Dear Friends in Christ,

As I walked through the Garden of Gethsemane last week, I was weary. Full
days and nights of meeting with church partners and others in
Israel-Palestine had meant moving daily among armed soldiers, through
checkpoints, sitting and listening to apprehensions, deep longings for peace
and justice, and courageous work. I felt both full and empty.

I thought about the last night Jesus spent in the garden with his friends.
They were weary, and they found it hard to stay awake with him. Even though
they were inspired by Jesus and were his friends, he had to ask, "Could you
not keep awake one hour?"

Even with all that makes us weary, may we keep awake with our friend Jesus
this Lent. May our eyes remain open, whatever we're facing. With my Lenten
video message, I invite you to hear Christ's challenge along with words of
poetry and images from the Middle East:
http://www.youtube.com/unitedchurchofcanada. They all help strengthen my
resolve to try to stay awake with Christ.

If you'd like to be accompanied through Lent by a United Church community
that's praying together in this season, please join me and others in prayer
and online conversation while using this year's Lenten devotional book,
Rising with the Morning Star: http://www.wondercafe.ca/risingmorningstar.
This is an opportunity to share in a living spirituality that sustains the
journey of faith doing justice, focused on God's healing of soul, community
and creation.

May our eyes remain open...
May the soul's journey be revealed
and the true hunger fed.
May we be forgiven for what we have forgotten and blessed with the
remembrance of who we really are.~ The Terma Collective from "The Box:
Remembering the Gift."

Lenten Blessings,

Moderator,
Mardi Tindal,
The United Church of Canada,