Dear Kaleid Ladies,
This Lent, we are embracing a tension of Christian reality, which includes the “already” and the “not yet.” Women are familiar with threshold moments. We know what it means to stand between two seasons in life and recognize that what is past was enriching and what is to come is promising, even while what is now may be disorienting.
Lent recalls Jesus’ wilderness season, which was an in-between space. God himself knew a season of unfulfilled expectation and shifting identity that was marked with dryness, loneliness, and more open space than was comfortable for a human heart. Through Lent and its practices, we follow Jesus and practice living with honesty and hope in the threshold spaces of life.
To open ourselves to God’s life in the threshold moment of Lent, at Kaleid we are practicing a discipline called “Statio,” a spiritual practice where we pause, marking a moment as we cross a threshold, recollecting ourselves and remembering God.
Today, we stop to pause during the course of a day. Waking. At Noon. At Bedtime.
We pause upon waking to receive the gift of a day from God and to become aware of living the day together, with God.
We pause at noon to reconnect with God, combatting the temptation to mark time (and even to mark our own sense of identity) by our activities.
We pause before going to sleep to release the day to God and to pray for the needs of the world.
These are simple pauses, but they help us to remember that when we take the time to stand at the threshold of our true home—our life with God—we find that God is offering an invitation of loving welcome that will orient and fortify our hearts.
Would you Statio with us today, five weeks into Lent, to stop, to breathe, to recollect, and to pray?
Stop: Look at the clock. Mark the time and the day. Notice where you are. Perhaps close your eyes for ten or fifteen seconds to come to a complete stop.
Breathe: Inhale deeply. Exhale fully. Twice. Become aware of the gift of grace that is the life in your lungs, again, today.
Recollect: Collect yourself. What have you been doing? What are you going to do next? How has today’s ordinary-ness been a gift? Remember God and imagine the love with which God invites you to the next part of your day. What does God want to hold for you? Offer to you?
Pray: Here, morning, noon, or night, offer to God a prayer of trust. You are seen, known, and loved. Allow these prayers from SoulStream to guide you.
Morning Prayer
Blessed Trinity
I receive your love,
your presence,
and this day as a gift from you.
I open my heart to you.
Please lead me deeper
into your transforming love
as we live these next hours together.
Amen.
Noon Prayer
Lord, we pause at noon from work and activity
To remember the many gifts
that come from Your heart.
Thank You for food and meaningful work.
Thank You for the beauty and rhythm of each day.
Thank You that You lovingly accept us as we are
And invite us to rest in the intimacy of that love.
Guard us, Lord, from seeking to find our identity
In performance or professions.
Keep us awake to Your sustaining love
the remainder of this day.
Grant us the courage to delight in the life that is ours
And may the peace you have given to us
Make its way to those You bring across our path.
Amen
Night Prayer
Loving God,
as I close my eyes
and say goodnight
to You and all this day has given,
I leave all of what has been
and what will be tomorrow.
in Your protective care.
Hold me, and all that is a part of me, as
I lie here – thankful to be
resting in your presence.
Keep watch, dear God,
with all who work, or watch, or weep this night,
and give Your angels charge over those who sleep.
Tend the sick,
give rest to the weary,
bless the dying,
soothe the suffering,
stand with the oppressed,
shield the joyous;
and all for your love’s sake!
Amen.
Gratefully,
The Kaleid Team