lilly's pad

lenten prayer stations

ok..i've been rather slow in getting into lent this year...started out ok...but due to work and travel, my rhythm hasn't been it's best.

maybe that's true for you too. the grace factor is that lent used to just be the 7 days before Easter, not the forty days before Easter!

so if you have had a slow start...don't despair...just start again!

here are a few prayer stations and ideas to use with your group or family.

let me know what you think.

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Prayer station ideas for Lent

 

 Lint Brush Station…

Lint or Lent?

When you hear the word lent what comes to mind?

Many people don’t know the difference…LINT OR LENT?

Is it something in your belly button or your dryer?

What about a season of the church year designed to bring you closer to jesus?

 

Using a lint brush as a prayer tool…

Set up a station with a couple of lint brushes or use as a group prayer response

With lint brushes to pass around.

You can also save lint from your dryer to have as a part of the décor.

( a favorite Lenten prayer practice of mine is to use cleaning the lint trap in the dryer as  time to ask God what needs to be cleaned out of my life…putting laundry in the dryer becomes a prayer of confession)

 

The Lint brush is used as a prayer of confession…

God removes the “lint, “ the junk that is stuck to us…

The sin that so easily entangles us…

As you roll the lint brush over your clothes talk to God

about the Lint, the junk, in your life you need him to remove.

Ask God to show you any lint that is blocking your relationship with him..

as you roll the lint brush on your shirt/ jeans, picture the junk being removed.

And know that God loves you and forgives you.

 

DESERT STATION

Jesus spent forty days in the wilderness….

Fasting.

Sometimes we think that it was the Enemy, the devil, that drove him into the wilderness…

And sometimes we think that the wilderness itself is bad.

But remember, it was the Holy Spirit who led Jesus into the wilderness…

God was present with Jesus the entire time…he wasn’t alone, he wasn’t’ abandoned.

Jesus fasted for 40 days…that’s a number of testing…

 

OPTION 1

Sit down

Where are you on your journey today?

Are you feeling lost in the wilderness

Are you feeling dry, hungry, alone?

Are you feeling tempted? Or tested?

Have you felt like life has become filled with temptations?

Talk to Jesus about this….

Allow Jesus to be present with you in the wilderness.

 

OPTION 2

Sit down and consider what Jesus felt in the wilderness..

READ the story. Picture Jesus there.

What temptations are you facing today?

Talk to God about these.

What are you hungry for in your life? …..

Talk to God about this

Are you tempted by hungers, hunger for power, popularity, wealth, what else?

Talk to God about this and allow Him to talk to you…

WRITE THESE IN THE SAND…then brush them out as you ask for forgiveness.

 

What are you hungry for in your life? …..The Good things…

Talk to God about these things and feel his love and comfort.

 

 

Set up a desert area… lay down a painters tarp …fold up edges to create rim

(looks best if it’s not a square) pour sand on top and spread out to create a layer.

Add a couple of camping stools a few large rocks. 

Allow students time to be in the desert…

This station can be very large ..we once created a desert space in the center of our chapel …everyone had to cross the sand to get to their seats and then we had everyone sit on the floor around the sand to focus on and consider Jesus’ time in the wilderness.

 

BOWL OF SAND….

The Lenten Season is the 40 days before Easter

Where do you want to go in the next few weeks?

What do you want to be like by the time Easter arrives?

How can you choose to fall more in love with Jesus over

The next few weeks?

 

As you begin your Lenten journey…

wash your hands in the bowl of sand as an act of repentance…

As a reminder of the wilderness where jesus spent his forty days of fasting and prayer.

Talk to God about where you are and where you want to be in the next few weeks before Easter.

Now wash your hands in the bowl of water and allow God to refresh you and allow the Living Water to encourage you as you journey with Jesus during the days before Easter.

YOU ARE CLEAN…YOU ARE LOVED…YOU ARE FORGIVEN

 

OPTION 2…after washing in the sand and then the water…write down on a cut out or printed out heart…a way that you will choose to fall more in love with jesus during lent, during the weeks before EASTER….

Examples…spending more time in silence

Spending more time reading the bible

Spending more time serving others..

 

TAKE HOME THE heart and place it where you will see it each day and be reminded to fall in love with Jesus each day.

 

 

 

 

thinplace: transfiguration...glory and the mountain top

 

here's your taste of thinplace for this week...sunday is the sunday of the transfiguration and it's always good to reflect on this amazing happening in the life of Jesus and his close friends. every time i listen to the story i learn and see new things...

for me last night , it was about experiencing the glory of king jesus...too often i know and experience jesus as my friend, "my buddy" jesus...but not the KING of KINGS glorified Jesus...

too often i don't take the time to be awestruck by jesus...i don't focus enough on his glory and his position as king...

so this lent (starting next wednesday btw) i am reflecting on how i might engage the wonder and awe of jesus in tangible ways.

i also spent time wondering about the last verse..."don't tell anyone..." i know jesus didn't want peter shooting off his mouth and declaring his messiahship and kingship before the cross, but do you think they really did keep quiet? do you think peter really could ?

and what about the 9 disciples that were left down the mountain...i've always wondered how they felt...i would have felt left out and i know i would have bugged peter for information about what happened up there! ...just some wonderings...

to be honest, i almost didn't use this week's lections because i've "done that story" so many times before...and i hate skipping forward too far in the gospel rather than just doing the next chapter.

turns out i'm so glad the holy spirit is the teacher and not me! had two folks at thinplace last night who heard this passage for the very first time!!!!

i always say in my workshops never to assume that anyone knows the story...and i proved to myself i need to remember that fact myself!!!

got a little carried away with the questions to consider ...really shouldn't be more than 5...just had lots of thoughts 

as usual you don't have to journal from any of them if you don't want to...

the TAKE AWAY was a small white light bulb...to put on our desk or kitchen window or by our beds..keep it somewhere where you'll see it each day...to remind us of the light of Jesus...and to remind us that we too carry his light into the world...think also of someone who needs the light of God's love in their lives...and use the light bulb as a reminder to pray for this person in the coming week/month.

and if you have to change a light bulb or buy new light bulbs in the near future...remember to shine your light, the light of God's love to the people around you.

 

THINPLACE march 3, 2011…

Opening Prayer…

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

2 Corinthians 3:17-18

Help me, Lord, to notice how you are speaking to me.

Matthew 17  New Living Translation  The Transfiguration

Matthew 17 The Message

Listen to the passage read three times

Things to consider while journaling….

1. Had any mountain top experiences lately? Would you be interested in having one? Do you need one?
2. Was there ever a time when you just wanted to build a shelter, pitch a tent, and not go back down the mountain, not have to return to real life?
3. Anything making you scared right now?
4. What would it be like to have Jesus touch you when you are scared?
5. What is it that you just don’t get about what Jesus is doing …in this passage, in your life, on your journey? On the other hand, What things are making sense?
6. What things help you see Jesus more clearly…?
7. Why do we forget about the Glory of God? What blinds us to the glory of God?
8. Do you think we get too comfortable with “buddy” Jesus and forget the king of king side of Him? Why?
9. What area of your life do you need illuminated and perhaps cleaned out?

10.What are some ways you can reflect the light of King in the coming days?

 

IDEAS: Use the last two questions as meditations to close your time together....

#9 CONFESSION: HOLD a light bulb in your hand ...what areas of your life need to be illuminated/cleaned out... talk to God about this.

#10. ways that you can reflect the light of king jesus in the week to come...write these down on paper to take home...or as a prayer station...

use a large mirror and write these ways to reflect Jesus and His light on the mirror.

TABLE: center piece ...large white candle, bowl of small white light bulbs. several types of light bulbs displayed around the candle

TAKE AWAY: Small white light bulbs

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jesus …

We ask you to give us eyes to see …to see your Light around us

To see your Light in other people

To see your Light and realize how much you love us.

We ask that you give us ears to hear …to hear your voice above the crowd

To hear your voice above our own…

Help us to hear your voice in the midst of our fears and our pain.

We ask that you help us remember the mountain top experiences when we’ve felt close to you, especially when we are feeling down in a ditch.

Help us to remember that you are with us

Thank you for loving us before we even had a clue

Thanks for loving us when we feel un-loveable.

Thank you for loving me …all that I am. AMEN

 

 

 

 

 

shrove tuesday.. is .pancake tuesday!

next week the season of lent begins with ash wednesday, march 9th, but the day before we get to celebrate with our spatulas and syrup! check out some ideas for celebrating pancake tuesday with your family, church community or youth group! at YMtoday.com.

without an IHOP within a 30 mile radius...the chef and i will be cooking some pancakes at home.

check out Youth Ministry Today on facebook too! and they are recommending a great resource for EASTER and LENT (if i do say so myself : ) )check out the Journey to the Cross Prayer Experience in SACRED SPACE

epiphany

Today begins the season of epiphany, the christmas season is officially over on this the 12th day of christmas ...and now we celebrate the coming of the magi to worship the infant king...the Light dawning for all people, not just for the children of israel. check out dennis bratcher for more info on the season of epiphany.

Do I take risks like the wiseones of old

Do i take risks when it comes to worshiping God?

Do I take risks in order to follow where God is leading?

Do I hesitate

Do I over think things

Do I wonder too much about what others might think?

 

Am I willing to leave it all?

Am I willing to cross deserts and mountains?

To leave all that is safe and familiar to go where He leads

Or to Go where I think, where I feel where I believe God is leading?

 

What keeps me from going?

What keeps me frozen in place

Uncertainty… that I’ve heard

Uncertain that I truly know and can truly trust in Him.

What is it that won’t allow me to go and ask the hard questions and

Seek out His star, no matter what the darkness

No matter what the risk

No matter what the barrier?

 

How can I remember,

No.,..help me to remember that darkness is not dark to you

That you invented light that you are the light of the world

That has come to banish all our darkness. Yet it takes the darkness

Often to perceive the light.

Darkness is not dark to you

Uncertainty is not a word in your vocabulary

You know our plans

You perceive my thoughts

And you still love me anyway….

The light of the world has come

To all people .,..the Light has come!

Everything was created through him;

      nothing—not one thing!—

      came into being without him.

   What came into existence was Life,

      and the Life was Light to live by.

   The Life-Light blazed out of the darkness;

      the darkness couldn't put it out.

advent resources for the season

found a new daily devotion for advent (thanks to my freshman college roommate : ))i rather like the title since i have a prayer experience in SACRED SPACE named the same thing! check out :following the star

also you should check out these two on line sites for weekly and daily advent inspiration:

sacredspace advent (the jesuit prayer site)

and

st. elizabeths