This attractive resource can be used by individuals or groups and is based on the Lenten scriptures. Weeks 2, 4 and 6 focus on the second readings from Paul. The scripture reflections have been written by Fr Chris Glesson SJ. For further information visit the 2009 Lenten Program website. Download a sample of the program (week four) Below is the text from the introduction: Introduction Grace to you is part of the greeting in every letter we have that Paul sent to the early Christian communities. Perhaps like no other document, a letter provides us with a window into the relationship between the sender and the receiver in an intimate and personal way. When we read these greetings it is as if we are able to stretch across time and hear the deep emotions of care and love Paul had for these communities. He wrote to nurture, challenge and strengthen the early Christian communities and often responded to particular needs or situations. Today Paul’s blessing, Grace to you, is also given to you as you begin these Lenten reflections, either individually or in a small group. Our challenges are often different from those of the first century Mediterranean world; however our need to nurture our Christian faith both individually and communally is just as pressing and urgent. While the challenges in today’s world can often seem daunting and even over-whelming, the message from the scriptures is that our God is always with us no matter what. Richard Rohr puts this profound truth in these words: God is always given, incarnate in every moment and present to those who know how to be present to themselves (Things Hidden: Scripture as Spirituality). This Lent we listen to the scriptures and we listen deeply to life. In the first week, we focus on the story of Noah from Genesis. God calls Noah, his descendants and every living creature into a sacred covenant. The story of God’s covenant with the Jewish people unfolds through the scriptures. In the third week, we read in the Book of Exodus of God’s commandments being given to Moses. In the fifth week, the prophet Jeremiah writes about a ‘new covenant’ when the Lord will put the law within the people and write it on their hearts. In the sixth week, we have the ultimate expression of this covenant relationship and God’s grace overflowing into the world in the person of Jesus. We read in Paul’s letter to the Philippians that he ‘emptied himself … and being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death’ (Philippians 2:7,8). Lent calls us to metanoia, to turn around our lives, to ‘let go and let God’ with an attitude of openness, vulnerability and trust. This requires an awakening, a deeper interior awareness and attentiveness to God’s ever-present gift of grace. In the words of the prophet Isaiah from Passion Sunday: ‘Morning by morning he wakens – wakens my ear to listen … The Lord God has opened my ear …’ (50:4,5). To assist us with this attitude of awareness, attentiveness and awakening Grace to you provides us with two ‘spiritual companions’ on the journey to Easter – Sr Helen Dyson OSU and Fr Chris Gleeson SJ. For the first, third and fifth weeks, Helen has provided reflections and questions for the Jewish scriptures as well as the gospels, while Chris has written reflections on the readings from Paul’s letters for the second, fourth and sixth weeks. Just as each person who engages with this resource has a different history and life-story, our two ‘spiritual companions’ write from their own unique perspective and personal experience. The underlying current flowing through these reflections is God’s abundant grace – a gift that is unconditional and freely given. Our response to this bountiful providence is to open our hands in gratitude and to receive. The extraordinary is encountered in the ordinary; God’s grace and our response. Like music that is transposed to a higher key, we are transformed and empowered so that we, in turn, are channels of grace for those around us. Through the prayers and meditations in this resource we are invited to a silence of the heart. This silence requires that we relinquish control, experience a death-to-self, and patiently wait for the word to germinate deep within. In this time of ‘sacred pause’ our renewed self can emerge vibrant and richly endowed. We can then say with Paul: ‘… it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me’ (Galatians 2:20). With a heightened sense of vision and insight we begin to recognise the world as grace-filled. With the writer Annie Dillard we are filled with hope as we realise that God’s grace is eternal and never-ending: It has always been a happy thought to me that the creek runs all night, new every minute, whether I wish it or know it or care, as a closed book continues to whisper to itself its own inexhaustible tale. So many things have been shown me on the banks, so much light has illumined me by reflection here where the water comes down, that I can hardly believe that this grace never flags, that the pouring from ever-renewable sources is endless, impartial, and free. (Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek).
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