My Sunday school class has hit the "pause" button on our study of First Corinthians and is spending Lent on Richard J. Foster's classic Celebration of Discipline. I have had this wonderful and very readable book on my shelf, along with the study guide for it, for years, but have never discussed it with a group.
Because there are only five Sundays in Lent, we are fairly galloping through the book, getting a quick introduction to the various disciplines. The church is also sponsoring a Lenten Centering Prayer group, allowing some of us to sample this discipline in community.
Following the image above, I like to think of the spiritual disciplines as vessels that prepare us to ride the wave of God's amazing love and presence in a new way.
For today's Friday Five, please share with us five spiritual practices or disciplines from your experience. They can be ones that you have tried and kept up with, tried and NOT kept up with, ones that you flirt with at various times, or even practices that you have tried and found are definitely NOT your cup of tea. Let us know what's worked for you...and not.
Prayer: I pray by writing names on scraps of paper...by putting my hand on the computer monitor and praying when a request comes in through e-mail...by listening to birds at the pond near my house. I am trying the Centering prayer technique too, trying to sit for 10 minutes each morning.
Solitude: As an introvert, this is very natural to me; however, I have to watch that I don't immediately fill my solitary time with jabber...even worthy things like reading, NPR, etc.
Fasting: I can't fast from food. As a person with a history of disordered eating, I determined many years ago that food is something I don't need to jack around with. There are lots of other ways of fasting.
Study: For Lent, I'm studying a book called 40-day Journey with Dietrich Bonhoeffer. It's the Diocese of Georgia's 1Book, 1 Diocese selection for Lenten study. I'm doing this with my friend Cathy and it's been a rich exploration. I'm also reading the Eric Metaxas bio of Bonhoeffer on the side.
Simplicity: Especially since coming home from the RevGals BE, I seem to be consumed with the need to cull and simplify the THINGS in my home. I tend to be a pack rat...Many years ago I had a house fire, and when I went to the recovery company to sort through some books, they were SHOCKED that I was 30 years old. They had been thinking of me, based upon my possessions, as an old, old lady. Well, I did have the detritus of several households of deceased relatives...who had been old ladies...but it showed me that I had a lot of old weird stuff that was not serving me well. I don't want that, either now or when I AM an old, old lady. Time to start! As I do the culling, I say to myself, "More room for the Spirit to move."
(I'm not sure why the Spirit would want to be in my clothes closet, but anyway...)
