I received a question about Lent resources last week:
I am hoping to have a women’s Lent group and wondered if you could recommend a book to follow?
My answer:
I wonder if your women’s group would like my little resource The Prayers of Jesus? It explores 6 of Jesus’ 7 prayers from the gospels, which is fab for Lent because as you know they culminate in Gethsemane and on the cross. I did a video series for it with introductions, a prayer exercise and a conversation with the very interesting Micha Jazz. There are meeting-starter ideas, the session content, discussion questions, and ideas for leading a prayer exercise. Perhaps this could be adaptable for your group? No worries if not. With the cost-of-living shooting upwards, the latest print run got expensive for a little paperback – £7.99, discounted.
For a Lent book if your group is happy to read a bit more, I love Walter Wangerin’s Reliving the Passion. (My review from years ago in Woman Alive is here.) Or my daily readings of The Living Cross, a through-the-Bible look at forgiveness.
Need ideas for how to have a good Lent? Here’s an article I wrote a few years ago.
Happy new year! The prayer of examen is simply looking back to move forward with God. You might want to take some time this month to consider a few questions as we launch into the new year. I found these somewhere last year and engaged with them – I’m sorry that I didn’t note where that was!
Three questions to consider: 1. What have the storms of 2022 picked up and blown away for you? 2. How has 2022 anchored you more firmly? 3. What fresh roots have you discovered in the noise of this past season?
I love the American holiday of Thanksgiving—a time set apart for family, friends, feasting, and turning our hearts toward gratitude. Living in the UK, we’ll host our gathering on Saturday, but we’re grateful to be able to go to the service at St. Paul’s Cathedral this morning to sing our praises to God and give him thanks in that glorious setting. How amazing to have this opportunity on a day that’s otherwise just a normal day in Britain.
I recently moaned in my newsletter how Black Friday is such a thing that we’ve imported here while not bringing in the wonderful holiday of Thanksgiving. Lots of my lovely community reminded me what I did know but had overlooked in the early-morning drafting of that missive—American Thanksgiving was modeled on the festival of Harvest. This holiday has been very important especially in rural communities, where farmers and people of all kinds come together in church to present their offerings of grain, fruit and other produce as a way to say thanks to God. You can read more about the origins of Thanksgiving in my first book, Finding Myself in Britain—an excerpt is here.
Wherever we are in the world, we can stop and give thanks. I suggested some ways to do so in my newsletter:
Set a timer for a couple of times a day and stop and give thanks for one or two things. Doing so will orient your outlook and help you feel more grateful; you’ll notice more good things as you go about your day.
Write a text, email, or good old-fashioned note expressing your thanks for someone. Be specific in naming how they’ve brought you joy or hope.
Go on a wonder walk, asking God to inspire you to be thankful. It helps if you can explore somewhere amazing, but even in a grimy city you’ll notice flashes of beauty—someone smiling, the note of birdsong, a flower or a snow-covered scene.
I pray you will find much to give thanks for!
[Art by Leo Boucher. Used with permission; all rights reserved.]
Happy Mother’s Day – that is, if you celebrate today and if it’s a day to celebrate for you. I know for many, it can feel painful, whether you had or have a tough relationship with your mother, or if you wanted to be a mother and haven’t been, of if your family forgets that it’s Mother’s Day and your child sees you cry for the first time as you make her waffles.
I want to honor my lovely mom, who serves and gives so much to our family. Above is a photo with us and my dad during my recent visit.
I thought I’d also share my first published article in Woman Alive (from 1999), which I found this week when I learned that Woman Alive is turning 40! It features what’s today known as a “tradwife” – women parenting their children full-time. Not sure I like that term; the title, “domestic artistry,” is better.
I love the line that closes the article: “It’s hard to be bored when you’re with someone you love.”
By Leo Boucher. Used with permission; all rights reserved.
Happy Easter!
We’ve entered the season of the church year of celebration and feasting – forty days of remembering with joy that Christ is risen and is among us. If we’ve observed Lent, the forty days of fasting before Easter, then we surely should mark this time of feasting afterwards.
Augustine of Hippo, the eminent theologian, spoke in a sermon about this time of celebration – a time of saying “alleluia.” (Especially as during Lent, we don’t say this word; in fact, some people symbolically bury the word during Lent and then dramatically bring it out on Easter morning.) Here’s the quotation from sermon 255:
Since it was the Lord’s will that I visit your graces in alleluia time, I owe you a word or two on alleluia. I trust I won’t bore you if I remind you of what you already know; because, after all, we not only say this alleluia every day, we also take pleasure in it every day. You know, of course, that alleluia means, in English, “Praise God”; and by singing this word together, our voices in harmony and our hearts in agreement, we are urging each other on to praise God. The only people who can praise him without a qualm are those who have nothing about him that might displease him.
And indeed, during this time of our exile and our wandering, we say alleluia to cheer us on our way. At present alleluia is for us a traveler’s song; but by a toilsome road we are wending our way to home and rest where, all our busy activities over and done with, the only thing that will remain will be alleluia.
By Leo Boucher. Used with permission; all rights reserved.
Many Christians view today as the most wonderful and most awful day—the day we remember the Man who was God who died on the cross that we might live free.
I invite you to spend a few moments pondering and praying, sharing with God your feelings about how his Son came to earth as a baby, lived and healed and loved, and then carried his cross and there was nailed where he breathed his last. Where he welcomed one next to him to life eternal. Where he uttered his last words in a life-giving prayer.
2 He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. 3 He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.
4 Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. Isaiah 53:2–5 (NIV)
Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. His love endures forever. Give thanks to the God of gods. His love endures forever. Give thanks to the Lord of lords: His love endures forever. (Psalm 136:1–3)
God has given us so much; my heart overflows with thanks. I pray you will have a spring of gratitude welling up within you, wherever in the world you are today. May the Lord bless you and keep you.
[Art by Leo Boucher. Used with permission; all rights reserved.]
We celebrated Mother’s Day yesterday, and although I was supposed to be in Minnesota with my mom, the lockdown meant I got to celebrate with my family here in London. I was sad that my parents didn’t get to see any of their family on this day as they observe sheltering rules, but we had some good conversations over the weekend.
My mom is a woman of prayer, a ministry that she’s long had, along with her practical, hands-on service, but one that has especially flourished in recent years. Daily she prays for her family and others, and when I consider the potential effects of these prayers, I often think of the well-known saying by Alfred, Lord Tennyson: “More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of.”
Some will be breathing a sigh of relief now that the UK and US Mother’s Days are behind us, for they can feel painful for a variety of reasons. I like the social-media post of a friend that says, “I may not be a mother, yet I have mothered many students in my years of teaching.” She plays an important role in their lives, and her love that she pours out on them indeed embodies the grace of mothering.
May you know the love of God who said to his people: “As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you…” (Isaiah 66:13, NIV).
On this Good Friday (why is it good?), I share with you some thoughts that I gave at church on a Good Friday past. May you find meaning in your remembering this day.
Mark 15:33–41 (NIV)
At noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. And at three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”).
When some of those standing near heard this, they said, “Listen, he’s calling Elijah.”
Someone ran, filled a sponge with wine vinegar, put it on a staff, and offered it to Jesus to drink. “Now leave him alone. Let’s see if Elijah comes to take him down,” he said.
With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last.
The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. And when the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, saw how he died, he said, “Surely this man was the Son of God!”
Some women were watching from a distance. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joseph, and Salome. In Galilee these women had followed him and cared for his needs. Many other women who had come up with him to Jerusalem were also there.
Luke 23:44–49 (NIV)
It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon, for the sun stopped shining. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” When he had said this, he breathed his last.
The centurion, seeing what had happened, praised God and said, “Surely this was a righteous man.” When all the people who had gathered to witness this sight saw what took place, they beat their breasts and went away. But all those who knew him, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things.
Women, at the time of Jesus, in the ancient Near East didn’t have the same standing as men.
They couldn’t even touch the Torah, the Scriptures, or read it for themselves. They were taught by their fathers or husbands. A woman couldn’t serve at a banquet where men were eating— that was a task for a manservant.
But Jesus valued women. He went against the cultural practices of the day because he prized them. He loved them. He taught them.
He told Martha of Bethany that her sister Mary had chosen the one thing necessary— to sit at his feet and receive from him. to be his disciple.
Many women loved and served Jesus. Not least his mother who as we hear in John’s gospel was there at the cross standing next to the beloved disciple, John.
Even in his hour of pain Jesus loves her, and makes sure that she, who was probably a widow, would be cared for by John. And John would gain a mother as well.
In Luke and Mark’s account of the cross, women watch him die on the barbaric cross; this instrument of torture.
They who have loved the Lord, serving him and listening to him, following him, stand by him.
As his disciples.
They braved the potential danger and stood by at a distance.
What danger? Friends and families of criminals— which is what Jesus was named to be— could have been persecuted. Not only ridiculed, and spit at, just like Jesus was, but given the same punishment as he on the cross.
But these women couldn’t leave him, for they loved him. They watched from a distance. Seeing him suffer. Could we too watch our Lord on the cross?
Think of the women standing there. In Mark’s account, we hear of Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the Younger and of Joseph, and of Salome.
Mary Magdalene is often seen as a prostitute but nowhere in the Bible is she named as one. She appears in the gospels 14 times— she was important to Jesus. He cast from her seven demons.
She, who was literally out of her mind with demon possession was returned to her right mind by Jesus. And now, during his hour of need, she stands and keeps watch.
We don’t know much about Mary, the mother of James the Younger and Joseph. She may have been the wife of Cleopas, a disciple of Jesus or Alphaeus. Maybe she was a sister to Mary, Jesus’ aunt.
We do know that she followed Jesus, ministering to him and his disciples in material things, so she had a certain amount of wealth.
She too stood at the cross and watched. Later she went to the tomb with spices to anoint his body and was told by angels that Jesus was not there. She was a faithful follower.
Along with the two Marys was Salome. She was the wife of Zebedee, a fisherman, and the mother of James and John, two disciples of Jesus. Earlier she asked Jesus if her sons could sit in places of honor in the kingdom of God. A mistaken question.
But she continued to follow Jesus and now she too watches from a distance. and later she too would bring spices to Jesus’ tomb to anoint his body.
Can we put ourselves in the place of these women? They had been given value by Jesus. He saw them. He loved them. He saved at least one of them from a life of destruction, of being an outcast.
And now, their teacher and lord was nailed to a cross. They must have been scared and afraid, numb. Questioning why…
Even though Jesus had said that he would die and rise again.
Hearing his words of prediction was one thing, but seeing it happen in front of them, another.
And yet they did not leave. They served through their act of presence. Through simply being with Jesus in his darkest hour. They loved him, even from a distance.
How about you? How about me?
Can we risk the taunts of those who do not understand our faith in Jesus? Can we stand together with those who also love Jesus, to show how we love him?
How can we stand with Jesus today? How can we love him? How can we serve?
How can we see him suffer dying on the cross, dying to release us from our sin and shame. dying to give us new life— life in the kingdom.
Can we, like the women, stand and watch? Can we, like the women, receive his love?
Lord Jesus Christ, You died to save me. You allowed yourself to be spit upon. Mocked. Lied about. You didn’t open your mouth.
And women who loved you watched you die. Perhaps they huddled together as you took your last breath and the curtain tore in two. They loved you from a distance. They did not leave you.
May I too be one who stands with you. May I love you, and serve you. May I overflow with love for you, Knowing that you have saved me from a meaningless life.
On this holy day, when we remember your death, Lord Jesus, May I be encouraged by the example of these women. Those not always valued by those in authority But those whom you loved.
![A watercolor rendition of Jesus carrying his cross with 2 soldiers helping him, with splotches of red and blue surrounding the three figures.]](https://amyboucherpye.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/JesusPicksUpHisCross-2.jpg)
