Introduction

Over the past year, as a people and as a Church we have faced much suffering. Racial injustice protests, political and societal unrest, and the plague of Covid-19 are scourging us. In some ways it feels as though the wheels are falling off the wagon that is our normal lives. Anyone who has made the choice to follow Christ and to be a believer has to be wondering what is happening.  How do we, as people of faith, remain centered on Christ in the heart of so much suffering? How do we continue to pray effectively as we shelter in place dealing with the fact that when we go out to the grocery store, or for gas, we could contract a sometimes-deadly virus?  

Lent is a time Christians traditionally use to address our sinful tendencies with the help of God’s grace. Lent is also an opportunity to bring oneself closer to God, as we prepare ourselves to welcome the Risen Lord on Easter Morning. Traditionally, a part of that preparation is to use a combination of fasting, abstinence, and prayer as a means to help us move closer to Christ. Our 40 Day Contemplative Challenge will encourage participants to use all of these tools. But the program of the daily reflections will also encourage participants to enfold the use of meditative and silent prayer into their habit of prayer as we prepare for the Risen Lord on Easter morning. It is our hope that the 40 Day Contemplative Challenge will provide an opportunity for participants to more clearly train themselves, with the help of God’s grace, to focus their thinking and prayer life more firmly on God in the heart of so much non-normalcy and suffering.  

What is the 40 Day Contemplative Lenten Challenge? 
During the 40 Day Contemplative Challenge you will receive daily reflections that will run from February 17th, Ash Wednesday, until April 3rd, Holy Saturday. Easter falls on April 4th this year.  

Participants in the 40 Day Contemplative Lenten Challenge will be encouraged to embrace praying the Rosary on a daily basis. The Rosary is first of all a form of vocal prayer, but it also is a gateway to meditative prayer. As participants pray the Rosary, we encourage you to use your imagination as a way to insert yourself into each mystery. For instance, when praying the  

mystery of the Annunciation, insert yourself in the room with Mary as the Angel Gabriel greets her. Or, as you pray the Sorrowful Mystery about the crucifixion, imagine you are standing at the foot of the Cross with Mary and St. John. Such forms of meditative prayer are transformative, and a part of the meditative approach will be to encourage participants to use St. Teresa of Avila’s, approach to meditative prayer called the Teresian method. St. Teresa is a doctor of the Church, is one of our Church’s greatest contemplative saints. A synopsis of her method of prayer will be sent along with several other attachments that you can use as helpful hints along the way of you prayer journey though Lent.  

Participants will also be encouraged to incorporate fasting from food and drink and from all forms of electronic media during the Lenten journey.   

Over the 40 days of Lent, we hope and pray that the reflections and how you pray with them will build a habit of prayer that incorporates prayer spent meditatively in the silence of your heart that will more firmly center you in the peace that surpasses all understanding, which is a gift from God. The spiritual strength that comes from a habit of consistent meditative and silent prayer is something that is very important for us Christians when so much of what is happening around us is not normal, and is so ready to rob us of our peace and trust in God. Each of us will be praying for you as we make our Lenten journey together.   

God Bless 

Cheryl Pilkington, Spiritual Director 
David Morgan, parishioner 
Deacon Joe Mills 
Deacon Jim Caldwell 

Return to 40 DLC Main Page