Resources for Lent
By Chris Pan, Executive Director
As we continue on during this season of Lent, a season of reflection and preparation for Easter, here’s a quote I recently came across from author and spiritual director Ruth Haley Barton:
“There comes a time in the spiritual life when one of the major things God is up to is to lovingly help us see ourselves more clearly. This is a time when we are called to wake up to the darkness within and invite the light of God’s presence to shine there. Just as winter and spring—light and darkness—seem to be fighting for dominance during this season of the earth, Lent is a spiritual season for seeing, naming and confessing our own darkness until eventually it gives way to God’s marvelous light.”
When I preached on February 28, 2021, I briefly mentioned three apps that I have found helpful as I continue to grow in my spiritual life. I find these apps helpful because they create space for me and provide some guidance and structure to my times of prayer and reflection. I tend to have a mind that races (and a mouth that races too!), so being able to sit quietly and be guided in prayer and reflection is helpful for me. During the formless days of the pandemic, I’ve been trying to pause three times a day to pray to lend some more structure and peace to my days. The apps below help me with this baby monastic schedule: morning, mid-day, and night, just for anywhere between 1 to 10 minutes. The apps are on my phone, which makes it easy to pause, since my phone is usually always on me.
I’ve always really enjoyed Pray As You Go and have mentioned it previously. Pray As You Go is 10-minute or so time of music, Scripture reading, and questions for reflection. I’ve used it for a few years now. (For Apple devices, download Pray As You Go here. For Android, download it here.)
2) LECTIO 365
More recently, I’ve also been using Lectio 365. It’s a project that Pete Grieg is involved with. Pete is a friend of our church and the author of a number of books on prayer. Lectio 365 has a daily 10-minute guided time to P.R.A.Y. –– Pause to be still. Rejoice with a Psalm and Reflect on Scripture. Ask for God’s help. Yield to God’s will in your life. (For Apple devices, download Lectio 365 here. For Android, download it here.)
The final app I’ve been using is One Minute Pause. This is the simplest and quickest app. It’s does exactly what it says – a one-minute pause in your day to refocus in prayer and in the presence of God. There are options for a one-minute, three-minute, five-minute, or ten-minute pause. Pausing for just a few minutes is so simple, but sometimes it’s the most helpful to refocus during my day. (For Apple devices, download One Minute Pause here. For Android, download it here.)
I hope some of these resources help you like they have helped me. Here are final verses to meditate on today:
Psalm 139: 1-3 You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; You perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; You are familiar with all my ways. I count them my enemies.
Psalm 139:23-24 Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
Prayer: Search me, Lord. You know me. Help me to see myself more clearly. I invite the light of Your presence to shine in me. I yield to you. In Jesus name, Amen. here
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