LENT and MY 178 FACEBOOK FRIENDS

     It woke me this morning out of a sound sleep.We've been in the season of Lent for three days and I've still not decided how to observe these 40 days. Yes, I've made myself some promises of rearranging some things in my day to make more sense.  Things I probably have been putting off for too long.  But what might I do... proactively?

Over the years I've had my share of "giving up"  chocolate, movies, soda, ice cream [for me a real hardship] facebook, whole day fasts once a week, and for several years fasting all of Holy Week. This last one ruins Easter dinner, because that is no way to come off of a fast.

I'm already meditating in the morning before checking email WOW!  I'm already reading the Lenten devotionals from Laurence Freeman and James Martin.  But how to reach out.. how to touch?

So this is what really woke me at 3:53 a.m.  I feel led to pray for my "friends" on facebook.

It will come as no surprise that its not something in my routine.  I'm actually going to be surprised to find who is there when I go through the list!  But each day I'm going to pray my way through. No not just a "God bless Pattty and Timmy..." but really pray for each of them. 

Lying in bed I thought that would be about 100 folks and I still have 37 days left. No biggy. Imagine my surprise to find the list has inched up to 178 over the years.  Hmmm... 178 divided by 37...  4.81081081 people to pray for each day.

And when I pray, I'm going to their page and leave a note letting them know they were prayed for.

But why this... and why now?   Another thing that occurred to me at 3:53 a.m. is that my newsfeed is beginning to fill up with more and more 2nd hand information.  It is filled with posts folks are passing on because they love or hate something.  It's filled with quick tips and ads and pretty pictures.  All of which I really LIKE.  But fewer and farther between, does someone just write what is on their mind or heart.  I miss those posts. (Sigh)

So I'm going to pray and post my way through Lent on the facebook pages of my 178 friends.  I'm going to leave behind the traces of a real breathing person instead of a re-post of a re-post of a re-post. 

I have no delusions of grandeur.  Likely I'll find those people who have unfriended me.  I'll pray for them anyway.  But in a world for which it seems isolation is a chosen state as much as a by-product of society, I'm going to offer the closest thing facebook has to human touch--a real post--with a little spiritual power thrown in by the grace and mercy of God.

If you are one of my 178, watch for your post/prayer on your page in these next seven weeks.  If you are not one of my 178 and would like a prayer, all you have to do is ask.  I'm off to begin.  Keep me in your prayers!

In peace and in great joy,

Kathleen Bronagh Weller  THECELTICMONK





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