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Yes to Easter!

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Yes to the new creation! Yes to Christ is Risen! Yes to all that I do not understand about this new beginning! Alleluia!

This year I am neither exhausted nor “sooo ready for Lent and Easter to be over.” What is different from past Lents was not bingeing on a multitude of spiritual practices. Lent is a time to go down, go deeper, and go spelunking into the dark and unexplored caves of the heart. I misread this as an invitation to gather up a overlarge slew of spiritual tools and start digging: give up something, take on something, read more, pray more, blog more, meditate on my shortcomings, exercise more, snack less, be kind, do a complete makeover in 40-some days….

A week into this overzealous archaeological expedition, I know I have overpacked; so many tools are a burden. But I trudge on with grouchiness and guilt added to the load. Self-shaming and trash talk about my spiritual inadequacy make me the center of all this exploring. I forget that the inner work is not primarily about me, but about connecting with Jesus. I’m not sure why I overload during Lent. I don’t know if I try to out-holy my efforts from the year before. But with uncharacteristic kindness towards myself, I think it’s more basic than that. I am hungry, really hungry for a deeper and more loving relationship with God, other people, and myself. Bingeing and hoarding on spiritual practices seems like the logical, if misguided, way to get what I need.

Thanks to a three-week cough right before this Lent, I did not have the energy for rounding up as many tools as usual. I picked one calendar template and one devotional to use with it. With his book Lent for Everyone: Luke, Year C: A Daily Devotional, New Testament scholar and retired Anglican Bishop N.T. Wright was a terrific guide for my Lenten exploration. Each day Wright offers a passage from Luke, a reflection, and a prayer. I chose one word from the daily reading, wrote it on the calendar, thought about it, doodled around it, and listened to it. The practice felt spacious and satisfying rather than burdensome. And I was not alone. Luke, N.T. Wright, and Jesus were there with me. That one simple word became my manna for the day. Not too much, not too little. Food and Enough.

Two Weeks of Lent–A Visual Diary

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I love this one-day-at-a-time, one tear-at-a-time journey through Lent. Lent for Everyone–Year C by N.T. Wright is a thoughtful combination of Scripture and reflection. The devotional includes a daily reading from Luke followed by a meditation from the author. As I look back at the growing pathway of words, I remember the stories from the Gospel. (Or on Sundays, a Psalm) Some of the words I chose are from the Luke reading itself: others are from the reflection piece. Both readings challenge me to rethink my relationship with Jesus. I’m trying to read not to confirm the opinions and beliefs I hold so tightly and arrogantly, but to receive what God might be asking me to consider or rethink or affirm.

The word combined with the doodles has been a helpful prompt to remember, review, and refresh my thoughts and prayers about the readings from a particular day.

Additional Calendar Templates for Lent

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Lent starts this coming Wednesday, March 6! Here are two additional Lenten Calendar Templates. Click on the version you want below the picture; download; and print. The first one with the hearts was created by Pat Maier of Visual Faith Ministry. It has 40 spaces. For more ideas about how to incorporate art with your prayer life and Scripture study, visit the Visual Faith Ministry Facebook page and website. The second template is the Cross template from last year. Counting the divisions on the cross, it has 46 spaces to include the weekends during Lent.

Hearts 2019 pdf
Cross .jpg  or .pdf

Instructions on how to use the calendars and examples from previous years are on my blog post from February 15. Or you can click Here to download a Word document of the Instructions.

Here are the first three calendar options from the February 15 post.

Spiral Tears Calendar 2019 pdf
Box Calendar 2019 pdf
Stained Glass Lily 2019 pdf

Lenten Calendar Templates for 2015

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I love using a calendar template for Lent because it gives me a one-day-at-a-time, concrete, manageable way to have a daily practice for the 40 (or 46) days before Easter. If you like more space than a piece of 8 1/2″ x11″ paper affords, go to a copy store or print shop and expand the template to 11″x17″.

Here are some ways to use the calendar:
1) Pray for someone each day. Write a name, doodle around it, pray with words or in silence as you draw.
2) Choose a word from the Daily Lectionary or other reading and write it in the space for the day. Pray the word. Meditate on it. Spend time with it as you draw. Let it tell you about itself. Let God reveal something new to you about the word.
3) Write a word you associate with Lent–sin, forgiveness, journey, palms, Jesus, salvation, crucifixion,…. Meditate on it. Spend time with it as you draw. Listen to what the what can tell you about itself. Let God reveal something new to you about the word.
4) Just doodle or draw in the space without words. Keep silence and listen for the “still small voice of God.”
5) Write one of the different names for God each day and pray/meditate on the name.
6) Write one of your character defects or “sins” in the space each day. Offer it up to God; ask for help and forgiveness. Very Lenten!

Here are the templates. Click on the WORD below the picture to download. When you see the template in Google Drive, click on the downward facing arrow to download. Thanks to Hilary Ann Golden for her Spiral template.

Lent 2015Collageresized

……..Hexagons .jpg                Spiral .pdf                      Box .jpg                       Path .jpg
……..Hexagons. pdf                Spiral. jpg                      Box .doc

Here are some examples of finished calendars from previous years.
Lent Collage Sample 2015 resized

 

Lenten Calendar 2014–Final

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Here is my finished calendar for this Lent. I used no words, just drew crosses everyday. It was a wordless Lent in terms of the calendar and I didn’t miss them. But as usual I wish I could take back some words I said and said some words I didn’t say during the 40 days. Happy Easter to all! Christ is risen; hallelujah! And it’s okay to say that for the next 49 days of the Easter season–and even longer when you need to remember.

Lent 2014 Calendar Final Resized

 

Lenten Calendar Template 2014

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I have added a new page to my website called Handouts. On it are two different calendar templates for Lent this year as shown below. One is a regular box calendar format. The other is a starburst. (or crown of thorns) On my starburst calendar I drew arrows from one date to the next. You can click on the word Handouts above to access the calendar you want, not on the pictures below. Please pass along the link to friends who may be interested.

I plan to go to a copy store and blow up the size of mine to fit on an 11″ x 17″ piece of card stock. (129%)

Each day you can pray for a person or pray a word associated with Lent. One year I meditated on the different names for God. Another year I prayed the words from Psalm 51.

May you have a Holy Lent.

Box Calendar 2014 resized

Starburst Calendar resized

Lenten Calendars for 2013

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Happy Easter! Hallelujah! How nice it is to say that word again after suppressing it for forty days.

Here is my finished calendar for this Lent. Unlike last year’s calendar where I focused on the names for God, this year’s entries were a hodgepodge of feelings, character defects, strengths, ideas, images, people and whatever popped into my mind. The pathway format to Easter kept me focused on the day to day journey of Lent.

My friend Connie used the beehive template for her calendar.  During Lent she read the devotional Good News for all People by Michele DeRusha and her husband Brad Johnson, illustrated by Deb Paden. On her blog Vintage Grace, Connie describes combining words from the devotional with drawings and color on her calendar:  “After each day’s Lenten reading I would find the word that ‘stood out’ for me in the reading and that was my one word for that day of Lent. I choose 5-6 color pencils that were my ‘colors of Lent’ for this season. The repeated use of the colors for the whole Season helps me to see the connected focus of the words.”

First 1/2 of Lent Finished Calendar; Second 1/2 Template

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Here is the first half of my Lenten calendar. This year the calendar does not have a theme. It includes people I’m praying for, words of gratitude, intriguing words, character defects (sins)…. It feels likes it’s blowing all over the place like the passage from John 3:8 says: “The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.” (NRSV)

Below the finished 1/2 calendar is a template for the rest of Lent–just in case you’re still looking for a discipline at the halfway point of Lent. Click on the calendar to download a copy of the template.

Lenten Calendar Templates 2013

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Ash Wednesday, February 13–the first day of Lent– is only five days away. Here are three templates you can use to mark the 40 days (46, counting weekends) until Easter. Two of the templates are modeled on previous years. The newest one, the one with the variety of shapes and pathways connecting them, is the one I created for this year. I kept thinking of Lent and life as a path of walking, marching, plodding, skipping, falling, stopping, running, dawdling….

A more traditional version of Psalm 16:11 says: ” You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand”  (NIV). The Message uses these words: “Now you’ve got my feet on the life path, all radiant from the shining of your face. Ever since you took my hand, I’m on the right way.” I like this version of God as handholder and cosmic flashlight–quelling my fears and lighting my path.

Click on the word below the calendar style you want to download.

         Path jpg      Path pdf                          Block Calendar                               Hexagons

 

Here are some suggestions on ways to use the calendar:

1. Pray for a person each day. Write their name in the shape; draw, color, doodle as you hold them up to God.
2. Pray a word each day–a word from a scripture passage you have read that day–a word that intrigues you or bothers you.
3. List your shortcomings along the path. Draw, doodle, color….
4. Just draw and listen to what the Holy Spirit may be saying to you.
5. Use color on your calendar or just a black pen.

I like to expand this 8 1/2″ x 11″ template to 11″x17″ on card stock for bigger spaces.

Here are some samples of previous years’ finished calendars:
2012A     2012B      2011     Cindy O’s 2011