Digital Meditation Resource
Liturgy
When our vision is clouded by worries When our view is blacked out by fears When we see, feel, touch, and taste
The suffering and confusion all around us
We turn to you, our Wild Mother, In this season of darkness
Have mercy on us Oh Lord,
We who suffer, we who grieve
Let your holy goodness bring light
To all of the dark places
Let your cool water find all the cracks. Tend to our broken hearts,
And bring hope to the hopeless
We turn to you, our Wild Father, In this season of darkness
Use even the darkness
To bring us back to you
Show us the grace to love more boldly Remembering that you created us
Not just for the next life,
But for this one as well
In the name of God, our Wild Parent Jesus, the suffering child
And the often invisible Spirit,
Amen
(Vox Prayer Team)
Scripture Reading
We invite you to hear from the book of Joel 2:1-2, 12-17
1 Blow the trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm on my holy mountain!
Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming, it is near—
2 a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness!
Like blackness spread upon the mountains a great and powerful army comes; their like has never been from of old, nor will be again after them in ages to come.
12 Yet even now, says the Lord, return to me with all your heart,
with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; 13 rend your hearts and not your clothing. Return to the Lord, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and relents from punishing. 14 Who knows whether he will not turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind him, a grain offering and a drink offering for the Lord, your God?
15 Blow the trumpet in Zion; sanctify a fast; call a solemn assembly; 16 gather the people.Sanctify the congregation; assemble the aged; gather the children, even infants at the breast. Let the bridegroom leave his room, and the bride her canopy. 17 Between the vestibule and the altar let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep. Let them say, “Spare your people, O Lord, and do not make your heritage a mockery, a by word among the nations. Why should it be said among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’”
The Word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God!
The grass withers and the flower fades,
but the Word of the Lord endures forever. Amen.
Ash Wednesday Liturgy
Reflection
Although darkness is needed in nature as often as light, it is often cast as an enemy in Christian imagery. How might sitting in the cool, peaceful shadows bring you closer to your Creator?
What does it mean to you to “turn your heart,” towards someone?
In ancient times, sacrifices were tangible things to be burned or broken open on an altar. This sacrifice was a gift to God, but also a gift to the supplicant. What sacrifice are you feeling called to offer in this season?
What blessing are you hungry for?
Knowing God is gracious and merciful, how might you bring to awareness the fears and frailties at the depths of your heart, as a way of returning to the LORD?
In taking inventory of moments: hills and valleys in your life, when are times you have felt most close to God?
Thinking creatively, what might it look like to consecrate some piece of yourself to God’s embodied presence?
Benediction
Oh Lord, relinquish our lingering claim to bitterness And instead submit our hearts To the work of sorrow,
So that in your hands
These hollowed spaces of
Love and pain and memory Would become hallowed spaces
Holy spaces over which
Your Spirit hovers and broods Crafting in us a greater compassion And singing new hopes to life
Remain in me Oh Maker Remain in me Oh Christ Remain in me Oh Spirit
Amen
(adapted from Every Moment Holy)
[Photo by Denise Bossarte]