Inclusive. Sacred. Authentic.

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1 Praying the Hours - A Lenten spiritual practice Are you looking to connect with your deeper self and the Holy? Do you seek to deepen your connection with God and others? This Lent, we invite you to participate in a four-week daily prayer practice. Our congregation and extended community will engage with a simplified version of the Liturgy of the Hours which dates back to the early Christians and continues to the modern day. Praying the Hours, our spiritual practice for Lent, is a curated collection of prayers, psalms, songs, photos and liturgy designed to help our community pray together wherever we are. Each weekday for four weeks we will share words and images to encourage prayer and contemplation. We will follow the rhythms of the days posting content in the morning, during the day, in the evening and at night. This rich collection takes the best of the old and reinvigorates it with fresh energy for renewal. Special thanks to our contributors: Beth H., Christina W., Linda M., Todd B., Trisha S. and Win K. What. In the weeks leading up to Holy Week, we will examine prayer at Dawn, Day, Dusk and Dark. Our curated and contributed content from the Fairfield United Church community will be shared on our Facebook page and will be available in a booklet at our Sunday gatherings, and as a PDF download on our website. Dawn Hour begins with wonder and rejoicing. This offering is to be recited/viewed upon waking. Day Hour, so full of thanksgiving and rejoicing. This offering is to be said/viewed during the day. Dusk Offering is read/viewed in the early evening and includes beautiful thoughts to end the day. Dark Offering comes right before bed to take you into the night. Why. This practice is intended to nurture connection and ground our community through the ritual of daily, focused prayer during which we open ourselves to the divine presence. Who. Everyone who gathers with us on Sunday or who participates in our community online is encouraged to take part and enrichen this practice. When. From February 26 to March 23, we will post one curated piece of content on Facebook each weekday at 7 am, 1 pm, 6 pm and 8 pm. All are encouraged reflect and engage at these times each weekday during this period. Inclusive. Sacred. Authentic.

2 LECTIO DIVINA: Sacred Reading Steps Silence is the language of God; all else is a poor translation. ~ Rumi Sacred Reading can be used with any sacred text, inspiring poetry, art, or place in nature. All of these can be expressions of the Word. 1. Take a few minutes to come to silence. Allow yourself to feel grounded in the earth, and surrounded by and filled with Divine Light. 2. Read the text twice slowly. 3. Allow a word, phrase or image to land. Trust whatever comes to you. 4. Now with the rhythm of your breath, breathe this word, phrase or image. Allow yourself to chew on the word, to savour it, rolling it over on your tongue. Spend several minutes just breathing the word or phrase. You might start with two or three minutes and then move up to five minutes; and then longer if you wish. 5. When you are ready, let the word/phrase/image go. REST in the silence; rest in the presence of the Divine. No words. No place to go; nothing to do. Take at least one minute or longer. 6. Finally, send out a prayer for whatever you need at this time. This prayer is often inspired by the meditation. Lectio Divina can be very powerful, even transformational. It originated with the Benedictine monks in the 6th century. It is like whole food for the soul. It combines the reading of the passage with meditation: focusing on a particular word/phrase/image. It concludes with contemplation resting in the silence; surrendering to the silence; and then a prayer of thanks or petition. This practice helps us enter into this one moment: the sacrament of the moment. We open ourselves to the Divine Presence however this Presence appears in this one moment. In this pondering, our own emotions or feelings may arise. Stay with these. If we continue to ponder the word/phrase/image throughout the day, the practice continues to work within us. Lectio Divina helps us to gather in our fractured, distracted, noise polluted selves (A Book of Hours, p. 28). It provides us with the opportunity to experience our deep transcendent selves as divine creations. This is the gift of salvation that Jesus promised. Resources: Thomas Merton, A Book of Hours, ed. by Kathleen Deignan. Christine Valters Paintner, Lectio Divina Inclusive. Sacred. Authentic.

3 Praying the Hours - Fairfield United Church - Lent 2018 Monday, February 26 DAWN - 7 am DAY - 1 pm At the dawn of a new day, we come to welcome hope for a new world. LOVE S CONFUSING JOY Let the darkness lift, to welcome a dawn of plenty, with enough for everyone and people ready to share. If you want what visible reality can give, you re an employee. If you want the unseen world, you re not living your truth. Let the day begin, with new energy for the struggle to protect our children and to care for the vulnerable. Both wishes are foolish, but you ll be forgiven for forgetting that what you really want is love s confusing joy. Let the light shine, to open a path to safety for all who are seeking home and longing for life. ~ Rumi Let the sun rise on new talks and new resolve to end the bombing and the terror and to find solutions that will last. At the dawn of a new day we come to declare our hope and to welcome a new world. ~ Susan Durber, Monthly Prayers page, Christian Aid website. DUSK - 6 pm This is the land where you have given me roots in eternity, O God of heaven and earth. This is the burning promised land, the house of God, the gate of heaven, the place of peace, the place of silence, the place of wrestling with the angel. ~ Thomas Merton, A Book of Hours, ed. by Kathleen Deignan DARK - 8 pm

4 Tuesday, February 27 DAWN - 7 am DAY - 1 pm THE STREAM OF LIFE The same stream of life that runs through my veins night and day runs through the world and dances in rhythmic measures. It is the same life that shoots in joy through the dust of the earth to numberless blades of grass and breaks into tumultuous waves of leaves and flowers. It is the same life that is rocked in the ocean-cradle of birth and death, in ebb and flow. I feel my limbs are made glorious by the touch of this world of life. And my pride is from the life-throb of ages in my blood this moment. Dusk - 6 pm ~ Rabindranath Tagore DarK - 8 pm A HYMN TO THE MOTHER In the beginning there was blackness. Only the sea. In the beginning there was no sun, no moon, no people. In the beginning there were no animals, no plants, only the sea. The sea was the Mother. The mother was not the people, she was not anything. Nothing at all. She was when she was darkly. ~ The Kogis of South America, Andrew Harvey, The Divine Feminine.

5 Wednesday, February 28 Dawn - 7 am I am Wisdom. Mine is the blast of the resounding Word through which all creation came to be, and I quickened all things with my breath so that not one of them is mortal in its kind; for I am Life. Indeed I am Life, whole and undivided not hewn from any stone, or budded from branches, or rooted in virile strength; but all that lives has its root in Me. For Wisdom is the root whose blossom is the resounding Word. I flame above the beauty of the fields to signify the earth the matter from which humanity was made. I shine in the waters to indicate the soul, for, as water suffuses the whole earth, the soul pervades the whole body. I burn in the sun and the moon to denote Wisdom, and the stars are the innumerable words of Wisdom." ~ Hildegard von Bingen DAY - 1 pm Dusk - 6 pm PRAYING It doesn t have to be the blue iris, it could be weeds in a vacant lot, or a few small stones; just pay attention, then patch a few words together and don t try to make them elaborate, this isn t a contest but the doorway into thanks, and a silence in which another voice may speak. ~ Mary Oliver, Thirst, Beacon Press, 2006

6 Wednesday, February 28 Dark - 8 pm EVENING MEDITATION AS YOU PREPARE FOR SLEEP 1. Centre: Take time to centre, feeling fully present in your body, following your breath. Be aware of how wherever you are being held by the Earth herself, that she sustains you and guides you. And that her creative and loving energy is available to you. 2. Welcome in Divine Presence / Essence: In your own words and within your own tradition, welcome in the Divine Presence. Allow yourself to feel surrounded and held by this loving presence/energy. Pause here, allowing yourself to be held by unconditional love. 3. Prayer for Guidance: Send out a prayer for guidance. Put before the Divine One whatever issues and concerns or questions you have been dealing with this day. 4. Let Go: Place your questions and concerns in the lap of the Beloved, in the hands of the Divine One. Let go. Allow yourself to remain in this Presence, placing your concerns in their lap, and letting them go. You may wish to do this several times until you feel able to let them go. (You are not doing any problem solving here; just letting go; giving your concerns to the Beloved.) 5. Stillness: Come to stillness and silence. Take time just to stay here in the presence of the Beloved. Nowhere to go; no-thing to do. 6. Gratitude: Thank the Beloved One for holding and healing and working with these questions. Ask for guidance during your sleep. Be aware of whatever dreams or intuitions come during sleep. (Again, you are not problem solving, just letting go.) ~ Linda Mulhall, Spiritual Guide, January 2018

7 thursday, March 1 DAwn - 7 am With my hair almost on end and the eyes of the soul wide open I am present, Without knowing it at all, in this unspeakable Paradise, and I behold this secret, This wide open secret which is there for everyone, free, and no one pays any attention. O paradise of simplicity, self-awareness and self-forgetfulness liberty, peace. ~ Thomas Merton, A Book of Hours, ed. by Kathleen Deignan DUSK - 6 pm Father of my soul, Mother of my heart, I know your love for me is limitless beyond imagining. You care for me as a loving parent. Through my smallest Lenten sacrifices, help me to become less selfish and more aware of your ways. Fan the flame of my desire to draw ever closer to you. Guide me to seek your love. ~ Creighton University Online Ministries DAy - 1 pm God to Enfold me God to Surround me God in my Speaking God in my Thinking God in my Sleeping God in my Waking God in my Watching God in my Hoping God in my Life God in my Lips God in my Soul God in my Heart God in my Sufficing God in my Slumber God in my Ever-Living Soul God in mine Eternity ~ Carmina Gadelica Dark - 8 pm

8 friday, March 2 Dawn - 7 am DAy - 1 pm Earth Teach Me to Remember Earth teach me stillness, as the grasses are stilled with light. Earth teach me suffering, as old stones suffer with memory. Earth teach me humility, as blossoms are humble with beginning. Earth teach me caring, as the mother who secures her young. Earth teach me courage, as the tree which stands all alone. Earth teach me limitation, as the ant which crawls on the ground. Earth teach me freedom, as the eagle which soars in the sky. Earth teach me resignation, as the leaves which die in the fall. Earth teach me regeneration, as the seed which rises in the spring. Earth teach me to forget myself, as melted snow forgets its life. Earth teach me to remember kindness, as dry fields weep with rain. ~ Ute, North America, cosmology/index.html Dusk - 6 pm Go out from yourself with all that one is, which is nothing, and pour out that nothingness in gratitude that God is who He is. Dark - 8 pm ~ Thomas Merton, A Book of Hours, ed. by Kathleen Deignan