Clearing Season : Reflections For Lent
$13.99
Cities across the world celebrate the day-before with colorful parades and over-the-top parties. Then Wednesday arrives … Sigh. Lent. has. begun.
You hear about devout friends giving up seemingly innocent things in life (like chocolate) or stressing out to live a more perfect life during six grueling weeks – for reasons you don’t completely understand. Sermons about penitence are preached, and guilt soaks the congregation.
Sound like a good time?! It’s time to rethink Lent.
Or at least see it for the positive opportunity it offers. It’s spring-cleaning for the soul! Lent offers you time to pause, consider, and renew your relationship with God – an altogether hopeful (not dreary) experience.
“To arrive at newness of life, we first name parts of our lives that are shrouded in darkness,” writes Parsons. “To put it very dramatically,… your first order of business is to break your heart for God. We walk through some muck so that we can leave it behind and find Easter joy beyond…. With God’s help we will clear the darkness away and begin to experience greater joy and newness of life.”
Sure, there’s work to be done during Lent, but it’s the gentle, gradual work of opening one’s heart and mind to grace. A Clearing Space will move you week by week from “wilderness to holy ground,” using a personal tone that will stir and challenge personal reflection.
Parsons includes exercises for small groups, as well as questions at the end of each chapter for individual reflection. Also included is an appendix of spiritual practices for Lent you may not have considered before.
5 in stock
SKU (ISBN): 9780835898171
ISBN10: 0835898172
Sarah Parsons
Binding: Trade Paper
Published: November 2005
Publisher: Upper Room Ministries
Related products
-
Choosing Happiness
$5.00In Choosing Happiness, Lizzie talks about some of these obstacles and how she managed to choose happiness. From fighting with friends to college applications and learning how to live on your own, Lizzie offers her own stories and advice on how to handle whatever life throws at you. With social media and celebrities giving us their own examples of what it means to “grow up” and be successful, Lizzie shows us how it’s sometimes better to stand outside the crowd, even if that means we sometimes have to stand alone.
While it’s easy to give up or give in to social pressure, Lizzie shows us how choosing our happiness is better, and how with faith, prayer, friends, a good attitute–and late-night taco runs–you can overcome anything.
Add to cart3 in stock
-
Beginning To Pray
$5.00Widely acknowledged to be a modern classic. The Orthodox bishop asks us to recognize our poverty before God and to see all that we have is a sign of love, then pray spontaneously, recite the Jesus Prayer, and rewrite meaningful Biblical prayers and psalms.
Add to cart1 in stock
-
Prayer In The Digital Age
$3.00The digital age is an age of information overload. In this noisy, technology-driven world, full of important news and urgent messages, spending silent time in prayer can seem impossible.
In his second book, Matt Swaim brings to light the obstacles to prayer inherent in our digitally-connected culture and explores both the challenges and benefits of living a Christian life in the 21st century. Drawing on the spiritual wisdom of such masters as St. Ignatius of Loyola, St. Therese of Lisieux, and Venerable Pope John Paul II, Swaim provides practical suggestions for learning how to “unplug” and incorporate prayer into one’s daily life.
Delve into how technology truly affects our faith:
In a culture suffering from information overload, what’s the difference between knowing facts about God and actually knowing God?
How does our desire to be entertained interfere with knowing God as He really is, rather than just as we want to perceive Him?
What are the distinctions between employing media and information as tools to aid evangelization and spiritual growth while avoiding a purely consumer approach to the faith?
How can information overload deaden our ability to listen?Add to cart1 in stock
Reviews
There are no reviews yet.