During this time of endless chaos, may we take time to ground ourselves in the Spirit. Finding Holy Ground: Daily Litanies, Liturgies and Mantras for the Lenten Season guides us through the 40 days of Lent and Holy Week with daily grounding. Each day contains a mantra, a liturgy, and a daily wondering. These mantras can be repeats throughout the day as a way to center ourselves. Our liturgies can be spoken aloud or silently in groups or individually. And take some time to use the daily wonderings in your journals. Each Sunday also contains a litany and/or poems that can be used as a centering or grounding tool. May this Lenten Season be a space for finding that spiritual grounding that moves us into this world – a world that needs justice and love.
Ash Wednesday
We are dust, but we are also the galaxy.
Holy fire, ignite within us humility and grace.
As the world burns from our neglect of creation, may the ash that remains remind us of our humanity and our call to be active in restoring your world.
Holy fire, burn on our hearts love and mercy.
As the dust of earth squirls from tired feet and hopeful futures, may this dust cover us just as it covers our siblings who are immigrants and migrants.
Holy fire, distill our minds to focus on your true Word.
Mark us. Claim us. And sustain us to be your agents of justice. Amen.
Why does this world stamp out the human experience?
To run away from human emotion?
To move about their day with fake smiles and unholy notions?
Why is the path to humility guarded by a cloaked figure?
A man that doesn’t want you feel.
A whiteness that numbs you, wraps up your heart, closed and sealed.
Holy crosses don’t mean a thing without feeling
But empathy is learned, and you have to agree
Without it, we are only dust, but with it, we are the galaxy.
Day 2: Thursday
Move us out of idleness and away from idols.
Why, oh Lord, does evil plague your people?
Deliver us.
Why do the forces of shadows smite your people?
Deliver us.
Wondrous Maker, why are your Beloved being put in cages, chained, and mocked?
Deliver us from evil.
Deliver us from the idols of hate, untruths, distorted faith, and bigotry.
Deliver us, o God, deliver us.
Daily Wondering:
What are the idols in your life? How do you need to be delivered?
Day 3:
Friday
My refuge is love. My fortress is in the Most High.
Broken are our spirits, oh God.
Dwell with us in our despair.
The wilderness is wide, long, without an ending in sight.
Guide us, like your angles guided your people and Moses.
Speak to us, make yourself known to us, for it is often we feel alone.
Daily Wondering:
What kind of wilderness do you find yourself in? What is God saying to you?
Day 4:
Saturday
A time to keep and a time to cast away.
Like the harvest in spring and summer,
O God, help us to know what to glean and what to leave left behind
Cast away our assumptions, our bias, our prejudices…
Tighten our grip on love, peace and your kingdom here on earth.
Daily Wondering:
What do you want to glean and what do you want to cast away?
1st Sunday of Lent
We will not be tempted by this evil.
One does not live by bread alone.
Our bodies long for the sustaining power of love and peace.
One does not live by bread alone.
For we are held up by each other so we will not be dashed against the stones.
One does not live by bread alone.
The Spirit moves and dwells within us, pushing us out in this world to do justice.
One does not live by bread alone.
Angels, the saints, the omnipotent cloud of witnesses stand by our sides.
One does not live by bread alone; one does not live alone. Amen.
Temptation, how often it is skewed to mean what it isn’t
Sex, queer, trans, “giving into the flesh”
Clouded in evil and darkness – of the Devil.
But oh, how words and death can distort
Oh, how words and death can coopt and morph words into weapons.
For my tempted body is indeed tempted and gives into the magic of God
My body gives itself over to the imagination of the Divine
For I am not tempted, I am not evil.
But I am creation – good, grand, and damn fine.
The only evil here is your definition of evil.
The only temptation is your definition of temptation.
The only Devil here is you – you bigotry, you whiteness, you racism, YOU.
We will not be tempted by this evil.
But tempt us, Holy Temptation.
Day 6:
Monday
Awaken, I shall be satisfied with Your likeness.
In our endless sleep…
Awaken us oh God to the beauty of your Image.
In our exhaustion…
Remind us that we are made to reflect You.
In our frustration…
Calm our hearts and keep your presence in front of us.
In our crying…
Attend to us and hear our prayers.
In our mourning…
Visit us in the night.
Daily Wondering:
Where do you see the Image of God today?
Day 7:
Tuesday
Hide us in the shadow of your wings.
There are days when we need to hide away from the world.
To recover, re-energize, and reevaluate our space and our bodies.
There are days when we need to pause in the shadow.
So that we may be our full selves.
There are nights when we need to get lost in darkness.
Because the darkness holds space for growth.
Hide us in the shadow of your wings, oh God.
So that we emerge with radiance.
Daily Wondering:
What do you need in the shadow?
Day 8:
Wednesday
Lest our hearts be weighed down.
Heavy are our hearts and heavy are our minds…
Do not let us be overcome or overtaken.
Weighty are our souls and weighty are our fears…
Do not let us be overcome or overtaken.
Dense is the fog that clouds our love and our mercy…
Do not let us be overcome or overtaken.
Daily Wondering:
In what ways are you feeling weighed down?
Day 9:
Thursday
Fear consumes and fear traps.
Fear is the emotion that numbs our hearts to truth…
Hardening our shells to be impermeable to the other.
Fear is the maker of enemy and “un-wokeness”…
Keeping us at bay from swimming in the waters of reality.
Fear is the trapper
Caging us in our own worlds and visions.
May we not be consumed by the hardening of hearts and the deniers of truth.
Daily Wondering:
What do you fear? How do you keep from being consumed by it?
Day 10:
Friday
Walk, live, and do as the Christ.
O how often we focus on our personal relationship with God.
And yet we miss the relationship and covenant we have with each other.
O how often we focus on the so-called salvation of the cross.
And yet we miss the salvific life of healing, nurturing, and justice of Jesus’ years on earth.
Following the Christ is both personal and communal.
May we live into this duality of Christ.
Daily Wondering:
How do you personal relationship with God and your relationship with others intersect?
Day 11:
Saturday
I am a prophet of this time.
Even when they cast stones and throw us out of cities,
We shall be the prophets of our time.
Even when they tell us that greed and hate are tenants of the faith,
We shall be the prophets of our time.
When they mock our bodies, demonize our love, and suppress their own emotions,
We shall be the prophets of our time.
And when they tell us we are not children of God,
We shall be the prophets of our time.
Daily Wondering:
In what ways are you being a prophet?
2nd Sunday of Lent
Transfigure and transform us.
Oh how often we are attracted to the shine and shimmer of Christ.
So much so that we want to dwell in the light of the Divine.
But as the light dims and the true path is illuminated,
We cower away for the calling becomes too real.
Look! It is Elijah, Moses, and the glorious Savior!
May we build our dwellings here, to hide, to forget, to savor.
Light so bright and warm that they call us to stay.
Glory so tempting to cast lives away
Oh, how simple that calling would be
Never to do, never to act, never experience reality
To only worship, to only marvel, to only be in awe
To simplify the message, “Get Saved…that’s all!”
To be transfigured, yes, that takes the Divine
But that moment is not the end…it’s the start…it’s the time.
The time to be transformed by fellow humankind
To heal, to love, to do, to be the Christs of our time.
Day 13:
Monday
We are sojourners and we will not be forsaken.
We are called to be people on the move.
God will be in covenant with us forever.
We are called to be people of action.
The Holy One will protect us from oppression.
We are called to be people of no ruler.
For God is our feet, our hands, and our hearts.
Daily wondering:
What is keeping you from being on the move? From taking action?
Day 14:
Tuesday
Melt down the idols of greed and hate.
Gold, silver, and precious jewels shine with temptation.
And yet, we have a God whose light shines brighter.
Money, greed, and power pull us in.
And yet, we follow a Savior whose force of love tugs at our hearts.
Corruption, and oppression stir in the minds of the oppressor.
And yet, the Creator stirs within the waters resistance and liberation.
Daily Wondering:
What are your idols? How are you melting them down?
Day 15:
Wednesday
Some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.
O God, your world order is not of our own.
For the last shall be first and the first shall be last.
O God, you turn the tables on how we have constructed society.
For the last shall be first and the first shall be last.
Oh God, you send your prophets and your angels to speak truth to power.
For the last shall be first and the first shall be last.
Daily Wondering:
How are you bringing about the kingdom of God in your context?
Day 16:
Thursday
Our souls thirst for liberation.
When our souls are empty, dry, and brittle…
Remind us, Holy Liberator, that you are the water in which we drink.
In our deepest sorrow and hollowed breaths…
Pull us closer to your glory for you are our sanctuary.
When our grip on faith is surely exhausted…
Show up for us for our souls cling the God of Steadfastness.
Daily Wondering:
Does your soul need water today? How are you nurturing your spirit?
Day 17:
Friday
Will we not wake up?
What does the Spirit say?
Wake up! For they will come like a thief in the night…
Wake up to the powers that soil the paths of freedom.
Wake up to the evil that worships death and not life.
Wake up to the incomplete works of God so that they may be done.
Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!
Daily Wondering:
What is the Spirit telling you in times such as these? Are you awake to listen?
Day 18:
Saturday
no good tree bears bad fruit
We are called to have an abundant heart.
To bear the good fruit of justice and peace.
Our treasures here on earth are no longer good if they produce evil.
Gather up our good treasure, gather up our good fruit.
Share in the everlasting love of a God of goodness. Amen.
Daily Wondering:
What good fruit do you see in your life?
3rd Sunday of Lent
Tend. Nurture. Harvest?
How often the work of justice requires nurturing and rest
So that we may bring forth our full and best selves to the work
We may never see the result of our work.
But we have to keep making the move toward the arc of justice.
Summer heat in the South
Meant the sound of June bugs
Hiding behind the fig leaves of mama’s tree
The glittery green of their shells
Bounced against the sunlight
As a bounty of figs hung like sweet drops
Sweat pouring down our faces
Picking the fruit, buckets full
The jam was always the reward
Because harvest didn’t come every year
For she had to rest, her branches low
Her soil tired and her energy spent
Jars full of hard work and labor
Lasting year after year
Savoring the figgy flavor so we don’t forget
That we bear good fruit when love is the soil
That we bear good fruit when rest is in the center
That we bear good fruit when we dig deep
When grace is not cheap
When the world does not weep
When the bad fruit rots and sweeps
Away…
Day 20:
Monday
Deliver us from our transgressions.
We often give into the sins of oppression.
Deliver us this day and always. And may we repent of our ways.
Remove the scales from our eyes so that we may see the reality of the world.
Deliver us this day and always. And may we repent of our ways.
Do not let the temptations of greed consume us.
Deliver us this day and always. And may we repent of our ways.
Daily Wondering:
What does repentance look like for you?
Day 21:
Tuesday
We are created to thrive.
The world tells us that we are meant to creatures of production.
And yet, the God of abundance calls us to thrive.
Capitalistic gains crush our bodies and fill our minds.
But the God of Stars invites us to shine for we are good just as we are.
Nations and states place rules and laws on our identities.
But we are made in God’s image.
Daily Wondering:
Do you feel like you are thriving? What is keeping you from being you?
Day 22:
Wednesday
The smallest seed creates the unimaginable.
Like a farmer sowing seed, we, too, sow the seeds of faith,
Producing a harvest unimaginable by our human minds.
The smallest of acts in our communities, towns, and cities
Combined create change and transformation.
May we plant the seeds of change…
No matter our fear, no matter how small…
Daily Wondering:
What are the seeds you are sowing in your communities?
Day 23:
Thursday
Our home is found in love.
When our homes of woods, brick, and blood turn on us…
We have a home in love.
When our families turn away from us because of who we are…
We have a home in love.
When the world crushes us, and oppression becomes too much…
We have a home in love.
Daily Wondering:
Where is home for you? Where do you find love?
Day 24:
Friday
You are a hiding place for me.
Sometimes, o God, we need a place away from hate.
This is when your presence becomes our hiding place.
Temporary, nourishing, steadfast and unconditional.
Preserving us from trouble but preparing us for good trouble.
Daily Wondering:
Do you need a hiding place today?
Day 25:
Saturday
We are not too lost to not be found.
Getting lost is a part of this thing we called life.
And yet God is always there to find us.
Finding ourselves straying from the path is normal.
And we have a God that says, “Turn and find me.”
Daily Wondering:
What does this “turning” look like for you?
4th Sunday of Lent
I will be found.
Even when the dark comes crashing through
When you need a friend to carry you
And when you’re broken on the ground
You will be found
So let the sun come streaming in
‘Cause you’ll reach up and you’ll rise again
Lift your head and look around
You will be found.
credit “You Will Be Found” from Dear Evan Hansen
Songwriters: Benj Pasek / Justin Paul
You Will Be Found lyrics © Pick In A Pinch Music, Breathelike Music
What does it really mean for us to “come to life”?
Repentance from “debauchery” and “sin”?
Running away from what is within,
Toward a home that wasn’t home?
We cannot all be the prodigal
Sprinting back to a family with arms open
Because some of our homes are broken
Broken with malice and hate with no end
Some of us must stay away to live
We have to bury the person we made up
The one that got us by but kept us stuck
In mud that suffocated and killed
We cannot all be the prodigal
For many of us are left with nothing
We leave with clothes on our back clutching
To the one thing we do have, our trueness.
The father, older brother are unreal to many
Family kick us to the curb
Friends leave without a word
And we are left alone to find our home, chosen.
We cannot all be the prodigal.
We cannot all be the prodigal.
We cannot all be the prodigal.
Day 27:
Monday
Celebrate the feast of abundance.
Never let power tell you there is not enough.
For there is an abundance.
Centralizing power and wealth are sin.
For we are taught to love our neighbor abundantly.
Daily Wondering:
How are you celebrating abundance in your life and community?
Day 28:
Tuesday
We shall not wrong one another.
To celebrate jubilee is to see the God of Love in each other.
We shall not wrong one another.
To celebrate jubilee is to cancel debts and return land.
We shall not wrong one another.
To celebrate jubilee is to eat what God’s creation gives us.
To be jubilee people, we shall not wrong one another.
Daily Wondering?
In what ways are you celebrating jubilee?
Day 29:
Wednesday
We will have enough.
When are the oil and our lamps run dry…
God brings forth enough from the vessels.
When we are hungry and tired…
God multiplies our baskets and gives us a place to rest.
When we do not have enough…
God provides.
Daily Wondering:
What is a situation in your life when God provided?
Day 30:
Thursday
Fill us with laughter and joy.
Those who sow in tears
Shall reap with shouts of joy
Those who scream from the perils of oppression
Shall dance in the streets
Those who mourn the deaths of the Beloved
Shall laugh in the face of death dealers.
Daily Wondering:
Where do you find joy and laughter?
Day 31:
Friday
We shall be witnesses of love.
Whenever we meet a stranger,
May we be a witness to their love.
For every immigrant that crosses our borders,
May we be a witness to their love.
For every queer and trans person who lives into their being,
May we be a witness to their love.
Daily Wondering:
How you are being a witness to love?
Day 32:
Saturday
O death, pass over us.
The forces of death are all around us.
But our God is the God of Life.
Pass us by, o death.
For you have no place in the realm of life.
Daily Wondering:
Where do you witness death?
5th Sunday of Lent
Fill us and anoint us.
Just as Mary gave of her precious perfume.
To give of ourselves is the cost of following the path of love.
As her fragrance filled the room,
Our hearts, too, are filled with unconditional grace and peace.
What a scene.
Throwing herself onto the floor.
Pricey nard, sweet and potent.
Aroma overtaking the room.
Betrayer and thief diminishing her.
Weaponizing poverty for his gain.
Sound familiar?
Leave her be, she has autonomy.
The cost to this act is priceless.
“You don’t always have me…”
But oh, Christ we do, we hold on to you
To your words, your actions, your anointed body.
Her name is Mary.
Her name is woman.
Her name is death crusher.
Her name is the name we need, now.
Day 34:
Monday
May we build tabernacles of love.
With imagination and creation, may we build dwellings of love,
For queer and trans siblings, for siblings with disabilities…
With mercy, may we build churches of sanctuary,
For the migrant, the immigrant, the refugee…
With strength and prophetic voice, may we construct better societies,
For the oppressed and marginalized.
Daily Wondering:
What are you building in your community?
Day 35:
Tuesday
We will not be deceived.
In the name of faith, they demonize the ones who are made in God’s image.
We shall not be deceived for this is not the faith of the one true God.
In the name of faith, they create borders and nations of destruction.
We shall not be deceived for this is not the faith of the one true God.
In the name of faith, they will distort the word of God to create fear and hate.
We shall not be deceived for this is not the faith of the one true God.
Daily Wondering:
In what ways are you centering love in the message and actions of God?
Day 36:
Wednesday
Our trust is in the God that raises us up.
Some trust in greed and some in money,
but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.
They collapse and fall,
but we rise and stand upright.
O Lord, save the us!
May he answer us when we call.
Daily Wondering:
What do you put your trust in?
Day 37:
Thursday
Show me grace, o God.
God of comfort and sanctuary, we are tired and full of grief.
Our bones are eroding, and our minds are full of the world’s plights.
Surround us and hear our cries.
For our tears are plenty and our sorrow strong.
Daily wondering:
Where do you find comfort today?
Day 38:
Friday
We are siblings in the Holy One.
Because the Creator, in their wondrous imagination, created each of us.
We are siblings in the Holy One.
Because we find grounding in the Spirit to do justice and love mercy.
We are siblings in the Holy One.
And as siblings, may we show up for each other.
Daily Wondering:
In what ways are you showing up for your siblings?
Day 39:
Saturday
Prepare us for what is to come…
Holy God, the rode ahead is full of death and demons.
Show us to the upper room so that we may feast and drink to prepare our journey.
We do not know exactly what is about to happen.
But may your bread give us strength to face what is to come.
Daily Wondering:
How are you preparing for what is to come?
Palm SUnday
If these were silent, the stones would shout out.
Throw your cloaks on the ground!
For the Lord is on the way.
Wave your palms and branches in the air!
For another way to be king is coming.
Sing praises and give God the glory!
Because our Lord is here to save us.
What a scene.
Throwing herself onto the floor.
Pricey nard, sweet and potent.
Aroma overtaking the room.
Betrayer and thief diminishing her.
Weaponizing poverty for his gain.
Sound familiar?
Leave her be, she has autonomy.
The cost to this act is priceless.
“You don’t always have me…”
But oh, Christ we do, we hold on to you
To your words, your actions, your anointed body.
Her name is Mary.
Her name is woman.
Her name is death crusher.
Her name is the name we need, now.
Holy
Monday
For with you is the fountain of life
For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light.
O continue your steadfast love to those who know you and your salvation to the upright of heart!
Do not let the foot of the arrogant tread on me, or the hand of the wicked drive me away.
Psalm 36
Daily Wondering:
Where do you find life? And light?
Holy
Tuesday
I will hold onto the Light.
Radiant and bright is your Light, o God.
May we be bearers of this light that outshines the shadows.
A light that welcomes, belongs, clarifies and justifies.
Lift us up with your luminous love so that we can share that love with the world.
Daily Wondering:
How are you sharing in the light of God?
Holy Wednesday
We shall not betray what is right.
Silence in the face of oppression is betrayal.
Complicity in the face of the demonic is betrayal.
Denying the love of God to all of God’s children is betrayal.
Demonizing the immigrant and migrant is betrayal.
Betrayal of all that is good, and of all that is God.
Daily Wondering:
Have you betrayed? What are you doing to reconcile that betrayal?
Maundy
Thursday
Washing away our fear.
Fear covers us like mud on bare feet.
Wash away that fear, Holy Water, Holy River
Hatred permeates us like a stain on cloth.
Wash away that hate, Holy Water, Holy River
Evil, manifest in oppression and greed, pours over us like oil.
Wash away that evil, Holy Water, Holy River
Daily Wondering:
What do you need washed away?
Good
Friday
It is never finished.
The finality of death is often a lie.
Are we truly finished when we die?
Our memories, what we did, how we changed and transformed
They are never finished and always become something more…
Daily Wondering:
Is death the final word? How do you hope to keep living?
Holy
Saturday
Down in the depths.
Spices, aloes, and myrrh
Cloths and tombs and burials
Awaiting and mourning
But preparing for what is to come
One more day until victory over death is won…
Daily Wondering:
What do you mourn?
Easter Sunday
Life is worth the living.
Christ has risen indeed!
Christ has overcome death!
Christ has told us that life is worth the living.
To live. To live. To be. To be you. To be us!
Life is worth the living. Hallelujah! Amen!
My heart is about to bust out my chest
But I could care less I have to get there
I have to make it to see if it is true
Was he really back?
It wasn’t just a few days ago that I saw my beloved die
I saw his body on the wood of execution
I cried and wailed until I lost my voice
My beloved was dead, hardly anyone around
I can see it, that lonely place where he lay!
But I can’t bear to go in and look
“He’s gone!” I heard and I rushed in.
He’s back…my beloved is back!
I am the disciple that loved him most.
I’m the “friend” that was always with him.
I’m the first one to believe he rose.
I’m the disciple that loved him most.
I’m the disciple that heard the good news from Mary –
Mary, our center, our most faithful disciple
From the mouths of women, I heard the good news
That Christ has risen. Our teacher. My beloved.
They call me the beloved disciple but I do wonder…
Am I you? Am I supposed to be you?
Are we all to run as fast as I did to the tomb?
Are we all to believe women?
Are we all to believe that life will forever overcome death?
Yes…I am the beloved disciple…and I think you are too…
Unbound Social