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Lenten Calendars–Ideas for the Future

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Here are some examples of the way other people used the Lenten calendars.

1. Connie D. read a daily Lenten devotional called Renewed For Life by Henri J. M. Nouwen, published by Creative Communications for the Parish. Each day she chose a meaningful word from the reading and prayed it using her calendar. Even without having read the devotional, I could use the wonderful words on this calendar as a rich vocabulary list for daily reflection.

2. A woman named Ellen wrote this to me:
I used both templates this Lent–printed them on opposite sides of one sheet of heavy  paper. I used the honeycomb one to write names of people  I wanted to remember and pray for, OR a prayer for myself during this  time, enhanced with doodles the way you did.  And I used the regular calendar to list brief gratitudes at the end of each day.  I used colorful markers to do both, and found the practice helpful and life-giving.  

3. Ellen also shared how a friend used the template:
 I also have a friend who used the honeycomb both for herself, as a way to focus each day on a personal discipline she was cultivating, AND one for her 3-year old daughter who colored in a section each day with a different color, while Mom did her own calendar. 

Thanks for the great ideas.

Lenten Calendar 2012 Final

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I liked the “behive” template I used this year (or as a friend called it, the “chicken wire”). The six angles in each hexagon provided nice little nooks for arcs, lines, triangles, and a variety of doodle shapes and strokes.

There are so many names  for God. The ones I used are familiar ones–names I have heard before or read in the Bible. Forty-six words is just the beginning of a vocabulary to describe an infinite, everywhere God. Even the sum of thousands of names is inadequate to describe the one who British Catholic hymn writer Bernadette Farrell calls “God Beyond All Names.” I hope my chicken-wire lexicon will continue to expand in all directions. I hope the handful of words I use to address God will become armfuls–names which are now beyond my wildest imagining.

 

I’d love to hear your experiences with the Lenten calendar–the beehive or the traditional squares.

 

Lenten Calendar–Week 5

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I like the theme for my 2012 Lenten calendar–names for God. When I look at the collection so far, I notice both the richness and the inadequacy of the words. How many names would it take to accurately describe the vastness and magnificence of our God?–many more than I know.

The calendar reminded me of another visual image. When my younger son was small, he said, “I think God is like a big patchwork quilt. Each patch is a different kind of skin or fur or feather of all of the creatures in the world.” I loved the image of this quilt and imagined it extending infinitely in every direction. Being wrapped in this spectacular, endless quilt of God would be a lush, comforting (and maybe a little terrifying) experience.

Quilt drawing from the back cover of Praying in Color: Drawing a New Path to God, Paraclete Press, 2007

Cindy O’s Lenten Calendar

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Here is the Lenten calendar of my friend Cindy of Mostly Markers. Cindy includes the names of people as well as words associated with Lent on her calendar. About the word sufficient, she says: “I was surprised  by the word and drawing “sufficient.” Not sure where that came from, but it felt very strong to me. Like a sufficiency of grace in the midst of gray.”

Sounds like one of my favorite quotes from Paul: “But he (God) said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.” (2Corinthians 12:9 NIV)

Lenten Calendar–First 10 Days

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Below is my calendar of God names. What I notice is the number of songs I associate with the words.

“When God Almighty came to be one of us,
Masking the glory of his golden train.
Dozens of plain things kindled by accident,
And they will never be the same again.
(Author, Michael Hewlett?)

Creator of the stars of night,
Your people’s everlasting light,
O Christ, Redeemer of us all,
We pray you hear us when we call.
(6th, 7th or 9th century chant, Latin, Hymnal 1940 version)

The gentle Healer came
Into our town today
He touched blind eyes
And the darkness left to stay
But more than the blindness,
He took their sins away
The gentle Healer came
Into our town today.
(The Gentle Healer by Michael Card on 2 disc collection called The Life)

First Sunday in Lent

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I’m one of those wacky people who loves Lent. As the calendar hits mid to late February, my liturgical memory kicks in and I start to sing the refrains to the Great Litany: “Good Lord, deliver us, ” Son of God, we beseech thee to hear us,” O Christ, hear us…”

I wish the entire year were divided into 40-day segments, each with a specific spiritual task assigned to it. During Lent the task is repentance–a turning away from the things that keep us from God and a turning toward those things that draw us near to God.  During Lent I don’t feel I need to apologize for saying “No” to certain habits or “Yes” to certain prayer and fasting practices. If I can add or subtract something from my life for forty days, maybe I will make the U-turn I need. The 40-day structure is the rehearsal period for the way I want to behave on the other 325 days of the year.

This year for Lent I have committed to three subtractions and additions:
1.  (-) Saying “No” to computer Scrabble. I spend far too many minutes of the day looking for ways to use all seven letters on my rack and to find places on the board for “oe” and “qi.” Computer Scrabble is a terrific game, but my allegiance to it is just a little askew.

2) (-) Resisting conversations (even in my head) about weight and age (mine or anyone else’s).

3)  (+) Praying/drawing with a daily Lenten calendar using the many names for God.

I write these things not because I feel righteous about “observing a Holy Lent” but  for accountability. If I say them out loud to a community, I might just do them.

Lenten Calendar Templates 2012

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Here is the link to two calendar templates for Lent. Lent starts with Ash Wednesday on February 22.

If you are looking for a Lenten discipline, consider praying on a calendar template for the forty days.  It’s a simple, not very time-consuming discipline. Here are some ideas for ways to use the calendar:

• Pray for a person each day.
• Pray or meditate on a word of Scripture or a spiritual/religious word: peace, salvation, joy, Jesus, redeem, love….
• Write a different name for God (Almighty One, Jesus, Holy Spirit, Beloved Savior, Blessed Redeemer…) each day and just hang out with God as you draw. Try using the name you choose in all of your prayers that day.
• Pray a short phrase of Scripture: “Create in me a clean heart, O God,” “Surely, it is God who saves me,”…..
• Meditate on “things done and things left undone.”—a confessional  calendar
• Make a gratitude calendar.

I like to print the template and blow it up to fit a piece of 11×17 card stock–129% works well.  To download one of the templates below, click on the one you want. For the beehive/hexagonal calendar you can decide where the dates go. Both calendars have 46 days on them. (Sundays do not officially count as days of Lent or fasting but as days of celebration. For me it’s easier just to stay with the program of whatever discipline I choose for the whole 46 days.)

Lenten Calendar 2011–Final Weeks

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Here is my final calendar for Lent. Some days I worked the program as I had planned–a full blown meditation and prayer on each word. Other days I chose a word and drew hastily with a scattered mind and spirit. In spite of my inconsistent discipline, I learned at least one thing about Psalm 51: It is full of rich, multi-textured words. There were so many words to choose from, I made it through only fifteen of the nineteen verses.

I think I understand why this Psalm is quoted, sung, and studied so often. The wide variety and depth of words form a lexicon of our salvation history. Even with just the forty-six words on my calendar, I could tell a version of my story and the Great Story all culminating in the only missing word–JESUS.

Lenten Calendar 2011 Weeks 2 and 3

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Praying Psalm 51 has been a great way for me to focus my Lenten attention and intention. I like honing in on one word a day. Many of the words convey my/our alienation from God: transgressions, iniquity, sin, evil, sentence, guilt, judgment, guilty, sinner…. Other words focus on God’s graceful removal of those things: cleanse, blot, wash, love, mercy….

Another benefit of sticking with one psalm is memorization. The words on the calendar are like a prompter on the side of the stage reminding me of my lines. Psalm 51 is not one of the psalms I know by heart, but I can almost recite the first six verses now. 1 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. 2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. 3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. 4 Against you, you alone, have I sinned, and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are justified in your sentence and blameless when you pass judgment. 5 Indeed, I was born guilty, a sinner when my mother conceived me. NRSV

For this year’s calendar I decided to use only gray, black, red, and purples–colors I associate with Lent. The limited number of colors prevents me from getting too hung up about the product rather than the process of prayer.

P.S. Nap count 3.5 /24–ugh!

Lenten Calendar 2011

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Lent seems to be the time when I try to cram in a year’s worth of Bible study or prayer into 40 days. This year I decided to make my spiritual discipline small enough so I can “savor rather than stuff” as I described in my March 4th post. On Ash Wednesday I sat in church and listened to an exquisite musical version of Psalm 51 called Miserere Mei by Gregorio Allegri. Although it was sung in Latin, I followed along in English. For me, the words of Psalm 51 are some of the most beautiful and rich in the Bible. So Psalm 51 will be my Scripture focus for Lent this year.

Each day I choose a word from the Psalm and reflect on it in two ways. First I write the word on a piece of paper and start brainstorming. Everything that comes to my mind about the word ends up on the paper–whether it’s spiritual or silly. This stream-of-consciousness writing helps to clear my mind of everything I already know or perceive about the word. It makes room for my mind to receive something new about the word.

Then I write the word on my calendar and start to draw. This time I don’t consciously think about the word. I ask God to tell me what I need to hear. I listen to the word as it tells me new things about itself and I listen to God through the word. If I hear something new I write it down. This is a way of initiating a conversation with God using a single word from Scripture.

Below is the first week of my calendar and an example of what I did with one of the words: abundant. It has been a whole week and I’ve just started on verse 2 of the Psalm.

1 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. 2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. (Psalm 51, NRSV)