Lent: What's Thriving in Your Life?

The garden metaphors grow thickly on the vine in today's video.  Being fairly new to gardening, myself, I was answering the gardening questions first as the Brother was speaking.  And about half way through, I remembered that this was to grow a rule of life, no matter how useful the questions were about the garden.

 There is a great deal that can be read, researched, meditated upon, etc. regarding how one develops a personal Rule of Life for themselves.  SSJE offers a workbook for your contemplation, meditation and prayer, which is free to download.  You can also see the 49 rules which govern the lives of the brothers living under the SSJE monastery, by purchasing their book that discusses each of the rules and how they came into being.  There's a video series on the freedom that one can experience in living under rules that they have created themselves, nurturing and planting, planning and harvesting throughout their lives.  Links to all of these can be found here.

So, taking a page from the workbook for this Lenten season, let's take a look at what we want to be surrounded by in our daily lives.  Some examples:

Be Open. Open yourself up to this process. Invite God fully into each idea and question you may have.

Be Creative. Think outside the box. You may have a unique image of what you want your garden to include.

Be Gentle. Be gentle with yourself. There are no right or wrong answers. This is not a competition.

Be Realistic. Simple and honest answers are far more useful than sweeping, idealistic ones.

Be Patient. This is part of a lifelong process. Give yourself time to develop your ideas along the way.

Be Flexible. Be willing to change and modify your ideas as your life moves through different seasons.

The link above gives a few more examples of what you might want to include for yourself.  Don't forget one of the most important activities Jesus did during His 40 days in the desert - pray.  And in this instance, we're going to use prayer with imagination (can also be found on the SSJE site):  In prayer, imagine yourself in a conversation with Jesus in which you describe to him what it is you value most and how you want to live faithfully in the world. Ask what he values most and how he wants you to live.

As you can see, you've got homework.  Yesterday was fairly simple, an introduction.  Today, you need to think, reflect, pray, and make some decisions.  Feel free to comment on your journey.

Lent: Rhythms in Nature

Nature's rhythm - the topic of today's video from the Society of St. John the Evangelist (SSJE) - is displayed in such a wide variety of forms for us.  The question asked:  How might the rhythms you observe in nature inform the way you live?  My mind immediately jumps to all of the fascinating parallels between nature and science, and nature and math - but those aren't really things that inform the way I live.  They are certainly methods of learning about the world around us, and how things work, but how do nature's rhythms affect my life?

Being female, all girls grow up with the knowledge that their own cycles are affected by the moon; interestingly, boys aren't taught that they, too, have cycles that follow the moon, where they are moodier at a certain phase or more energetic at another (as the mother of a boy, I found it useful to track just when that moody cycle would hit and when I needed to stock up on more complex carbs to keep up).  Fishermen, too, learn how tides are affected by the moon, and when the best times to fish are.

Anyone with a garden learns the cycle of nature, and the best times to plant which crops, how to watch weather patterns to know when to water, when to harvest, when to turn the soil over and let it rest.

Depending on where you live, you learn to prepare for hurricanes, see the signs for tornadoes, smell the rain or snow in the air, watch the animals for warnings of earthquakes.  Watching the animals and how they, as a part of nature, are affected by cycles in weather, birth, death, preparation and procreation.  All around us, the way of nature can determine the direction of our footsteps as we journey through life - knowing that we, too, are a part of nature.

Knowing that God provided nature to us, we have only to listen and be aware of the lessons that literally surround us to learn and shape our own rules for life.  

Lenten Message from the Presiding Bishop

This Lent message from our Presiding Bishop, Michael Curry, talks not only about what Lent is about, but why we as Episcopalians have both the responsibility and the privilege to observe it.

So what we you be doing this Lenten season?  Here's where this blog will be following:

Newsletter from Diocese of Montana

Just a short post today, but with an important link!  The Diocese of Montana's monthly newsletter is full of information for Episcopalians in Montana  Take a look! 

Options for Lent

Lent is coming up so much faster than anticipated this year!  Ash Wednesday is February 10th!

So, according to the Book of Common Prayer, Lent is a season in which all Christians are invited "to the observance of a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God's holy Word" (BCP, p. 265).  Traditionally, Lent is a time when we deny ourselves something that is good to do without (sweets, alcohol, carbs, etc.); we add something into our daily routines that is good for us (reading the Bible, exercising, keeping a journal, etc.); and focusing time that used to be spent on other things on prayer and meditation, studying and growing our spiritual lives into something we would like it to be.

There are many options out there for Episcopals.  Here are a few favorites:

Society of St. John the Evangelist - Growing a Rule of Life:


Walk the Path of Lent - the Episcopal Relief and Developments daily meditations.










The Crucified Life - from the Christian Life Trilogy.

Lent Madness - a fun way to learn about the saints, early church fathers and mothers.

I Am With You - The Archbishop of Canterbury's Lent 2016 readings.

Please feel free to add your own ideas in the comments below!

New Year Update 2016

It has been an eventful new year, even though January's only about two-thirds done.

News for the Episcopal Church at large has included suspension from the Anglican Communion for three years (suspension, Presiding Bishop Curry's response).  As the Presiding Bishop has indicated, we will continue being the American branch of the Jesus Movement and continue working with the Anglican Communion in improving the conditions in the world.

News for Holy Trinity includes scheduling announcements and changes:

Bishop Brookhart will be here this Sunday, January 24, 9:00 a.m. for his annual visit and Eucharist service.

We have our monthly movie night this Saturday, 7:00 p.m.  This month will be the final in the trilogy Revelation Road Trilogy, The Black Rider:

We provide the popcorn, tea and coffee.  If you want anything else, please feel free to bring it.

Holy Trinity's Annual Meeting will be on Sunday, January 31, immediately following the service.  We're asking that you think about projects, workshops, seminars or services that we might be able to provide or participate in to get Holy Trinity's name out into the community and hopefully make people curious enough to want to come check us out.  Each of us have talents to share and things to learn.  Think about it - when's the last time you invited someone to go to church with you?

Rev. Karen King will be here starting February 28 and will provide Eucharist services as follows:

February 28     Eucharist Service

March 6           Eucharist Service

March 20         Palm Sunday

March 27         Easter Sunday

Daylight savings begins on March 13.  Sunrise on Easter Sunday is at 7:29.  There will likely at least be a Good Friday service in Holy Week, but we're still finalizing those plans.

In case you're interested, the Society for St. John the Evangelist (SSJE) is offering a Lent program in 2016, beginning February 10.  If you'd like to take part, you just need to sign up, and they will send you a daily short video and things to contemplate.  This year's program sounds really interesting, as you develop a Rule of Life for yourself.

The prayer shawl ministry continues to be very active, and is still in drastic need of knitters/crocheters.  We've been getting gifts of yarn fairly frequently, and are doing our best to keep up.

The Episcopal Branch of the Jesus Movement

From a message from our new Presiding Bishop, Michael Curry:

God came among us in the person of Jesus of Nazareth to show us the way.  He came to show us the way to life.  The way to love.  He came to show us the way beyond what often can be the nightmares of our own devisings and into the dream of God intending.  That's why when Jesus called his first followers, He did it with the simple words, "Follow me."  Follow me, He said, and I will make you fish for people.  Follow me, and love will show you how to become more than you ever dreamed you could be.  Follow me, and I will help you change the world from the nightmare it often is into the dream that God intends.  Jesus came and started a movement, and

We are the Episcopal branch of the Jesus movement.

Near the end of Matthew's Gospel, the story of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, when Mary Magdalene and some of the women go to the tomb, to anoint his body.  When they get there, they find that the tomb is empty, the stone has been rolled away, and there is no body there.  Then they see and hear an angel, who says to them, this Jesus of Nazareth whom you seek, He is not here.  He has been raised, as He said He would be, and He has now gone ahead of you to Galilee.  There, you will see him.  It is in Galilee that the risen Lord will be found and seen, for He has gone ahead of us.  Galilee - which is a way of talking about the world.  Galilee - in the streets of the city.  Galilee - in our rural communities.  (Hey, that's us!!)  Galilee in our hospitals.  Galilee in our office places.  Galilee where God's children live and dwell.  There in Galilee, you will meet the Living Christ for He has already gone ahead of you.

A few years ago, I was in a coffee shop in Raleigh, North Carolina, just a few blocks away from our diocesan house there.  And while in line, I started a conversation with a gentleman who turned out to to be a Mennonite pastor.  He had been sent to Raleigh to organize a church in the community on the streets, without walls.  As we were talking over our coffee, he said something to me that I have not forgotten.  He said the Mennonite community asked him to do this because they believed that in this environment in which we live, the church can no longer wait for its congregation to come to it.  The church must go where the congregation is.  Now is our time to go:  to go into the world to share the Good News of God and Jesus Christ.  To go into the world and help to be agents and instruments of God's reconciliation.  To go into the world, and let the world know that there is a God who loves us, a God who will not let us go, and that that love, can set us all free.  This is the Jesus Movement, and we are the Episcopal Church, the Episcopal branch of Jesus' Movement in this world.  God bless you, and keep the faith.