in the US. No one denies that our two nations have real and substantial policy disagreements. What seems increasingly clear, however, is that the U.S. is baiting Iran toward a dangerous retaliatory response.

The legacy Dr. King bequeathed to us—highlighted by the new memorial in our nation’s capitol—is more than a fanciful pipedream or fairytale. Revering the dreamer while reneging on the dream only hollows his memory. If Dr. King is to be more than a national souvenir, his commitment to nonviolent struggle—stemming from his vision of the Beloved Community—must become our commitment as well. Thus the following convictions need reaffirming.

… they are a law unto themselves and promote their own honor. Their own strength is their god.  Habakkuk 1:7b, 11c

Despite assurances to the contrary, we believe our leaders may be calculating the benefits and risks of attacking Iran. Our reading of this moment in history, in light of our commitments as citizens and our convictions as followers of Jesus, impels us to oppose such a move. As with the ancient empire described in the Prophet Habakkuk’s oracle, our government is setting its “national interests” above international norms of justice. With an escalating military budget—already larger than those of all other nations combined—we seem to have established our own destructive threat as the source of national glory and honor.

Pride is their necklace; violence covers them as a garment. Their eyes swell out with fatness, their hearts overflow with follies. They scoff and speak with malice; loftily they threaten oppression. They set their mouths against heaven, and their tongues range over the earth. Psalm 73:6-9

It is not our habit to engage in partisanship on any political party’s agenda. We believe in the separation of church and state. But not in the separation of values from public policy. Not only are these religious convictions suffering scandal; so, too, are the core values of this Republic’s founding. It was Thomas Jefferson, in 1807, who asserted, “The spirit of this country is totally adverse to a large military force.” Now, with the Administration’s 2002 “National Security Strategy” document, the U.S. claims justification for waging preemptive war. This policy undermines our democratic traditions, any and every theory of when war is “just,” and the very foundation of international law itself. The contradiction is staggering.

Accordingly, should the U.S. preemptively attack Iran, we shall vigorously protest. For some of us, this commitment includes the willingness to engage in nonviolent civil disobedience.

In the same way, we also pledge vigorous support for any leaders willing to consider Iran’s security concerns and national interests alongside those of our own. Competition in belligerent behavior carries catastrophic risks. The only enduring security is mutual security.

Another way is possible. Waging peace will require at least as much commitment—as much courage, pride, honor and ingenuity—as the pursuit of war.

We say no to war against Iran. It is both a contradiction to the Way of the Cross and a defamation of national honor. We say yes to the strategies of multilateral diplomacy and other nonviolent initiatives. We invite other Christians, other people of faith, and other people of conscience to deliberate these convictions and consider similar commitments.

Sisters and brothers, especially in the household of faith: the Apostle Paul’s instruction—overcome evil with good (Rom. 12:21b)—is both a spiritual truth and the foundation for politically realistic strategies to transform conflict. The Way of the Cross leads home.

Care to read more from Ken Sehested?

READ Ken’s earlier commentary After Two Years in Iraq: ‘Ye Who Are Weary Come Home’

Want to find peace in your reading—and group discussions—this winter? Consider learning about Daniel Buttry’s Blessed Are the Peacemakers. Click on the cover of Buttry’s book, at right.

Please help us to reach a wider audience

We welcome your Emails at [email protected]
We’re also reachable on Twitter, Facebook, Amazon, Huffington Post, YouTube and other social-networking sites. You also can Subscribe to our articles via Email or RSS feed.
Plus, there’s a free Monday morning Planner newsletter you may enjoy.

Originally published at readthespirit.com, an online magazine covering religion and cultural diversity.

The Help, Caregivers and MLKing’s Challenging Call

January 13, 2012 by

DR. BENJAMIN PRATT is author of the new, Guide for Caregivers: Keeping Your Spirit Healthy When Your Caregiver Duties and Responsibilities Are Dragging You Down.

Remembering and Reaching Out:
‘Tied in a Single Garment of Destiny’

By Dr. Benjamin Pratt

“Wasn’t Hilly a bitch! I loved watching her choke on that chocolate pie!” If you’ve heard these words from a friend, then you’re familiar with The Help—the best-selling novel that became a hit movie likely to be a serious contender for Oscars on February 26. Even though racism in the 1960s was a deadly business—the movie overall is a fun look at the past—from the popcorn, to the laughter over that pie to seeing the stars next month on that red carpet in Hollywood.

But there’s an ongoing drama involving The Help that we all need to think about, especially on a weekend dedicated to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

First, as a lifelong pastoral counselor who has just spent a couple of years researching a book on caregivers, I suggest we all pause and pray: “Open my eyes that I might see the real lives of our current caregivers—nannies, housekeepers, home health care workers. Open my eyes to the conditions in which they live—all these people who work that we might do our work and live our lives as we wish. Open my eyes to the millions of helpful caregivers who aren’t protected by legal or economic standards that guarantee them a viable life.”

As most Americans now know, The Help looks back half a century to relations between employers and their black caregivers in the South. This novel, by Kathryn Stockett, and the film based on it are rife with racial and economic tensions imbedded in these fragile co-dependent relationships. Laced with pain and pleasure, compassion and cruelty, humor and sadness, bigotry and inclusiveness, courage and cowardice, the tale is worthy of our attention—but not to dismiss these issues as a terrible shadow of a distant past.

Especially this weekend, we should stop and think about acting with justice toward the caregivers of our own age.

Dr. King’s work rested on the shoulders of great peacemakers like Gandhi—and King’s legacy extends to current peacemakers like Aung San Suu Kyi in Myanmar. (Here’s a story about their connections by Daniel Buttry.) All of these great peacemakers taught that justice is not just a legal or moral issue but also a matter of economics. King especially understood the importance of good jobs that pay living wages in a nation that honors its promise of fairness, equality and economic justice. King was born on January 15, 1929, and was assassinated in Memphis on April 4, 1968, as he was focusing on the economic dimension of the freedom struggle—supporting the demands of sanitation workers for more pay, better working conditions and the right to unionize.

Before finishing the book, A Guide for Caregivers, I attended a regional Care Congress in Washington, DC. This Caring Across Generations event was led by a coalition of more than 70 organizations representing nearly 15 million women, people with disabilities, seniors, domestic workers and caregivers. (Check out the Caring Across Generations website and also take a look at the website’s map page for 2012 Care Congress locations.)

This is a major campaign, rolling across the United States throughout this new year in gatherings from Seattle to San Antonio to Boston. The movement includes Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis and national human rights leaders. Together, their clarion call is to protect and expand our nation’s support system for the aging and people with disabilities at a time when the need for caregiving in America is skyrocketing.

Caring Across Generations is trying to transform long-term care for care recipients, care workers, and families who struggle to find affordable quality care for their loved ones. The goal is to protect what we have—Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security—while creating what we need: two million new care jobs, training and protection for workers, new paths to citizenship for immigrant workers, and measures to make care more affordable for struggling families.

Etched in the stone wall at the new Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in Washington, DC, are words from a 1963 speech in Alabama: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”

Care to read more from Benjamin Pratt?

READ about Benjamin Pratt’s A Guide for Caregivers.

Want to find peace in your reading—and group discussions—this winter? Consider learning about Daniel Buttry’s Blessed Are the Peacemakers. Click on the cover of Buttry’s book, at right.

Please help us to reach a wider audience

 We welcome your Emails at [email protected]
We’re also reachable on Twitter, Facebook, Amazon, Huffington Post, YouTube and other social-networking sites. You also can Subscribe to our articles via Email or RSS feed.
Plus, there’s a free Monday morning Planner newsletter you may enjoy.

Originally published at readthespirit.com, an online magazine covering religion and cultural diversity.

Jesus, Christmas & N.T. Wright: Who is this Christ?

November 20, 2011 by

We welcome back best-selling Bible scholar N.T. “Tom” Wright this week to talk about Jesus—the central figure in the lives of 2 billion people around the world who are preparing to celebrate Christmas. Just in time for holiday gift giving, Wright is releasing two books that we recommend for individual reading and group discussion, FIRST: Simply Jesus: A New Vision of Who He Was, What He Did, and Why He Matters
AND, a contemporary translation of Scriture that Wright has been working on for years: The Kingdom New Testament: A Contemporary Translation
(Both of these links take you to Amazon.)

Meet N.T. Wright This Week

Tuesday and Wednesday, we will publish our interview with Wright, focusing on each of his new books and—more importantly—on the urgent need to rethink the way many Americans seem to be invoking Jesus’ name these days. If you think of N.T. Wright as a “conservative” Christian, famous for his public debates with Bible scholars Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan, then you’ve probably missed Wright’s passion for Christians to roll up their sleeves and meet many of the world’s dire needs today. He argues vigorously that God wants us to care for our natural world and to ensure the rights and protection of the poor and vulnerable in our societies. In fact, it is Wright’s status as an “outsider” on the American scene—he is the former Anglican bishop of Durham, England—that makes him so effective at shaking up our Americanized assumptions about Jesus.

In our interview with Wright, at one point, he complains that too many American religious leaders claim that Jesus expects Christians to march after a particular, politically conservative slate of issues. Pulling no punches, Wright says: “For me as a Brit, it’s ridiculous to hear so many American Christians argue that we have to bundle up all of these political issues that conservative politicians have accumulated, through the decades, along with our Christian faith.”

Wright tells readers of Simply Jesus that he began writing this book as if envisioning a lost motorist pulling off a highway and asking a local resident, “A simple question: How do I get to Glasgow from here?” The driver is overwhelmed with maps and twisting roads and conflicting directions. He wants someone to slice thorugh the confusion and help him find a fresh orientation. In that sense, Simply Jesus might be called N.T. Wright’s Jesus 101. In this book, Wright tells us that he is envisioning the confused person who stops and asks, “Tell me about Jesus?” He wants the answer to be clear and accurate and solid enough to lead him toward Jesus. “I decided to answer the simple question by putting together, layer upon layer, in as simple a fashion as I could, what I thought might help someone who really wanted to find the way to Jesus, to Jesus as he really was, and so to find the way through Jesus to God himself and to a life in wihch ‘following Jesus’ would make sense,” the new book says.

N.T. Wright and a Christmas Story We Shouldn’t Miss

Amid all the Christmas decorations and storybooks and candle-lit services, Wright points out in his new book that Christians surely must know by heart the full version of Mary’s famous Song of Praise in Luke 1:46-55. Millions know the first part of that Song of Praise by heart (about “all generations will call me blessed”)—but they forget the jarring second part (about the world’s lowly being lifted up and the world’s rich and powerful being brought low).

Toward the end of Simply Jesus, Wright writes: “What, then, does it look like when Jesus is enthroned? It looks like new projects that do what Jesus’s mother’s great song announced: put down the mighty from their seat, exalt the humble and meek, fulfill ancient promises, but send the rich away empty.”

Lines like that are guaranteed to startle American political conservatives who think they know what Wright is preaching about a return to orthodox Christianity. In fact, Wright is preaching a Jesus who is as startling and unsettling as He was 2,000 years ago.

AND NOW: Enjoy reading our interview with N.T. “Tom” Wright about his 2 new books.

Looking beyond these two N.T. Wright books?

OTHER N.T. WRIGHT BOOKS are described in our Wright Small Group Resources page.
Originally published at readthespirit.com, an online magazine covering religion and cultural diversity.

This year, join a global community in ‘Our Lent’

January 30, 2011 by

Lent is coming and, with it, powerful new possibilities to connect lives across America and around the world.
WHERE should we make new connections in 2011?
Are you watching the tumultuous democracy movements sizzling across northern Africa and the Arab world, racing from Tunisia to Egypt and throwing off sparks as far as Jordan? Suddenly Africa is back on front pages across the U.S.—although the African continent has been churning for years. Just a few examples of our still-skewed vision: Missing from U.S. news reports over the weekend were stories from conflicts and ongoing violence that took place in recent days in parts of Nigeria, Sudan, Ivory Coast and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Africa has sparked some fresh interest here in the  U.S., but we still aren’t seeing our neighbors’ lives clearly.

What is the religious connection here? News events along the northern rim of Africa mainly involve Muslim activists, but Christianity is growing rapidly in parts of the African continent. This opens a unique opportunity for Americans, most of whom are Christian, to virtually and spiritually connect with Christian communities in the African continent during Lent. Overall, we could promote greater awareness and concern for an important region like Africa this spring.

WHEN ARE LENT AND EASTER IN 2011?

The world’s Christians celebrate Easter together this year on April 24—a global unity we won’t see again until 2014 and 2017. Eastern-rite Christians begin preparing for their fast of Great Lent on February 13 with a reflective period called the Triodion; then Orthodox Great Lent begins with Clean Monday on March 7. Western-rite Christians, including the majority of Americans, begin Lent with Ash Wednesday on March 9. If you are looking toward the African continent, you’ll find that Christians fall into both Eastern and Western camps. But, with the exception of some “old calendar” churches, this year 2 billion Christians circling the Earth are aiming at the same Easter.

DO AFRICAN CHRISTIANS OBSERVE LENT?

They sure do and they’re generally more devout about it than Americans. A Pew report based on polling in African nations shows a surprisingly high level of Lenten fasting, for example. Pew found that more than half of the Christians in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Rwanda and Zambia plan to fast in Lent. In the continent’s most devout countries, a list that includes Chad, Ethiopia, Ghana and Nigeria, more than 80 percent of Christians fast in Lent.

In the U.S., fasting traditionally has been a Catholic practice. But, Lenten observance is growing among Americans who attend Protestant and independent churches. Think about observing Lent this year in solidarity with Christians around the world through daily prayer and devotional practice. Think about daily Lenten readings, coupled with a conscious effort to follow news from a region like Africa more closely. Most American denominations already have cooperative programs in Africa, so decide to get involved in your church’s African outreach.

FROM THE PREFACE OF ‘OUR LENT’

Why is Lenten observance growing and making fresh connections in 2011? The following excerpt comes from the Preface by David Crumm in ‘Our Lent: Things We Carry’ …

Lent is the perfect Christian season for the 21st Century era of spiritual revival. Uncluttered by the commercial avalanche that has all but buried the Advent season over the past century, Lent retains much of its ancient religious potential.

University of Michigan sociologist Wayne E. Baker, in his landmark study “America’s Crisis of Values,” used the massive global waves of data from the World Values Survey to demonstrate the unusual nature of American religious values. Compared with other global cultures, Baker showed that Americans are overwhelmingly religious. But, when it comes to values concerning self-expression, all of those individual choices that lie at the heart of spiritual reflection, Americans surpass Scandinavians in our zeal.

In such an era, Lent is the perfect, untarnished blend of religious tradition and spiritual adventure—ancient roots blossoming into self-reflection and self-expression. Or, to put it another way, Lent is the Lord of the Rings of scriptural stories—a loyal fellowship of men and women fearlessly summoning all of their traditional knowledge as they make their way toward a dangerous encounter in a city where the fate of the world hangs in the balance. This is the core of the season—a personal encounter with the sacred. …

The big picture behind Our Lent: Things We Carry is this: Jesus’ journey 2,000 years ago was a public pilgrimage of such profound importance that 2 billion Christians mark it each year, day by day, even in the Third Millennium since Jesus walked the Earth. …

Some of the things we will encounter in these 40 days are spiritual ideas that Jesus conveyed to his followers, for example: We join Jesus in encountering two blind men—and an even more profound blindness in the crowd surrounding this pair. It’s a brief but fascinating encounter recorded in the gospel of Matthew—and it reflects on how we, as Christians today, regard the poor and marginalized we encounter along the world’s highways.

While some things along this journey are scenes and lessons, most of the things in our 40-chapter journey are quite tangible things: coins, basins, bowls, bread, cups, swords and tables, to name a few. This was the stuff of Jesus’ world. It’s still the stuff of our lives, 2,000 years after Jesus’ world-shaking walk to Jerusalem.

This year, come along. Walk with us. You’re already carrying things. Help us to lighten the load.

You can purchase Our Lent: Things We Carry from Amazon now.

A ‘GROUP READ’ CAN REWRITE ‘OUR LENT’

That’s right. One of the innovations in ReadTheSpirit Books is that all of our books can be ordered for “group reads” with modified covers—and even additional pages bound into each copy. Your organization or congregation might want to order 100 copies or more for everyone to read. If you are interested in such quantities, contact us at [email protected] and we can talk with you about the possibility of modifying a print run to include your logo on the cover. In addition, you can add several pages to the bound copies in your order, which could contain a schedule of your springtime programs, or perhaps helpful information to share with neighbors and visitors. These modified books become tools for outreach, an easy way to build community connections. That kind of modification is not possible with other mass-published Lenten devotionals. If you’re curious about this option, email us and we’re happy to discuss what’s possible for “group reads.”

We want our international conversation to continue

Conversation is far better than the dangerous shouting matches we’ve been witnessing in our global culture. So, please, email us at [email protected] and tell us what you think of our stories—and, please tell a friend to start reading along with you!

We welcome your Emails! . We’re also reachable on Twitter, Facebook, Amazon, Huffington Post, YouTube and other social-networking sites. You also can Subscribe to our articles via Email or RSS feed. Plus, there’s a free Monday morning “Planner” newsletter you may enjoy.

(Originally published at readthespirit.com)


Saving Christmas—avoid Xmas hell; here’s best of Web

December 22, 2010 by

Seriously now, DON’T try this at home! It’ll only depress you. Don’t search for best Christmas websites using Google or other onilne search engines. You’ll find yourself caught in endless circles of the worst online retail hell. Even Dante would be horrified. We’re not opposed to responsible online retailing, but some of these Christmas sites are obvious scams! Apparently, web-savvy Grinches have snapped up a bunch of holiday web addresses that sound family friendly—but aren’t.

Want to do a “good deed” to restore holiday sanity? Stop by “What’s a True Necessity?” in our own OurValues website and add your comment about what’s truly essential for Christmas. That’s a certified “good deed.”

Are we afraid of Web Grinches who’ve taken over the search engines? Naw!!! We are professional journalists, after all. We are your eyes and ears on the horizon, looking for the best in spiritual media. So, we took it as a personal challenge to elbow out those Internet scamsters—and find these great Christmas sites …

St. Nicholas Center—best of the ‘real’ Santa Claus

Our friend Carol Myers deserves a huge “Merry Christmas” for building the world’s best St. Nicholas website. No exaggeration! Carol and her colleague Jim Rosenthal have devoted years to amassing this enormous gift to families.

Check out Our Festivals-and-Holidays Christmas Story

Each year, we cover 100s of holidays celebrated by religious communities around the world. And, this week, we’ve got a fascinating story about the religious traditions of Christmas. Our story includes lots of links to travel further into faith. We’ve even got links to some traditional recipes.

NORAD tracks Santa! Nostalgic News Is Back

Remember those black-and-white TV news reports in the ’50s and ’60s about Santa’s sleigh showing up on the U.S. early warning system? Well, a bunch of good-hearted online groups, including units of the U.S. Air Force, have reproduced that experience online.

White House offers Simple Gifts

One of the few “public” sites that has cool Christmas offerings—without annoying pop-up ads trying to sell us tickets to a holiday getaway—is the site for “our” house, the White House. There’s a video on this year’s Simple Gifts theme, an interactive opportunity to post a holiday message for people serving in the military and even a couple of recipes. (And, yes, because it is “our” house and “we” are diverse, there are links to earlier White House Hanukkah posts on the same page.)

Read Christmas Classics from Dickens, Henry and Baum

Unless you’re a regular visitor to the massive Gutenberg website of free books, Web search engines can send you to hell and back looking for these Christmas classics. So, we’ve gathered a cluster of the best links to Christmas classics. (Note: If you’re new to Gutenberg, look around the site and you’ll quickly find ways to download books to read on your computer, print at home or load into your e-reading devices.)

Story of the 1914 Christmas Truce

Hollywood loves this story. Video versions of “Christmas Truce” tales are available each year before Christmas. Some stories are set in WWII during the Battle of the Bulge. Some depict the well-documented truce during WWI. But what’s fiction—and what’s the true story of the famous 1914 truce? Lots of Web sites tell the story, but we recommend the Christmas Truce story in Michael Duffy’s labor of love—his website called First World War that he’s been expanding over the past decade.

Something Silly for Cat Fanciers: Cats in Christmas Trees

Yes. That’s about the size of it: Cats in trees. If that idea seems dumb to you—move on to the next item. If you love cats, then you may enjoy this odd-ball webpage called “Christmas Decorating 101” that is a clever collection of snapshots. Then, more snapshots. Oh, and there’s even a link to “Page 2”—even more cats in trees. (Hey, either it’s your cup of catnip—or not.) Want more substantive pet stuff? Check out our 6-part series on terrific books about the animals we love.

For All Those Weary Retailers: Someone Will Put It Back

Toilet tissue dumped in a clothing aisle.Millions of Americans work in retail sales and, at this time of year, one of the Grinchiest things we can do is—dump merchandise we don’t want in some random spot in a store. This drives the men and women who staff our stores—nuts. Imagine piles of discarded foods, department store fitting rooms heaped with discarded clothes—and weary retailers sorting out our messes. Well, this website makes the point that it’s grotesque. (Warnings: This site may load slowly; also it’s aimed at adults and occasionally the language is R-rated.) The site reminds us that, sometimes, it’s simply a “good deed” to put things back where we found them, because someone else will have to put it back.

Speaking of Good Deeds: Audubon’s Christmas Bird Count

Audubon hosts this fascinating webpage about the annual “Christmas” assessment of our winged neighbors—which actually takes place in early January. Did you know that this annual event, involving thousands of volunteers, began as a 19th-century hunting practice. The modern count, focused on conservation rather than hunting, is 110 years old this year.

Finally, Want to See ‘Our’ Tree Decorated in 1 Minute?

The White House provides this time-lapse video of tree decoration in “our” house. Click the video screen, below. It only takes a minute …

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We want our international conversation to continue

Conversation is far better than the dangerous shouting matches we’ve been witnessing in our global culture. So, please, email us at [email protected] and tell us what you think of our stories—and, please tell a friend to start reading along with you!

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(Originally published at readthespirit.com)