Lenten Reflection Day 25 (Mar 18): THIRST (from John 4:5-42).
SONG: All Who Are Thirsty by Vineyard Music: https://youtu.be/K71EYID22l4
POEM: Jane Hirshfield: A Well Runs Out of Thirst (excerpt): A well runs out of thirst the way time runs out of a week, the way a country runs out of its alphabet or a tree runs out of its height … A person comes into the kitchen to dry the hands, the face, to stand on the lip of a question.
QUOTE: Rev Dr Martin Luther King Jr.: Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.
Lenten Reflection Day 24 (Mar 17): HOUR IS COMING (from John 4:5-42).
SONG: Jesus Is Coming Back by Jordan Feliz: https://youtu.be/pPo4wuQolTQ
POEM: Charlotte Perkins Gilman: Coming (excerpt): Because the time is ripe, the age is ready, Because the world her woman’s help demands, Out of the long subjection and seclusion, Come to our field of warfare and confusion, The mother’s heart and hands.
QUOTE: Winston Churchill: To each there comes in their lifetime a special moment when they are figuratively tapped on the shoulder and offered the chance to do a very special thing, unique to them and fitted to their talents. What a tragedy if that moment finds them unprepared or unqualified for that which could have been their finest hour.
Lenten Reflection Day 23 (Mar 16): BELIEVE (from John 4:5-42).
SONG: Believer by Imagine Dragons: https://youtu.be/7wtfhZwyrcc
POEM: Mahogany L. Browne: Country of Water (excerpt): I know who I am because I believe it / The breath in my chest / Insistent in its choice / The skin that I’m in / The bones and blood and veins / It carries like a promise
QUOTE: Anne Frank: It’s really a wonder that I haven’t dropped all my ideals, because they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out. Yet I keep them, because in spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.
Lenten Reflection Day 22 (Mar 15): GIVE (from John 4:5-42).
SONG: Give by LeAnn Rimes: https://youtu.be/vALhBgHC_FE
POEM: Kahlil Gibran: On Giving (excerpt): Then said a rich man, Speak to us of Giving. And he answered: You give but little when you give of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give… And there are those who have little and give it all. These are the believers in life and the bounty of life, and their coffer is never empty. There are those who give with joy, and that joy is their reward.And there are those who give with pain, and that pain is their baptism.And there are those who give and know not pain in giving, nor do they seek joy, nor give with mindfulness of virtue; They give as in yonder valley the myrtle breathes its fragrance into space.Through the hands of such as these God speaks, and from behind their eyes. He smiles upon the earth.
QUOTE: CS Lewis: To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.
Lenten Reflection Day 21 (Mar 14): DRINK (from John 4:5-42).
SONG: Drink Water by The FeelBetterMinnesota: https://youtu.be/3MZK5eRv7L0
POEM: Laura Cronk: Thirst (excerpt): I’m pouring water from cup to cup. This is the water we are meant to drink with the other animals. There are daffodils by the water, a road leading from the water to the shining crown of the sun.
QUOTE: Rumi: So come! Drink! Return to the root of the root of your own soul.