By Janet Davis
Next In-person walk: Wednesday, March 5, 2 p.m.
Covenant Presbyterian Church back parking, 2222 at Mo-Pac, Austin
Walk in: Losing our Lives by Redefining Repentance
Labyrinths are a great place to “repent “ because you are always “making a turn to go in a new direction”… an embodied experience of the root meaning of repentance!
Women’s Confession
We have followed too little
the devices and desires
of our own hearts.
We have abandoned ourselves
to the disservice of others.
We have not included ourselves
in the quest for justice and joy.
We hold ourselves responsible
for saying the debilitating Yes
again and again without restraint.
We hold ourselves responsible
for not saying the life-giving No
time after time.
May all this and more be amended.
Amen.
By Alla Renée Bozarth
From Accidental Wisdom, iUniverse 2003. All Rights Reserved.
Questions
What are some of the devices and desires of your own heart that have been left along the way?
In what ways have you abandoned yourself to the DISSERVICE of others, all the while believing that you were serving them well?
Which of these patterns are you ready to release and leave as you enter today?
Center: Meeting the Holy One By Being Marked by Dirt
Blessing the Dust
A blessing for Ash Wednesday
All those days
you felt like du st,
like dirt,
as if all you had to do
was turn your face
toward the wind
and be scattered
to the four corners
or swept away
by the smallest breath
as insubstantial—
Did you not know
what the Holy One
can do with dust?
This is the day
we freely say
we are scorched.
This is the hour
we are marked
by what has made it
through the burning.
This is the moment
we ask for the blessing
that lives within
the ancient ashes,
that makes its home
inside the soil of
this sacred earth.
So let us be marked
not for sorrow.
And let us be marked
not for shame.
Let us be marked
not for false humility
or for thinking
we are less
than we are
but for claiming
what God can do
within the dust,
within the dirt,
within the stuff
of which the world
is made,
and the stars that blaze
in our bones,
and the galaxies that spiral
inside the smudge
we bear.
Questions
Ashes/dirt/dust can be imposed here by self or others or received at a different moment in the day. Speak/review the highlighted stanza during imposition.
How is receiving this “mark” while claiming what God can do with dust different from how you usually observe Ash Wednesday?
Walk out: Saving Our Lives Through the Journey of a Holy Lent
Passover Remembered
Pack nothing.
Bring only your determination to serve and your
willingness to be free.
Don’t wait for the bread to rise. Take nourishment for
the journey, but eat standing, be ready
to move at a moment’s notice.
Do not hesitate to leave your old ways behind—fear,
silence, submission.
Only surrender to the need of the time—to love justice
and walk humbly with your God….
By Alla Renée Bozarth
From Womanpriest: A Personal Odyssey, revised edition, LuraMedia and Wisdom House 1988; All rights reserved.
Questions
Are you willing to be free? Is there a place where staying enslaved feels safer or preferred?
What “baggage” do you need to leave here this day, before you begin the Lenten journey? From what do you need to turn? Fear? Silence? Submission?
What practices this Lent might open you to being ready to “move at a moment’s notice?”
Who will you be by Easter?