We do not know how to pray, but the Spirit itself prays within us.
- Romans 8:26
- Romans 8:26
WEDNESDAY LENTEN STUDY 2022: Time for Care
Wondering, Wandering, and Weaving-Our-Way with Y-H-W-H
Seasons of Spiritual Growth: Let Go! Let In! Get It! Grow Up!
Led by Dale Francis Trunk, M.Div.
Five Wednesday Evenings: March 9 – April 6 6:30 pm – Evensong 7:00 – 8:30 pm Presentation and Discussion Importance attendance information. Please click here to register on Zoom. You will then be sent a link for the meetings. In this discussion series (no readings required or suggested) we will explore four seasons of spiritual growth: “Let Go! Let In! Get It! Grow Up!” We change; things are taken away; things fall apart. We find help to keep going. Our brokenness is redeemed. We find home within and join others in the seasons of their Journeys. Some ancient descriptions of spiritual growth adapted by early Christians denigrate God’s Creation. Being human is seen as a condition from which to escape. Another approach sees Creation as God’s work of love. God is already with us. We don’t need a spiritual escape hatch. “Lent” means “springtime”. It invites us to metanoia - seeing things in a new way through cycles of life-death-resurrection. Lent can become a negative practice of “holy” misery. Positive Lenten practices can increase our spiritual vitality and yield good fruits. How are we finding our way during this third Lent of Covidtide? |
Dale is a parishioner at St. Paul’s. Here’s what he says about himself. “By the age of five, three key aspects of my soul were unfolding: a Franciscan spirit, delight in horticulture, and being a gay foreigner in a straight world. After high school, I became a Franciscan friar. I was awarded a Master of Divinity from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley; felt my heart open during two summers of Spanish immersion in Mexico City; completed two years of spirituality studies at the Franciscan and Jesuit universities in Rome; fulfilled one year of Clinical Pastoral Education at UCSF Medical Center; and graduated from the Spiritual Directors Institute at Mercy Center in Burlingame. My pastoral experiences as a friar included: hospital chaplaincy, teaching, preaching, spiritual direction, and parish ministry. After 25 years as a friar, burnout, and the need to come out, guided me to leave the Order. I got hired as a flight attendant, which I valued as a ministry among stressed pilgrims. After 22 years, I lost that job to Covid. This led me to grow my ministries of horticulture, spiritual direction, preaching and teaching. One of my main schools of spirituality is living with my partner, John, and our guide dog, Joelle.” You may get in touch with Dale at [email protected].
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LENT SCHEDULEAsh Wednesday, March 2
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Lenten Morning Prayer, Tuesdays on Zoom
Tuesday Mornings at 10 am through Lent
March 8, 15, 22, 29 & April 5, 12 Some folks give something up for Lent. I rather like the idea of adding something very intentional, like a spiritual practice. Adding Morning Prayer is a wonderful way to worship and pray with others, from wherever you are. Please join us for this lay-led service that takes about 20 minutes. We will use the BCP Contemporary Morning Prayer, with penitential Lenten language and the readings for the particular day. If you'd like to see what we're going to be reading, follow this link: https://www.lectionarypage.net/ I will be using Powerpoint to share the Order of Worship & readings, and will also make a downloadable .PDF available each week. For Zoom info, please reach out to [email protected] The Season of Lent
In the season of Lent, we enter into the 40-day fast that Jesus undertook in the wilderness. Through this dedicated period of prayer and self-examination we invite, we open ourselves to God - to allow him to further shape us into the image of Christ. Moving ever closer toward Holy Week and the event of the crucifixion, we surrender our hearts to God to better know Christ's suffering, his surrender and his ultimate sacrifice, for our sake.
The season begins with Ash Wednesday, when we receive the imposition of ashes and are reminded we are but dust and to dust we shall return. During this season, we observe chosen forms of fasting, prayer, service or charity for 40 days, except Sundays, which are considered feast days, year-round. Figuring out how to keep a holy Lent can be a challenge, but if we move beyond the popular conceptions (and misconceptions), Lent holds the possibility for real change — or to use the church’s word, conversion — in our lives, as well as for rich and lasting spiritual growth. Lent emerged in our history as a season of final preparation for those who would be baptized at the Great Vigil of Easter. The entire Christian community was highly invested in walking alongside those who were about to commit their lives to Christ. In time, the season took on some extra layers of meaning, and many people now associate it with listening for a deeper awareness of our own failings — how we fall short of the ideals God sets before us — and the need for ongoing repentance and amendment of life. In Lent we step back and consider the ways we need to repent, to turn around — to be converted. The word “lent” comes from the Anglo-Saxon word lencton, referring to the springtime of the year when the days grow longer and warmer and brighter. Lent, then, is an opportunity to deepen our spiritual practice and accountability in preparation for the renewal of spirit and life, through Christ our Lord, that is to come. How are we living Christ’s teaching and example in our own lives, in our homes, our churches, our cities, our schools, our places of work? In what ways have we fallen short, grown stagnant or cold-hearted, or failed to love God by embracing each life as a Divine life, whenever and however we encounter it? And finally, once we have taken sober and truthful stock of our current spiritual life, we ask with a clear heart: What growth or signs of renewal in our life, in the world, can we whole-heartedly celebrate with gratitude and joy? These are the kinds of questions we ask ourselves in prayer, in meditation, in quiet reflection during the weeks of Lent. SOURCES Daily Prayer for All Seasons - The Episcopal Church’s abbreviated BCP (free download) https://www.episcopalchurch.org/library/document/daily-prayer-all-seasons Sacred Ordinary Days - by Jenn Giles Kemper https://sacredordinarydays.com/ 
Take a walk in St. Paul's natural garden Labyrinth.
I am not long for this world. I am passing through, holding on to nothing, grateful for everything.
- Jacques-Benigne Bossuet, Meditations for Lent Open Thy fount, eternal Dove,
And overflow this heart of mine, Enlarging as it fills with Thee, Till in one blaze of charity Care and remorse are lost, like motes in light divine. - John Keble (1792-1866) Let our journey be a perpetual one. Let us die to the world daily.
Let us say with the apostle, “I die every day.” - 1 Cor 15:31 |
SUNDAY APRIL 17
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CHRIST IS RISEN! Join the Celebration!
8:00 a.m. Holy Eucharist, in-person & streamed Watch the stream on our Facebook Group page HERE 10:00 a.m. Festival Easter Eucharist, in-person & streamed Watch the stream on our Facebook Group page HERE Anthems: This Joyful Eastertide, Dutch carol, arr. by Philip Ledger; Most glorious Lord of life, by William Harris. With St. Paul's Choir. Mark Bruce, Choir Director and Organist. Children's Easter Egg Hunt and catered Easter brunch will follow the service. Watch the stream on our Facebook Group page HERE |
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St. Paul's Easter on Montecito Avenue, April 4, 2021