Report on Our First Lenten Journaling Session

Months ago, I volunteered to lead a Lenten journaling group that would meet every Wednesday of Lent.  We did a quick session before Ash Wednesday.  Last night was our first longer session.

We worked our way through an ancient practice, lectio divina. First, I read this passage out loud, and everyone listened to see what words and phrases leapt out at them:

1 Corinthians 3: 10-16: 10 According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building on it. Each builder must choose with care how to build on it. 11For no one can lay any foundation other than the one that has been laid; that foundation is Jesus Christ. 12Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— 13the work of each builder will become visible, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each has done. 14If what has been built on the foundation survives, the builder will receive a reward. 15If the work is burned, the builder will suffer loss; the builder will be saved, but only as through fire. 16 Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?

We spent 3 minutes in silent contemplation, and then I read the passage again. For 10 minutes, we responded in whatever way we wanted; most people seemed to use a combination of words and images.

I read the passage again, and we spent another 10 minutes in individual responding. Some of us started a new page, while others continued to work on their first response.

To close, I read the passage one more time, and we took 3 minutes to finish our responses. We then spent some time discussing any insights that we had.

Words that jumped out at people:
grace
God's temple
revealed with fire
God's Spirit dwells in you
foundation

We talked about the unsettling aspect of this passage, the idea that some of what we're building will be destroyed. We talked about the fire.  We talked about the idea of building on the work that has already been done. We talked a bit about our process too: did we use words or images first?

As we worked our way through the night, I was also thinking about my response as a group leader.  I had explained the timing of it all, but I still felt this odd unease when people stopped before time was up.  But I noticed that some people paused and then returned to their work.

I was happy that I, too, was able to respond, even though I was keeping track of time.  First I wrote down the words, and then I started to draw:

I was surprised by the different fire imagery that emerged.  There's the obvious flames.  But there's also an image that looks like a candle or a lamp--and then the star, too, is a flame.

It was an interesting night.  I'm looking forward to next week.