My Lent Experience This Year

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mom3
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Joined: 02 Apr 2011, 14:11

My Lent Experience This Year

Post by mom3 »

Lent has fully embraced me this year.

The day of Ash Wednesday was a surprise practice that arrived unexpectedly, with it came yearnings.

A local nun posted a piece about how she wasn't giving anything up, instead she was embracing more. More time in prayer, more time with God. I liked that.

My focus is the Beatitudes.

Before I fell asleep last night a friend posted their scripture of the day. I took it as a sign and thought of all of us.
John 1:17, KJV: "For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ."
Feel free to carry that idea with you until Easter.
"I stayed because it was God and Jesus Christ that I wanted to follow and be like, not individual human beings." Chieko Okazaki Dialogue interview

"I am coming to envision a new persona for the Church as humble followers of Jesus Christ....Joseph and his early followers came forth with lots of triumphalist rhetoric, but I think we need a new voice, one of humility, friendship and service. We should teach people to believe in God because it will soften their hearts and make them more willing to serve." - Richard Bushman
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DarkJedi
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Joined: 24 Aug 2013, 20:53

Re: My Lent Experience This Year

Post by DarkJedi »

As mentioned in another post, I did Lent last year. I think you have motivated me to do it again (just because you don't start Ash Wednesday doesn't make it invalid). Your nun friend is right - it's not really about giving something up, it's about coming closer to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ which appears to be the current push by our very own prophet. From a post I wrote last year:
Lent isn't about giving up something as much as it is doing something for the period that in the end will bring you closer to God and Christ. I'm not going to say what mine is...but it's not giving up anything and I believe I will be closer to God and Christ come Easter as a result. The best part is that nobody needs to know, there's no "accountability" and it can be just your own thing separate from the church. It's about you as an individual.
In the absence of knowledge or faith there is always hope.

Once there was a gentile...who came before Hillel. He said "Convert me on the condition that you teach me the whole Torah while I stand on one foot." Hillel converted him, saying: That which is despicable to you, do not do to your fellow, this is the whole Torah, and the rest is commentary, go and learn it."

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mom3
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Re: My Lent Experience This Year

Post by mom3 »

Half way through and it's harder than I imagined.

And it's not just our church-stuff. It's life. It's other churches. It's those d*&N other people. All of them, any of them.

Living a Beatitude life is hard.

Today's quote
Before Truth sets you free. It tends to make you miserable. - Richard Rohr
"I stayed because it was God and Jesus Christ that I wanted to follow and be like, not individual human beings." Chieko Okazaki Dialogue interview

"I am coming to envision a new persona for the Church as humble followers of Jesus Christ....Joseph and his early followers came forth with lots of triumphalist rhetoric, but I think we need a new voice, one of humility, friendship and service. We should teach people to believe in God because it will soften their hearts and make them more willing to serve." - Richard Bushman
Old-Timer
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Re: My Lent Experience This Year

Post by Old-Timer »

I love that quote.

A few years ago, I focused my New Year's Resolutions on being a little better at each element of the Sermon on the Mount - one element per month. The first year was mostly one beatitude per month. It was difficult, but it was the best resolution experience of my life.
I see through my glass, darkly - as I play my saxophone in harmony with the other instruments in God's orchestra. (h/t Elder Joseph Wirthlin)

Even if people view many things differently, the core Gospel principles (LOVE; belief in the unseen but hoped; self-reflective change; symbolic cleansing; striving to recognize the will of the divine; never giving up) are universal.

"For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong." H. L. Mencken
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mom3
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Joined: 02 Apr 2011, 14:11

Re: My Lent Experience This Year

Post by mom3 »

Today's Lenten Quote that I think applies to many of us here.
Popular Lent is too much preoccupied with guilt and repentance. But not here. Lent is rather seeing how to take steps into God’s future so that we are no longer defined by what is past and no longer distracted by what we have treasured or feared about the present.
"I stayed because it was God and Jesus Christ that I wanted to follow and be like, not individual human beings." Chieko Okazaki Dialogue interview

"I am coming to envision a new persona for the Church as humble followers of Jesus Christ....Joseph and his early followers came forth with lots of triumphalist rhetoric, but I think we need a new voice, one of humility, friendship and service. We should teach people to believe in God because it will soften their hearts and make them more willing to serve." - Richard Bushman
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