What does a suffering experience mean to you? How would you describe it in a few words?

For Israel it was a journey from Egypt; a journey of slavery, hardship, and pain on the way to the Promised Land. For the prophets and disciples, it was a journey of persecution, disappointments, and temptation on the way to hope and a new way of life.

For Jesus, it was a journey of suffering and death on the way to resurrection.

Suffering affects our psyche deeply.

Sociologists describe this as liminal space.

Psychologists describe it as a journey on the way to a place of orientation.

The Indians describe it as “crazy time”.

For us as believers, it is a journey to know Him and experience the power of His resurrection by sharing in His suffering, and thus becoming equal to Him in His death.

During this Lent journey, we will spend 40 days with the questions that Jesus asked in the last days of his life. You are invited to honestly grieve and explore His suffering experience with Jesus, in His fragility, His openness, and His courage.

How to use this book

Each theme will guide you with:

1. Poem - at the beginning of each week there is a poem related to the content. Use it to focus your mind and prepare your heart for the words you will read that week and the experiences you will share with Jesus.
2. Thought - you are guided daily with a short meditation and scripture. Guiding questions in each meditation can help you get in touch with your inner world. What emotion, thought, or image comes to mind when you think of the word of the day and the questions that were put to you? Respond to the invitations by sharing in the daily exercise provided.
3. Prayer - a short prayer is given daily. Use this prayer throughout the day to remind you of the day's words and experiences. Repeat the prayer a few times while you are busy with your daily routine.
4. Reflection - At the end of each week there is an accompaniment to reflect on the content and experience of the week that has passed. Use the prayer of reflection to deepen your Lent experience.

Preparation week

The Creaks and Cries of a heart

It doesn’t happen in a day.

The heart slowly closes the door,

disenchanted with people, work, God,

refusing to let in more confusion,

slamming the door shut on sorrow,

pulling the shade down on challenge,

hiding out from the carnage of rejection.

The process of petrification

crawls slowly into the cells of love,

squeezing out the last remnants of joy,

hardening the arteries of tenderness,

compressing the atoms of enthusiasm.

Gradually all relationships taste flat,

work reeks of boredom and struggle.

God takes up residence in another house

and food and drugs, drink

dull the memory of the soul’s singing.

But the soul of love is persistent.

She finds our address in the dumpster,

begins the hungry hunt for home

and lays siege to our barriered heart

with a constant “come out! come out!”

In spite of our deadness, we hear.

We fight, we hide, we tremble.

The covers come up over our heads.

We sneak behind busyness, illness,

refusing to yield to the loving voice,

the one demanding a return to life.

All day and night, especially at night

in wild dreams that toss us deeper,

the voice harangues, “come out!”

I know you’re in there. Come out”

Finally, the heart limps to the front door,

tugs at the long-shut opening to the soul,

And listens.

-Florida Scott Maxwell

** The poem speaks of the experience of human suffering and the journey to love where we find solace within pain. It invites us not to deny our darkest moments or lose hope when we feel overwhelmed with challenges, rejection, broken relationships, and confusion, but to hear the voice that calls to us, demanding a return to life, and to allow our limping hearts to open again. To listen to this Voice of Love.

Ash Wednesday

“For you were made from dust, and to dust you will return” Genesis 3:19 (NLT)

For the next 40 days, we will embark on a journey. On this journey, we are invited to set aside time and allow our imagination to be captured by Jesus’ suffering here on earth. We imagine ourselves being there, where He was, and we ask the Holy Spirit to touch our hearts anew. In this way, we move closer to the suffering Jesus. We ask for grace to cry with Him as we journey to the cross.

Early in the history of the church, Christians used the 40 days before Easter Sunday to prepare them spiritually for the remembrance of the big events of Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection. Traditionally it’s a time of sacrifice to guide us on a journey to feel something of Jesus’ suffering for ourselves. Many Christians give up something during this time of preparation. Some give up meat, sugar, caffeine, or social media, as a symbol of sacrifice.

The first day of Lent is called Ash Wednesday. On this day – at the beginning of our 40 days of preparation for Easter – we think about our own mortality. It is a tradition in many churches to receive a mark of ash on your forehead on Ash Wednesday. The ash is usually made from the palm branches of the previous year’s Palm Sunday. So, from “Hosanna!” (palm branches) to “Crucify Him!”

We usually don’t like to be reminded of our own mortality, yet we feel and see ourselves growing older. We recognise the effect that confusion, sorrow, challenges, rejection, busyness and illness have on us. We feel ourselves often buckling under the pressure of our brokenness and limitations. We are fragile and vulnerable. Yet despite every moment of our ‘deadness’, we hear the Voice of Love reminding us that we are not only dust but BELOVED dust.

Reflection: Take a moment somewhere during your day to sit in your garden or take a walk in nature. Stop to feel the texture of the leaves on a tree you are next to or pass by. Allow your eyes to move from the leaf to where it is connected to the branch. Notice then how the branch is connected to the tree. Move your gaze down to the tree’s trunk, down to where it is planted in the ground. Notice the ground around the tree. Feel the ground. Imagine God picking up some of this dust, smiling lovingly and then creating life from it. Remind yourself that you are part of this earth, God’s creation. You have been given life by God’s breath. He breathed life into you because He wanted you to live with Him.

What do you feel as you consider your place in God’s creation?
What do you notice as you recognize that as a human being, you are vulnerable and fragile?

What do you feel God is communicating to you as He reminds you: “You were made from dust, and to dust you will return”?

Prayer: Jesus, help me to accept that I am dust. Help me to know that I am beloved dust. Amen