Making Our Home for Faith

Making Our Home for Faith: Lent, Holy Week, and Easter

In the Fall the Cathedral produced the Making Our Home for Faith booklet as a resource to enrich our spiritual practice in daily life. In the midst of continued physical separation, we recognized the importance of finding ways to deepen our faith and connection to God and one another.

As we find ourselves approaching the seasons of Lent and Easter, we invite you to further deepen the transformative and life-affirming practices of our shared faith. To that end, the Adult Formation Council has developed a new resource which is meant to serve as a companion to the first Making Our Home for Faith booklet. It contains additional liturgies and activities for marking this most holy time. It builds on the content of the first booklet by providing resources for spiritual practices specific to the seasons of Lent, Holy Week, and Easter that you can do at home.

It also offers some additional resources that can be used during any season. Like the first booklet, this one has icons that indicate which parts can be used individually, in pairs, with a small group, for families, and/or virtually.

It is our sincere hope that we, as Christ Church Cathedral, will make our homes for faith, inviting God’s loving presence into our own individual dwellings. We have an opportunity to be formed in a new way, integrating our spiritual inheritance into the very heart of our daily lives. Christ is with us in his Word, and by the Spirit draws us together as one before God. Though physically apart, we share the Gospel, which strengthens and comforts us all.

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Family Podcast

Join Cathedral Youth this season in the observance of a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God’s holy Word. We will be guided by meditations of two great theologians, Howard Thurman and Archbishop Oscar Romero from El Salvador. We will also turn our focus toward the prophet Micah who encouraged us to Do Justice, Love Mercy and Walk humbly with God. You can find it wherever you get your podcasts, or at https://www.christchurchcathedral.org/hffpodcast.

Videos Referenced in this Booklet

Palm Cross by Flo Ray

Easter Garland by Celeste Geldreich

Cathedral Spotify Playlists

Music is a powerful way to connect with God and our own inner life. Explore these playlists, or create your own anthology of faith-filled music to enrich your spiritual practice.

Choral and Organ Music

Favorite Hymns

Cathedral Musicians

Christian Singer/Songwriter

Songs for Kids

Canciones por los niños

Música de adorar

Gospel Inspiration

Lullabies

Scripture Resources

Vanderbilt’s Revised Common Lectionary Pages allow you to find the readings for the upcoming Sundays according to the Revised Common Lectionary by clicking on the season and the date. In addition to the scripture passages, there are thematic prayers and images chosen to resonate with the themes in the scriptures. HINT: We are in Year A for 2020 until Advent starts.

ESV — Daily Office Lectionary Podcast by Crossway is a well-produced podcast of the daily readings (Old Testament, Psalm, Epistle and Gospel), without comment, using the English Standard Version.

Bible Gateway is both an app and a website that allows you to easily search for keywords in the bible or scripture references. You can easily switch to almost any English or other language translations. The site’s default is the New International Version (NIV), but we recommend using the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) which is what you will hear in church. You may also wish to read a passage in more than one translation and reflect on the differences.

Prayers & Liturgy Resources

Online Book of Common Prayer is an online reproduction of the BCP with hyperlinks. To navigate the Online BCP, use the left hand column and click on the hyperlinks. The sections Daily Office and Prayers and Thanksgivings are very useful for home worship.

Every Moment Holy is a beautiful prayer resource. Some of the prayers/liturgies in the book are available at no cost on this website. Even if you don’t buy the book or pay to download the other prayers, the titles in the table of contents might inspire you to write a prayer for an ordinary moment.

Other Prayer Resources

Daily Prayer

Pandemic Prayers

A Litany Amidst Covid-19

Liturgical Resources — Diocese of Texas

Music Resources

Lent

Nothing But the Blood of Jesus

Episcopal Hymnal, Hymn #685 Rock of Ages, Cleft for me – Version 1

Episcopal Hymnal, Hymn #685 Rock of Ages, Cleft for me – Version 2

Create in me a Clean Heart – Version 1

Create in me a Clean Heart – Version 2

Holy Week

Liturgy of Palms: Processional Hymn #154 — All Glory, Laud, and Honor

Holy Week Hymn #172 — “Were You There” (when they crucified my Lord?)

Hymn #474 — When I Survey the Wonderous Cross

At The Cross

Easter Vigil

At the lighting of the new fire: The Exultet

Once the resurrection is proclaimed: When they ring those golden bells

Easter

Easter Hymn #175 — Hail thee festival day

Easter Hymn #179 — Welcome happy morning age to age shall say

Easter Hymn #207 — “Easter Hymn” Jesus Christ is Risen Today

Jesus Paid It All

Hymn #450 — All Hail the Power of Jesus Name

Hymn #494 — Crown Him with Many Crowns

Because He Lives

Media Resources for Reflection on Social Issues [not for children]

Before we get to Easter we will journey with Jesus through his passion during Holy Week. The story is one of betrayal, wrongful conviction, state brutality, and death. Consider bearing witness to stories from our own culture that echo these themes or that allow you to consider what good can come from a death. Here are some suggested movies and podcasts:

Movies

The Central Park Five or When They See Us – Both of these films tell the story of five youths wrongfully convicted of a rape and murder in Central Park. The first is a two-hour documentary by Ken Burns. The second is a four-part dramatic series directed by Ava Duvernay for Netflix.

Just Mercy — This film tells the story of Walter McMillian, who was convicted of murder, and Bryan Stevenson, the attorney who worked to free him.

The Matrix — A classic sci-fi/action film with a redemption theme and resurrection event often referenced by preachers.

The Mission — This award-winning film from 1986 depicts a Jesuit missionary in 18th-century South America.

Babette’s Feast — This Danish film takes you into the ascetic world of small religious sect that is disrupted by a French political refugee. Fasting and feasting as well as forgiveness and generosity are themes to discuss with a friend.

A Will for the Woods — This documentary follows a man with a terminal illness who wants something good to come out of his death, specifically his choices about how and where to be buried. It is available for rent or purchase on Vimeo, Gaia or iTunes.

Podcasts

In the Dark Season 2 —The wrongful conviction of Curtis Flowers is explored in this series of podcasts which originally had 11 episodes. The impact of the reporting led to subsequent events and 12 more episodes, (some being very brief updates). We recommend that you plan to listen to the first 11 episodes during Lent and save the rest for Eastertide.

Everything Happens — “Life isn’t always bright and shiny, as Kate Bowler knows. Kate is a young mother, writer and professor who, at age 35, was suddenly diagnosed with Stage IV cancer. In warm, insightful, often funny conversations, Kate talks with people about what they’ve learned in dark times.”

Home for Faith Resources

Making Our Home for Faith Resources Our current moment invites us to rediscover the practice of faith in our homes and to consider more intentionally the daily rhythm of our …

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