LENT Week 5
Follow along daily throughout with us this Lent as we explore the key Wesleyan emphases of holiness:
Covenant, Discipleship, Sanctification, Repentance, and Unity
This season we will journey further into love as we are more perfectly formed to tell the story of God with our head, heart, and hands.
Week 5 - A Heart for ALL
THE EXAMEN
The Examen is a daily spiritual discipline of prayerful questions created by Saint Ignatius of Loyola in order to help prime his spiritual vision to be able to see God moving and working in his life. His constant invitation to those he lived and worked with was to find God in all things. The Jesuits, the holy order of priests and brothers founded by St. Ignatius, order their lives in perpetual poverty, chastity, and obedience, and pray the Examen every night.
Use these five prayerful steps to find God in all things this Lenten season.
1. Attune to God’s presence. Find a comfortable position and ground yourself with deep, slow breathing. Know that God is with you, always as close as your next breath. God is with you even now.
2. Review your day. What was a consolation to you today?
*Consolations are anything, any place, or any person that brings us closer to God. Consolations can be good, bad, or neutral themselves - but they are those things which usher us into the presence of God.*
3. What was a desolation to you today?
*Desolations are anything, any place, or any person that brings us further away from God. Desolations can be good, or neutral themselves - but they are simply those things which draw us out of the presence of God.*
4. Give thanks for the day. Name the moments and the people and the experiences you are most grateful to God for today.
5. Our hearts should beat for all people, all places, all of creation.
What does it mean to have a heart for all?
SUNDAY
Lectionary Readings
Jeremiah 31:31-34, Psalm 51:1-12, Hebrews 5:5-10, John 12:20-33
Join us for Worship this First Sunday of Lent
We are excited to welcome you to worship in-person or online at ESUMC. We will worship at 10:30 am for The Gathering and 8:30 am & 10:30 am for the Sanctuary.
The livestream and bulletin for this Sunday can be found online at esumc.org/livestream.
MONDAY
MUSIC
“Come By Here”
by Kyle Pederson
offered by eStreet & Apex UMC Youth Choirs
Click here for more Lenten Music
TUESDAY
PRAYER OF CONFESSION
by Sam Bullington
Dear Heavenly Father, we confess that we have not loved the desperate, the hungry, or the poor. Forgive us for our selfish and sinful actions and help us to love our neighbors as ourselves. Help us to be like the good Samaritan who responds to those who need help the most. Guide us to not only to love the people like us, but to love and care for everyone. Let us continue our prayers in silent confession. Amen.
WEDNESDAY
ART & POETRY
Click Here to see this week’s artwork
THURSDAY
FIRST READ PODCAST (LIVE)
Join us on Wednesday evenings this spring (2/21-3/20) for Midweek Bible Study to connect, gather around the table for dinner, and learn together. Our Bible study will focus on the scriptures being preached each week during Lent. Several pastors and laity will engage in a live recording of ESUMC’s First Read Podcast beginning at 7:00 PM each week, followed by conversation at tables and time for Q & A. We look forward to seeing you there as we journey through the Lenten season together.
Click Here for this week’s episode
FRIDAY
STORIES
Meet Mary Evelyn
Violet gives the best hugs! Just ask any of our receptionists who get to experience the joy she brings when she comes through our church doors to attend school at Learning Together’s developmental day center. Violet is three. She has Down Syndrome and has been attending Learning Together since she was twenty months old. She loves school, and loves to dance and play with her classmates. While in school, Violet receives speech, OT and PT. When asked what Learning Together has meant to her, Violet’s mom said, “It has been more than a school. The staff have been my community and are like family to me. Violet has grown so much - from taking her first steps at school to learning the social skills that have drastically improved her speech and allowed her personality to flourish.” Flourishing is what Learning Together is all about. Using the same evidence-based curriculum for all children while incorporating differentiated teaching strategies to meet the needs of each individual child, Learning Together works tirelessly to create a world where access to high-quality early childhood education is available to all children and families, with a community of resources to support their educational and personal journey beyond school. Learning Together’s story began in 1969 when Julia Williams, a teacher and Methodist missionary, opened a half-day preschool program that included children with developmental delays in Raleigh. Today, her legacy continues enabling children of all abilities to learn, grow and thrive in community together.
SATURDAY
LENTEN ALMSGIVING
Throughout Lent, we invite you to join us in the spiritual practice of almsgiving - the sacrificial sharing of our resources to partner with God’s work in the world. Our hope is to raise $20,000 for L’Arche NC and Learning Together, to provide resources for Learning Together scholarships and to help to fill L’Arche’s new home. We hope you will join us as we practice living like Jesus by sharing our resources and cultivating charitable hearts! Click the links below to give resources and/or time this week.