Introduction and Overview of the study.
In the introduction to A Different Kind of Fast, author Christine Valters Paintner starts by asking, “What is it you hunger for?” Where are the places you are not receiving spiritual nourishment because of patterns and habits that take your time and attention but do not deliver good food for the soul? Maybe it’s television or social media or trying to do too many things at once. Maybe you miss important conversations because you are not fully present to the moment.
Ultimately, says Paintner, fasting is “a paradox of emptying out to be filled, paring back to receive a different kind of feast, one that nourishes our true hungers.” Our fast, she says is an “act of discernment of the habits that keep us from this rich feast available to us.”
Paintner structures her book around seven invitations to fast, beginning with Ash Wednesday. That, she says, is a time of preparation, a time to create the space in which we can listen for our intentions and deep desires of our hearts. Ash Wednesday recalls the practices of the desert mothers and fathers, who, in the fourth century, chose to relinquish all their possessions and live in caves and huts in the deserts of Egypt, Syria, and Palestine. The desert, says Paintner, is a place to “strip away distractions and focus on essentials – life and survival.” The desert is a place that helps us face up to ourselves and to the temptations in life that distract us from a “wide-hearted focus on the presence of the sacred in the world.”
Death was also on the minds of the desert mothers and fathers. In the monastic tradition, says Paintner, death is a friend and companion along the journey. Death teaches us not only to cherish our moments, it helps us let go of what burdens us – whether thoughts or actions or possessions.
We invite you to read and engage with the book’s entries on Ash Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday in the first three days of Lent on your own.
The invitations to fast
We will begin our study with the first full week of Lent as we are invited to fast from multitasking and inattentiveness. “We bemoan not having more hours in the day,” writes Paintner, “but in the hours we do have our attention is scattered, and we’re always trying to keep up.”
Instead we are encouraged to behold each thing, person, and moment as we respond to the hunger for presence.
In week 2 we are encouraged to fast from anxiety and “the endless torrent of thoughts that continually rise up in our minds and paralyze us with fear of the future. “ Instead we will enter into “the radical trust” in abundance at the heart of things. We will learn to listen to the hunger for contentment in the moment and “cultivate hope in the fullness of life.”
In week 3, we will fast from speed and rushing through life. “Our culture worships productivity,” says Paintner, “and in its pursuit many of us are depleted from exhaustion and hunger for slowness.”
Week 4 focuses on fasting from being strong and always trying to hold it all together. We will be invited to embrace “the profound grace that comes through vulnerability and tenderness.” We will explore what it’s like to reveal our woundedness and have it seen by another with love.
Week 5 is for the list-makers among us. We will fast from holding deadlines in front of us always. We will listen for the ripening and unfolding that is ready to be born in us. We will learn to release our own plans and all that overwhelms us.
In week 6 we are invited to fast from certainty and attempting to control the outcome of things. We will discover trust in the great mystery of life. We will practice welcoming the beauty of the unknown and be nourished by new possibilities.
Practices
To assist us in engaging the invitations set before us, each week of Lent Paintner offers daily practices. There are seven for the seven days in each week.
(The explanations of each practice are excerpted from the book, pages 36-62.)
Lectio Divina
Lectio Divina means sacred reading. It is an ancient practice of listening deeply to the voice of God shimmering in sacred texts. The invitation of lectio divina is to cultivate intimacy with the text that is different from reading for learning and interpretive reasoning . Lectio divina is not about acquiring head knowledge, but about a profound encounter with the heart of God.
This way of reading uses four readings of the text, sometimes called movements.
First read the selected text through once or twice slowly. Listen for a word or phrase that feels significant right now and is capturing your attention, even if you don’t know why.
Read the text again and allow the word or phrase you focused on to spark your imagination. Notice what smell, sounds, tastes, feelings, and memories are evoked.
Read the text a third time and listen for an invitation rising up. What is the invitation? It may be a summons toward a new awareness or action.
Rest in an awareness of the sacred and allow you heart to fill with gratitude for God’s presence with you. Rest here for several minutes. Then bring your awareness back to your surroundings. If you wish, journal about your experience.
Breath prayer
In this practice we repeat a short prayer on the breath inhale and another on the exhale. Breath prayers are meant to be gateways into the here and now. Breath not only sustains our bodies, it also brings us into communion with the sacred presence in all things. For instance, one might say
On the inhale: Lord Jesus Christ
On the Exhale: Have mercy on me.
The point of breath prayer is not to say the prayer perfectly but to let the words open your heart to a deeper intention in daily living.
Visio Divina
Visio Divina is similar to lectio divina but is a way to pray visually with art. Looking at the piece you will use, close your eyes and ask for the ability to see deeply below the surface of things. Do this for several breaths as you rest.
Open your eyes and gaze upon the art softly. Move your eyes over the image and notice if there is some place that stirs energy for you. Begin to open your imagination to memories and other images that stir in you in response.
Listen for how you are being invited in this moment. Where in your life are you being called to bring more color, more mystery, to explore what the artwork of your life wants you to discover.
Close your eyes and sink into stillness, slowing your breath and resting for several minutes.
Meditations with the Desert Elders
The desert mothers and fathers – the ammas and abbas – fled from cities when Constantine became emperor of Rome and declared Christians would no longer be persecuted. They gave up all their possessions and moved into huts and cells in the desert, where they dedicated their lives to the ongoing awareness of the divine. Others frequently came out to them to ask for “a word” of wisdom. Their teachings were left behind in the form of “sayings” and short stories that were not always logical but that invited people to rest in paradox. We are invited to translate these sayings and stories in our own context.
Each week in our study, our book will offer words from the desert mothers and fathers to be prayed with and meditated upon.
Contemplative Walking
A contemplative walk is one in which one’s focus while walking is on being present to each moment’s invitation as it unfolds. There are no steps to count, no destination in mind.
Begin the walk by breathing deeply and bringing your awareness to your heart center. As you walk, stay present to the world as a sacred text. Try to see the world from an attitude of receptivity and openness.
As you walk, pay attention to things around you that “shimmer,” calling for your attention. Spend some time with them. Make space for images, feelings, and memories to stir. Notice how your body responds. How does this shimmering meet you at this particular time in your life?
If you wish, take your phone with a camera with you. See if looking through the camera “lens” changes your perspective.
When you return home, allow some time for silence and stillness.
Imaginative prayer
In this type of prayer, we place ourselves at the scene of a scripture story. We read a scripture text prayerfully then imagine ourselves stepping into the story – seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, and feeling what it is like to be in the scene. We are invited to fill in the spaces and cracks in the story – the back story of the characters, the conversation between persons in the scene that we do not hear from, what those looking on might be thinking.
You can be playful or profound with your imagination. Just dive into the story and see what your imagination reveals.
Rituals
The purpose of rituals is to embody and enact our connection to the holy. Rituals can include words, actions, movements, objects, or song. Lighting a candle before your begin your period of reading and responding can be a ritual. Playing some background music you love while you study is a ritual. Rituals are not performed with a specific outcome in mind, but with an openness to the unfolding gifts each moment offers. Our book will offer different suggested rituals for each week, but you are free to adapt them as you wish or your surroundings dictate.
For each week of the study, Paintner includes some commentary then invites us to engage with a practice for the day. The practices are consistent, thus the first day of the week is always lectio divina, the second day of the week is always breath prayer, day 3 is always visio divina, and so on.
Each week closes with questions for reflection and a closing blessing.
We invite you to bring your own self into this Lenten study. This is not a study of learning and reciting; it is a period of intentionally setting aside time to be in the presence of God and to listen for the voice of the Holy Spirit at work within us.
The Wisdom Years 