A Lenten Fast to Live By, Lent study 2024, week 1
Much of the contents of this page are taken directly from A Different kind of Fast. We are aware that the first printing of the book has sold out, and the second printing is not yet available. Some of our participants do not have the book. Therefore we are covering more than usual on this page that is directly from the book.
Overview of Week 1
In the first full week of our Lenten study, author Christine Valters Paintner says that we tend to think that multi-tasking will make us more efficient and productive. But checking things off our to-do lists doesn’t leave us nourished or satisfied.
Paintner recalls that 1,500 years ago, St Benedict wrote that we are called to always be beginners in the spiritual life and that the desert is often understood as a place of new beginnings.
For the desert mothers and fathers, the monastic cell – the cave or hut where they lived – was a central concept in their spirituality because the outer cell served as a metaphor for the inner cell. The inner cell is that place where we find interior freedom. The inner cell is also where we “cultivate patience and learn to stay with whatever is happening,” says Paintner.
This is similar to the Benedictine concept of stability that calls us to not run away when things become challenging. “Stability demands that we stay with difficult experiences and stay present to the discomfort they create in us,” says Paintner. We can see the cell as the opposite of rushed attention, of trying to get as much done as possible. For when we try to accomplish too many things at once, we are not present for anything.
When we try to accomplish too many things at once, we are not present for anything.
In our cell, says Paintner, we are called to full presence to our inner life. When we become conscious of our methods of distraction, we can learn to bring a loving gaze to our outer tasks.
Paintner goes on to introduce the concept of beholding. To behold, she says, means to hold something in your gaze. “To behold is to meet the subject of your gaze with love.” But we can’t multitask and behold at the same time.
When we rush through life, says Paintner, “we miss the moments that spark wonder. When we miss wonder, life can start to feel shallow and without meaning or beauty.”
In this first week of Lent, we are invited to fast from distraction and multitasking and embrace the practice of attention and beholding, creating space to see things differently. “In this open space,” says Paintner, “you may discover a hunger to behold life as it is.”
Practices for Week 1
Lectio divina
Read the story about the woman coming to Jesus while he was at table and pouring oil on his head (Matthew 26: 6-13) using lectio divina as explained in the course content page.
Breath prayer
Our breath helps to anchor us in the present. It offers us a way to focus our often-distracted minds. See more about breath prayer in the course contents page.
This week
Breathe in: Fully here
Breathe out: Fully now
Visio divina
If you have the book A Different Kind of Fast, apply visio divina to the art that opens the chapter on page 88. Or use a piece of art that particularly resonates with you.
Meditation with the Desert Elders
Using the form of meditation explained in the course contents page, spend time with this saying:
Amma Syncletica said, “There are many who live in the mountains and behave as if they were in town, and they are wasting their time. It is possible to be a solitary in one’s mind while living in a crowd, and it is possible for one who is a solitary to live in the crowd of his own thoughts. (Syncletica 19).
Contemplative Walk
As you walk, be present to how nature is unfolding before you, moment by moment. What does your intuition tell you about what is being revealed or offered?
Imaginative Prayer.
Reading the story about the woman who poured oil on Jesus’ head again – Matthew 26:6-13 – let yourself enter the scene with all of your senses engaged. What do you see, taste, smell, hear, and feel? What is your reaction to the ones who thought the money was wasted on the oil?
Ritual for the Senses
For this season of Lent, the author invites us to create a simple altar space “as a material marker for the season and our intentions.” This space could be a windowsill or small table, or even the corner of a desk. It is a space where we intend to show up each day as we embrace our prayer practices and actions this Lent. It can be as simple as a special candle or even a bowl which you might fill with symbols throughout the season.
For the first week of our study, you are invited to focus on the senses of sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch. What items might you find on your contemplative walk or in your home to serve as symbols of your senses and how they will serve you during this Lenten season?
For your reflection
Ash Wednesday
- When you consider your mortality, some things naturally surface as important. What do you observe becoming essential in your life?
- When you imagine setting these things aside for a time, what images come to fill that open space?
- In addition to adopting a different kind of fast that this study will cover, consider also selecting a fast from something physical in the traditional Lenten manner. What will you choose for this sacred season? Why is this your choice?
Reflections for week 1
- Thinking about your routine day, identify where you most often move into multitasking mode. Do you talk on the phone while unloading the dishwasher or folding the laundry? Read a book while watching television? Text while driving? How are you robbing both of the tasks of your full attention?
- Ask yourself, When in your own life have you met with lavish abundance the way Jesus was with the woman who anointed him with oil? How might you meet others in this way?
- What kind of boundaries on certain activities and distractions might you need to set in your life to give yourself the gift of presence?
- When you look at your patterns of over-doing and over-commitment, what do you discover beneath those? What are they helping to distract you from?
- As you find yourself in conversations this week, be aware of any tendency to want to rush through it to get on with other demands on your time. Look the person who is speaking in the face, listen intently, see if anything is being asked of you and decide if you want to respond.
The Wisdom Years 