Booklet strives to prepare hearts

By LINDA M. LINONIS
VINDICATOR RELIGION EDITOR
YOUNGSTOWN -- "The Lenten Meditations" booklet takes readers from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday with the thought to prayerfully prepare their hearts to observe the season of Lent.
The booklet includes contributions from seven of the 13 members in the Episcopal Churches of the Youngstown Deanery. Liz Wrona, a member and senior warden at St. John's Episcopal Church, 323 Wick Ave., and deanery representative, coordinated the effort. The deanery includes churches from Warren to Steubenville; contributions came from churches in the Youngstown area.
"We've been doing it for about five years," Wrona said of the initial solo effort of St. John's. "Last year, we thought we would include the churches in the Youngstown Deanery."
Initially, the basis for such a publication came from the idea of how church members would interpret, reflect on or comment on passages of Scripture. "We thought it would be interesting to see other people's thought on Scriptures," Wrona said. The meditations are relayed through poetry, prayer and prose.
Details
The booklet is based on the Daily Office Lectionary as listed in the Book of Common Prayer. The meditations started Ash Wednesday, March 1, and go through Holy Saturday, April 15. The collect for Easter Sunday, April 16, also is included. Suggested Scriptures for March 1 were Amos 5:6-15, Hebrews 12:1-14 and Luke 18:9-14.
Misook Yun of St. John's wrote that the poem, "Ash Wednesday" by T.S. Eliot offered profound Lenten themes. A passage:
"And pray to God to have mercy upon us
And pray that I may forget
These matters that with myself I too much discuss
Too much explain
Because I do not hope to turn again
Let these words answer
For what is done, not to be done again
May the judgment not be too heavy upon us."
Today's suggested passages are Genesis 41:1-13, Corinthians 4:1-7 and Mark 2:23-36. The meditation comes from John Hammel of Christ Episcopal Church, 2627 Atlantic St. N.E., Warren. He writes of one of his first jobs -- working in a bookstore in Warren and of the popularity of dream books. He ponders what it would be like to have an astrologer or dream interpreter figure things out. Hammel concludes:
"What I have learned, though, is that I can take my concerns, my confusion, my fears to God in prayer ... and I will get answers. I take some practice to be able to discern the answers, and to recognize answers whey they appear, but they do come. God is always available to us, always there to listen, to help, to guide, and to answer. The channel is open, always was, always will be. It is just up to us to tune in."
Wrona said the response was good and a schedule was made out to cover the 40 days of Lent. "If there was a meaningful date for someone, we tried to be flexible on that," she said. "And we wanted to have a mix of longtime [church] members and those who are recent members."
Individuality
Wrona said it was left up to each contributor how he or she would comment on or relate to the Scripture passages for the day. "They could respond to the Scripture in their own way, " she said.
Some people associate Lent with "giving something up," Wrona said. The meditation booklet was meant to give something that would "deepen the Lenten experience," she said, and be "helpful in prayer and meditation."
Wrona said the response has been positive on the meditation booklet. "You learn something from someone else's thoughts ... and it speaks differently to people."
St. Andrew's Church, 3755 Raccoon Road, Canfield, handled the printing and distribution, Wrona said. "It's free and available at the churches," Wrona said. "We also have taken booklets to nursing home residents, and I know some have been mailed to family members who live elsewhere."