The 8th Day Inward Journey Mission Group invites you to its Lenten Series: Create in Me a Clean Heart. We will meet on ZOOM. 

When: Wednesdays: March 1 – April 5, 2023  Links to individual sessions will be below as they become available. 

Time and Duration: 7 - 8:15 p.m.

We invite participants to share in reading sections of the litany and scriptures and to share their reflections on a question or questions related to the key scripture for the session.  Reminders for each session and scripture passages and questions will be sent out to the listserv on Mondays.  Music and visuals will help to move us through the litany. Feel free to pass along the invitation to others.

Session Topics will be:
     1. Tempted
     2. Born From Above
     3. Living Water
     4. That We May Believe
     5. Can These Bones Live?
     6.The Human Jesus

INTRODUCTION

We study the world in its reality—its temptations, its shadows, its betrayals.

Lent is a solemn religious observance in the Christian liturgical calendar commemorating the 40 days Jesus spent fasting in the desert and enduring the temptation by Satan before Jesus began his public ministry as recorded in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke.

    "The season of Lent begins on Ash Wednesday. Vestiges of the early church’s experience of public penance still exist in the ceremony of ashes placed on the foreheads of penitents and the remonstrance: ‘Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return.’ The weeks that followed were a time of reflection, self-scrutiny and preparation for reincorporation into the community from which one was estranged . . . For us, where public penance is not so common, Lent may provide a time for community and individual preparation for following Jesus on the most difficult of paths, the path of self-sacrificing love.

     Vestiges of other ancient traditions are present in Lent as well. The gospels were used to give the final instructions to the catechumens as they prepared to be baptized into the church at the Easter vigil on the Saturday night before Easter morning. The stories in John of the man born blind, the Samaritan woman, and the raising of Lazarus challenge us to engage essential questions of faith in and of Jesus—in who he is, and how one comes to faith in him.

     All of Lent leads to Holy Week, the week in which Jesus enters Jerusalem and faces death. It begins on Palm Sunday with the triumphal entrance of Jesus into the city, acclaimed as its ruler. The stories of Holy Week proceed through the poignance of the Last Supper with his friends in which he charges them with the ministry of service and is betrayed by one of his own. Finally, witnessing his death on the cross, the followers of Jesus are confronted by the stark reality of the cost of discipleship. Embracing our humanity, Jesus embraced both our life and our death.

     Today, Lent is a time of intensive preparation for us all. We study the world in its reality—its temptations, shadows and betrayals. We fast and pray and engage in spiritual preparation to follow Jesus faithfully to the end. We open ourselves to Jesus’ love; we try to live up to it.

The link for each session is below.

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/5320553902
Meeting ID: 532 055 3902

On your smartphone:
+19292056099,,5320553902# US (New York)
+13017158592,,5320553902# US (Germantown)
On your regular phone:
        +1 929 205 6099 US (New York)
        +1 301 715 8592 US (Germantown)
        +1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
        +1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)
        +1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
        +1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)

Meeting ID: 532 055 3902