Holy Longing

Fasting & Feasting Lenten Retreat Holy Week

Image: The Prodigal Son, Rembrandt 1663

Here,
in the center of my chest,
their constant dwelling:

the persistent yearning
the insistent craving
the unbidden imaging
the desire awakening
the daydream, the nightdream
the reverie unfolding:
the language of longing
drawing me home.—— Jan Richardson

“But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.” Luke 15: 32

“Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you” Isaiah 30:18

“I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me; I was found by those who did not seek me. To a nation that did not call on my name, I said, ‘Here am I, here am I.’ All day long I have held out my hands to an obstinate people, who walk in ways not good, pursuing their own imaginations.” Isaiah 65:1-2

“Your steadfast love, O Lord, extends to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds.” Psalm 36:5

Holy Longing

Reflection by Kathy Prudden

During the past several weeks we’ve been exploring our hunger for that which truly satisfies. Now I wonder, what is God hungry for?

Scripture tells us that God longs for us, which is poignantly expressed in the story of the prodigal son.

Upon seeing the Rembrandt painting, “The Return of the Prodigal Son,” Henri Nouwen writes “…the tender embrace of the father and son expressed everything I desired at that moment. I was, indeed, the son exhausted from long travels; I wanted to be embraced; I was looking for a home where I could feel safe. The “son, come home” was all that I wanted to be. For so long I had been going from place to place: confronting, beseeching, admonishing, and consoling. Now I desired only to rest safely in a place where I could feel a sense of belonging, a place where I could feel at home.” (Nouwen, 1992).

The father prepared a feast for his lost son as an outpouring of his love. God has similarly prepared a feast for us, and one which is grander than we can imagine. Come, let us eat and be filled.

Suggested activity:

This week there are several activities designed to explore God’s love for you. There will be additional activities or reflection questions throughout Holy Week.

* Go through the poems and scripture from the past several weeks and select a word or two that has meaning for you, or somehow speaks to you. As you go through your day take a picture (or two or three) of how you perceive that word. If you want to take that a step further, print off the pictures and arrange them into a collage. This is a visual representation of how you’ve been encouraged, challenged, inspired (i.e. ‘fed’) during Lent.

* Write a letter from God to you in which God expresses a longing for your company. Respond to that letter.

* Think about what brings you joy. Convey that by creative means: take a picture; draw/paint/collage/sculpt; write; collect a representational object.

* There is a Swedish proverb that says that a shared joy is a double joy, shared sorrow is half a sorrow. Double your joy – – tell someone about it.

Poetry for Meditation and Reflection

One night I saw God Almighty in a dream.
I said to God:
“It’s been sixty years that I have spent
in the hope of being your friend,
of desiring you.”
God Almighty answered me:
“You’ve been seeking me for sixty years?
I’ve spent an eternity
to eternity
befriending you.”
– Abu‘l-Hasan Kharaqani

I want to walk with you as friends walk.
I want us to be causal and intimate.
I want us to share secrets.
I will begin with a secret of mine: I love you.
I have loved you since the beginning of time.
I have always seen myself as coming to join you.
I am ready to listen to your heart.

All things are good and can be made anew.
I am the water you long to drink.
I am the food you hunger for.
I am the full meal that nourishes and nurtures you.
Let us break bread.

-Julia Cameron, Answered Prayers

Coming to God: First Days

Lord, what shall I do that I
Can’t quiet myself?
Here is the bread, and
Here is the cup, and
I can’t quiet myself.

To enter the language of transformation!
To learn the importance of stillness,
With one’s hands folded!

When will my eyes of rejoicing turn peaceful?
When will my joyful feel grow still?
When will my heart stop its prancing
As over the summer grass?

Lord, I would run for you, loving the miles for your sake.
I would climb the highest tree
To be that much closer.

Lord, I will learn also to kneel down
Into the world of the invisible,
The inscrutable and the everlasting.
Then I will move no more than the leaves of a tree
On a day of no wind,
Bathed in light,
Like the wanderer who has come home at lat
And kneels in peace, done with all unnecessary thing;.
Every motion; even words.
-Mary Oliver

Keeping Watch
In the morning
When I begin to wake,
It happened again – – –

That feeling
That You, Beloved,
Had stood over me all night
Keeping watch,

That feeling
That as soon as I began to stir

You put your lips to my forehead
And lit a Holy Lamp
Inside my heart.

-Haifiz

Program Note: We are now entering Holy Week. A daily email will be sent on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday with poetry and scripture and/or a brief reflective statement or question. On Good Friday and Saturday the emails will be silent. A final reflection will be sent and posted on Easter Sunday.

*Reference. Nouwen, H. (1992). The Return of the Prodigal Son: A Story of Homecoming. New York: Doubleday.

This Online Lenten Retreat is also available via a weekly email. Please click here if you would like to receive the retreat in your inbox until Easter.

Exploring the Intersection of Art, Faith and the Human experience

Holy Longing