Lent Week 2

Life with Jesus requires holding the tension that the world and things within us and around us are full of pain, but God holds us with kindness and tenderness all the same.  We are often harder on ourselves than God is, and there is an invitation, in the love of God, to slowly begin to see the fullness of good, value, gentleness, and wholeness that God has both given and sees in us.  God’s kindness and care invites us to start our process of making things right from a place of being wholly loved and wholly accepted, rather than filled with the shame and remorse that so easily leads the charge.
 
How do you experience God’s approval of all of who you are?  What gets in the way?
 
From Lent 2022 by Brandi Miller, “Reclaiming My Theology,”
a podcast and community taking theology back from ideas and systems that oppress
 
A Lenten Candle Ritual
This ritual echoes the lighting of Advent wreath candles, only in reverse.  Begin Lent with six purple candles and one white candle, arranged in a circle, perhaps within a wreath/crown of thorns, or in the shape of a cross.  The first Sunday of Lent, begin the ritual with all seven candles lit and then extinguish one purple candle.  Each week, begin with one less candle lit, then extinguish another purple candle during the ritual.  On Good Friday, the only candle still lit will be the white Christ candle, which should be extinguished in silence.