Chuck Reinhart
In some church traditions, Lent is focused on penance and sin and the practice of giving up things as a form of sacrifice. Lent in the ancient tradition of the church was about the rites and rituals that prepared individuals for Baptism at Easter. Richard Rohr, a Franciscan and a Roman Catholic priest, notes that Lent is about change and transformation where the False Self is challenged by the hardness of failure and suffering which enables the True Self to be uncovered or rediscovered.
This Lent, Sun Lakes United Church of Christ has chosen two books for their Lenten Spiritual offerings. The first book is Richard Rohr’s book, Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life. In this book, a new paradigm for understanding one of the most profound of life’s mysteries will be explored. This mystery relates to the ways our failings can be the foundation for our on-going spiritual growth. The second book study will be another book by Richard Rohr, Immortal Diamond: The Search for Our True Self. This book study will consider the way in which the True Self is like a diamond, buried deep within us, that must be searched for, uncovered and separated from all the debris of ego that surrounds it.
Lent is celebrated from Ash Wednesday to Holy Thursday, and in those 40 days, the scriptures invite Christians to reflect on Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem and to experience on a deeper level the spiritual challenge of suffering and Death. The question behind these book studies is: What is the appropriate spirituality for the second half of life? Join the members of Sun Lakes United Church of Christ for the study of Falling Upward which will be on Mondays, February 26 and March 5, from 10:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. And that will be followed by the study of Immortal Diamond on Mondays, March 12, 19 and 26, from 10:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. The study will be at the Sun Lakes United Church of Christ church office located at 25635 S. Country Club Dr., Sun Lakes, AZ 85248. Books can be purchased online from the Center for Action and Contemplation, https://cac.org/ or from Amazon. If you have questions, call Pastor Vernon Meyer at 480-895-6317