We start the season of Lent with reminders that holy can be found in many places.
Connected by Mortality by Lora Brandis
Heaven Broken Open by Jami A. Yandle
UU Lent 2021 – Day 1 – Holy
Braver wiser
Healing Through Collective Power
Podcast hosted by adrienne maree brown – Trauma, Healing & Collective Power with Spenta Kandawalla, Prentis Hemphill and Staci K. Haines
From Broken Parts, Whole, Karen G. Johnston
“Grief is praise of those we have lost. Our own souls who have loved and are now heartbroken would turn to stone and hate us if we did not show such praise when we lose whom we love. A nonfake grieving is how we praise the dead, by praising that which has left us feeling cold and left behind. By the event of our uncontrolled grief, wail, and rap, we are also simultaneously praising with all our hearts the life we have been awarded to live, the life that gave us the health and opportunity of having lived fully enough to love deep enough to feel the loss we now grieve. To not grieve is a violence to the Divine and our own hearts and especially to the dead. If we do not grieve what we miss, we are not praising what we love. We are not praising the life we have been given in order to love. If we do not praise whom we miss, we are ourselves in some way dead. So grief and praise make us alive.” – Martin Pretchel
UU Lent 2020 – Day 41 – Bloom
You are built not to shrink down to less but to blossom into more. – Oprah Winfrey
The bloom may be brief but the memory of its beauty will last a lifetime. – Doe Zantamata
Bloom as if you want to make the whole world beautiful. – Debasish Mridha
Flower Communion Blessing by Amy Zucker Morgenstern
Holding Space for Truth to Bloom by Lisa Bovee-Kemper
UU Lent 2020 – Day 36 – Confession
According to the dictionary confession means: 1) a formal statement admitting that one is guilty of a crime, 2) an admission or acknowledgment that one has done something that one is ashamed or embarrassed about, 3) intimate revelations about a person’s private life or occupation, especially as presented in a sensationalized form in a book, newspaper, or movie, and 4) a statement of one’s principles.
Confessing Communities by Robin Tanner
UU Lent 2020 – Day 22 – Remorse
The dictionary defines remorse as 1) deep and painful regret for wrongdoing and 2) a gnawing distress arising from a sense of guilt for past wrongs. Remorse also has an obsolete definition of compassion, which I found just interesting enough to share.
The Growing Season by Teresa Honey Youngblood
UU Lent – Day 17 – Doubt
“The freedom to doubt, to question, to be content to live in Mystery is central to the liberal religious tradition. Like the process of evolution itself, the path that we follow—our practice—is not easy or simple. It isn’t without its dead ends or its disappointments. It doesn’t guarantee that all of our conclusions will be final or that we will ever find an answer to all of our questions. But also like the process of evolution, it is filled with great expressions of beauty and awe that are sometimes born of great struggle and at other times come as unexpected grace.” – Paul Stephan Dodenhoff
Making Space for our Doubts by Becky Brooks
UU Lent 2020 – Day 11 – Play
“Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning. But for children play is serious learning. Play is really the work of childhood.” – Mr. Fred Rogers
Blessed are the Magic Makers by Teresa Honey Youngblood
UU Lent 2020 – Day 5 – Sanctuary
🎶Make us aware we are a sanctuary Each made holy loved right through
with thanksgiving we’ll be a living
sanctuary a-new 🎶
The dictionary defines sanctuary as a place of refuge or safety.
The reflection That They May Have Like-Mindedness by DeReau K. Farrar talks about what brings us together and keeps us alive. The prayer at the end is powerful:
“That which is in us and all around us and which constantly draws us to our holiest selves, commit my heart to the call of making life more abundant — for myself as fiercely as for others. Drive me away from comfort that excludes, hates, or divides. And remind me every day that I am not the end of knowing. Amen.”
UU Lent 2020 – Day 4 – Passion
“You have to be burning with an idea, or a problem, or a wrong that you want to right. If you’re not passionate enough from the start, you’ll never stick it out.” – Steve Jobs
“Yes, in all my research, the greatest leaders looked inward and were able to tell a good story with authenticity and passion.” – Deepak Chopra
Both the Burning and the Light by Rev. Sean Parker Dennison
UU Lent 2020 – Day 3 – Risk
The dictionary defines risk as possibility of loss or injury : PERIL
Yuri Yamamoto discusses risk in the reflection Angry Birds, which is not about the video game.
I chose this song for Risk because it was such a risk to create and produce.
