Ok. So I've had this bugging feel since last Advent. After our successful Lenten journey as an online community last year, I received a couple of emails from some fellow sojourners to pick the project up again for Advent 2009. As you would have it, that didn't quite work out.
But the nagging feeling continued, and stronger this year, as Lent approached. Again, I felt too busy, and decided against re-starting this project again. The feeling did not go off. And after Ash Wednesday Mass today, the prophet Joel's words made it clear that we must do this again.
"‘Now, now – it is the Lord who speaks –
come back to me with all your heart,
fasting, weeping, mourning.’
Sound the trumpet in Zion!
Order a fast,
proclaim a solemn assembly,
call the people together,
summon the community,
assemble the elders,
gather the children,
even the infants at the breast."
- Joel 2:12, 15-16a
So you're officially invited to once again join the community for this period of prayer, fasting and almsgiving.
Last year, we were challenged to go back to basics. This year, we take one step further.
Here's the easi(er) part: Just as we attempted in 2009, we will once again challenge ourselves to take on the three penitential practices of Matthew 6 -
Prayer,
Fasting, and
Almsgiving - along with
Abstinence,
Confession and to commemorate
Holy Thursday.
Here's the tougher parts.
Firstly, as the year's theme suggests, Quadragesigma 2010 will not be only about depriving ourselves of things. It will also include a lot of feasting... on the Word of God! And the challenge will be to read at least 40 chapters of the Bible in the next 40 days - ONE CHAPTER A DAY as a minimum challenge for 'starters'.
Whether you read the Book of Exodus (which has 40 chapters) and reflect on man's journey from salvation to disobedience, or the Gospels of Mark and Luke (which have a total of 40 chapters) and reflect on the life of Christ or Paul's letters from Titus to Galatians (which have approximately 40 chapters) and reflect on Paul's evangelistic efforts, IT DOESN'T MATTER.
You may share your thoughts on each chapter via
email and it will be posted here and on our
Facebook page.
The second new challenge for 2010, especially for friends who participated in last year's journey, is to invite a friend to our journey this year.
In addition, we will be posting up readings as regularly as possible. Read them, think about them. And share with us anything you picked up too by
emailing the link to us.
Most importantly, please, above all this, let us all approach this with sincerity of heart and full intention to try our best to become better children of our loving Father.
"Let your hearts be broken, not your garments torn" (Joel 2: 13); may our exterior words and actions be merely a reflection of our interior conversion.
So here we go. Lent has started. Let our journey together begin all over again. God be with you and bless you richly!
Ok. So I've had this bugging feel since last Advent. After our successful Lenten journey as an online community last year, I received a couple of emails from some fellow sojourners to pick the project up again for Advent 2009. As you would have it, that didn't quite work out.
