Centring our hearts on love

By Rev. Dr Katherine Rainger, Senior Chaplain

Trent Dalton is an author who encourages readers to see the extraordinary in the everyday. His book Love Stories is a poignant example of this. Sitting on a corner in King George Square in Brisbane with a typewriter and a sign that read, “Sentimental writer collecting love stories,” Trent met people who shared their funny, profound, heartbreaking and joy-filled stories of love with him. He then compiled these stories into a book, which has since been adapted into a play.

Lent, the 40 days of preparation for Easter, can have a reputation for severe austerity and denial. There are elements of this tha have a place. Lent offers an antidote to the consumerism and excess that can become part of daily life by reminding us that fasting – whether that be from food, social media or shopping – can increase our gratitude and make us more aware of God and those around us.

Rev. Elizabeth Smith writes in the Lenten hymn that, “Love will be our Lenten calling.” Love is to be the impulse that motivates our spiritual practices, whether they be fasting, prayer, giving, study or reflection.

The prophet Joel, writing to ancient readers, reminds the people that God calls them to return to God “with all your heart, fasting, weeping and mourning” (Joel 2:12). Upon this return, the God they encounter “is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love” (Joel 2:13). This invitation is also for us. We are invited to return to God bringing our whole selves. We bring our whole hearts and our grief, as we mourn for ourselves and for the world around us.

Aboriginal Elder, Nyoongah woman and theologian, Aunty Elizabeth Pike, captures the sparseness and lament of the Season of Lent and the love and hope that call us forward.

Lenten Prayer

The song is gone.
And the ritual dance seems useless
But somewhere deep within
Our sorry hearts cry out.
The fractured circle of the Dreaming
Must be renewed.
During this Lenten time of soul-searching
Let us breathe life onto the dying coals,
Till the spark of love ignites
The flame of the Spirit.
Here still beneath the parched red earth
Here still are the mountains
We once climbed.
And the hidden spring beneath the plains
Giving out their life-giving water.
So let us now in Lenten preparation
Embrace once more the old way of our tradition
Of quiet - still - awareness.
Our way of contemplation,
Letting go the ills and bitterness of the past,

And centring our hearts on 'Love'
and the spirit of 'Hope' - then our Spirit
and the Spirit of the Dreaming will be renewed.

Published in The Power of Story: Spirit of the Dreaming by Elizabeth Pike.