Lent Resource: The Common Rule
Fast from so that you can feast on…
On Ash Wednesday, we came together to start our journey with Jesus to the cross. The season of Lent began in the early days of the Church as a time of preparation for those seeking to be baptized at the Easter Vigil. The forty days refer to our Lord’s time of fasting and temptation in the wilderness; and since Sundays are never fasting days, Ash Wednesday is the beginning of the Lenten Fast. The cross of ashes on our foreheads serve to remind us that we are sinners and that Christ died for us sinners. On Holy Week and Easter Sunday 40 days after keeping Lent, we will be remembering His crucifixion and celebrating His resurrection.
This Lent season, we are focusing on fasting from things that distract us so that we can fast on the richness and goodness of Jesus. These are practical things, some are daily and others weekly. They include daily practices like kneeling for prayer, reading Scripture before getting on your phone, eating a meal with someone instead of eating alone, and spending an hour a day with the phone off. There are also weekly practices such as spending an hour of conversation with a friend, curate how much time you spend on your media, fasting a meal or an hour of sleep, and resting on the Sabbath. These are the 8 habits (4 daily, 4 weekly) that author Justin Whitmel Earley writes about in his book The Common Rule: Habits of Purpose for an Age of Distraction.
At Sojourn, we are providing you with a template of how to form your Lent season with these habits in mind. This is all optional, but we hope you can join in and encourage those who pledge to pursue the grace of Jesus to practice these four Daily and four Weekly Habits. Every week in our parish gatherings, we will discuss one habit for the week, tell of our own experiences if any, and encourage each other to continue to fast from so that we can feast on the goodness of Jesus Christ.
To remember…
Download to read the whole Resource Package below. If you’d like to purchase the book, do so.
Commit to the Daily and Weekly Lent Pledge.
Start practicing the Habits (daily/weekly) all at once and as your parish discusses them each week, you can share your experience and make some adjustments to your fasting, if needed. The goal is to continue living a life with these habits of purpose after Lent, through Easter, and into Ordinary Time.
Embrace community and failure. “As for community, your parish meets every week to share experiences and pray. As for failure, you should remind each other that the goal is not to check off some habits, but to fail together, experience grace, learn and become formed more in the Gospel of Jesus.”
You are free. If you can practice all 8 habits, great! If you can only practice 4, it’s ok! The goal is to be formed into the likeness of Christ by fasting from so that we can feast on Him as our bread of life and water for our thirst.
Friends who are not part of Sojourn, please feel free to download this Resource Package and gather a few friends together to practice The Common Rule: Habits of Purpose for an Age of Distraction.