Lent

Well this is a long overdue post...

Thursday morning after Ash Wednesday Jim and I flew to Texas to attend a retreat for ministers to artist (yes, without children! And, no neither of us are technically ministers to artists, but combining art, imagination and theology is just our thing.)  We got back and got settled just in time for spring break, which was devoted to a big project we've been dreaming of for years (I'll share later this week, I promise!)  And in the midst of all of this Lent has seemed scattered and difficult to bring into focus.

That said, there are a few Lenten activities that have been progressing and reminding us daily (even if they aren't always practiced daily) that we are in these lenten forty days.

Jim and I have been enjoying Walter Wangrein Jr.'s book Reliving the Passion.  The book follows the passion narrative with a reading each day of lent.  I am behind and have been reading in spurts, but it is a wonderful book that invites one to imaginatively enter the passion.

A lenten tree: the idea was to add a leaf a day through lent as we read through Mark's gospel.  But, this has ended up being in spurts too.  We just aren't finding a rhythm right now that works regularly for these readings.  We've traditionally gone through the life of Christ in Lent, but I think I want to attempt to do the Life of Christ next year during Epiphany and then spend the forty days of Lent focusing on the passion (the above Walter Wangrein Jr. book is inspiring me).
I'm hoping to add flowers and maybe eggs to the tree on Resurrection Day.

I've been trying to keep some purple on the table.  (This photo was taken a couple weeks ago, thus St. Patrick and his boat are there as well.)