WHEN TRUE SIMPLICITY IS GAINED: Finding Spiritual Clarity in a Complex World

 

In their book, father and son – Martin Marty, writer, and Micah Marty, photographer – we are encouraged to see simplicity as a gift, not something to attain.  The Introduction begins: Simplicity: virtually everyone wants it.  Advertisers peddle “the simple life” and consultants help busy people find “the simple way.”  How-to-books on the subject fill library shelves.  At the center of the quest – simplicity.” …To deny the urge to simplify life would be to deny much of the spiritual and religious impulse of humanity through the ages…Jesus in the Gospels tells would-be disciples that they must become like little children, whose lives, full of trust, would strike them as simple.  Many of the advertised paths to simplicity can be quite complex…and give us complicated advice on how to live simply – organize your desktop or kitchen, your office drawers and computer files, all in the interest of making it possible for you to think and act more simply. But this book invites us to consider simplicity as a GIFT and then asking how we should receive it and the other gifts that come with it…The photographs in these pages take us to one particular place (Shaker communities) apart and afar from most of us – and bring it into our places and near to our own hearts. 

 

In this book there is one page, one prayer, one “gift” for each day – a pairing of photographs and texts for each day of Lent.  With each reading we are invited to meditate upon the suggested Bible reading and the phrase from a classic prayer, as well as the meditation for the day and accompanying photo. 

 

Journeying through Lent can be done solo or if you like you are invited to join with others each Sunday morning of Lent in the Session Room at 9 AM, beginning February 26th.    This is not a Bible study, but rather an opportunity come together with others who have been reading the same daily meditations and contemplating the same photos, and together share as much or as little as we want from our reflections from the past week.  Books are available in the church office.  Please call Rev. Linda at the office or on cell phone with any questions.