Presence | Experience | Coherence

The story of Lent is the story of Jesus, and the story of the way in which God enters in a unique way into our journey of challenge, suffering, embodiment, and so into authentic human existence.  It is God entering fully into the human experience and then leading us on a journey of presence through the darkness toward new life.And so, I allow my rhythm of prayer to echo this story; to pulse with the repeating refrains of presence, experience and coherence.

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Lent 2018Clint Gibson
Seclusion

Seclusion is the sacred space of prayer where we are alone with ourselves long enough to consider how the extrinsic trappings of our so-called sacred practices are in need of re-evaluation. When we separate from the familiar and predictable we begin to face our deep need for ongoing change and renewal. 

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Lent 2018Clint Gibson
The Two Faces of Wilderness

The Wilderness with all of it’s unknown’s and risks are invitations for transformation. Changing our view of the world often requires moving to a new vantage point, like scaling the rugged rocky outcrops of Mt Tongariro’s ‘Devil’s Staircase’, in order to experience the beauty of the milky aqua volcanic Lakes that lie at the top of her pass.

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Lent 2018Clint Gibson
The Wilderness

The season of lent mirrors the ancient pathway, a deeply religious narrative of  the Jewish community as they journeyed from Egypt to the wilderness and into the promised land. The wilderness was their liminal space, their in-between corridor of time that gave them permission to re-evaluate the big questions that arise as we follow our sacred script of personal transformation.

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Lent 2018Clint Gibson
Transfiguration and a New Exodus

But this time it’s not just to bring about freedom for a certain group of slaves; it is to reach into the very heart of humanness itself, and lead us all on an exodus out of dehumanisation and toward life, flourishing, and possibility. Jesus invites us to follow him on a new exodus. To follow him down a path toward a different way of being in the world. 

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Lent 2018Clint Gibson
Agreement

The journey toward agreement is the final frontier for human consciousness, the terrain that must be wisely navigated if we are to experience the harmony that the human race deserves.  It sometimes seems like there is always more that divides us than there is that we have in common. Plotting a course is the hopeless romantics dream and a philosopher’s nightmare, and yet we must strive for some kind of collaborative partnership if we are to evolve.

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Clint Gibson
Epiphany

Epiphany is a moment of sudden realisation or revelation, an invitation into new understandings that enhance and enliven our consciousness that ultimately recalibrate our way of being.

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Clint Gibson
Stars.

When we look up, we take our eyes off the so-called concrete familiarity of our known status in life and we reach out to the universe as if to ask for help and assistance from the God we believe is forever enlarging our consciousness. Astronomers believe that the universe is constantly evolving and expanding, its life force unrestrained by limitation or constraint, a metaphorical reminder of how the stars open our eyes and hearts to the unbounded possibility of growth and progress. 

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Clint Gibson
Advent

Advent - Mary analogously reminds us that the Divine is looking for a place of habitation in the human condition, room to add aesthetic to our spirituality and invite us into new experiences of discovery.

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Clint Gibson
Beauty

The Advent season and the story of the divine incarnation is a great opportunity to rediscover what it means to be human and the beauty that lies within. 

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Clint Gibson
God anew

Later into every year we await the new season ‘advent’ a time characterised by the feature of arrival, the coming into view of the 'Christ mystery’ as it once again seeks to incarnate in creation.

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Clint Gibson
Whakatupu - Cultivate - Self Control

Self Control does not stand alone as a virtue to be cultivated in our lives, rather it belongs to all of the others. I wonder though, if it were to intentionally choose to delay gratification that the result and our offering of Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Faithfulness and Goodness to others would be the natural response.

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Clint Gibson
Whakatupu - Love

I decided to trust that Love, that God was moving through my necessary season, I decided to trust that God was indeed with me and all that love that I wanted to give, was now being turned toward myself.

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Clint Gibson
Whakatupu - Cultivate - Goodness

In communities, we can constantly affirm together what is good, and kind, wise and
true. We can understand what it means to be good to ourselves, each other and
the created world around us and we can understand what God meant when the
created world was good and how best we can respond to that.

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Clint Gibson
Whakatupu - Cultivate - Kindness

The word kindness has a gentle sound that seems to echo the presence of compassionate goodness. When someone is kind to you, you feel understood and seen. There is no judgment or harsh perception directed toward you.

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Clint Gibson