Begin your Lent with a Day of Quiet contemplation of what God might be doing in your life. Join a peaceful, beautiful space to relax, pray, stare out the window or at the fire, journal, create art, meditate or try out prayer exercises. Feel free to drop in and out, for as short as 30 minutes or the whole time. This event will be in person on the Epiphany campus and require pre-registration. If you’re interested in doing an online version, please contact Diana Bender at diana.bender@outlook.com.
Prepare your Space, in Advance if possible
Identify which part(s) of your living space you will devote to your Day of Quiet. Take the time to clean and tidy the space. If you can do some de-cluttering, it will help calm your mind. If you have a pretty tablecloth, scarves, or other fabric, use them to make it even more beautiful.
Create a sacred space- any small table can become an altar. Cover it with a white or other beautiful cloth. Place a candle and sacred item or items on it. For this purpose, less is more. A sacred item can be a cross, figure, rock, seashell, piece of wood or a piece of artwork- anything that evokes a sense of the Divine for you. Try to set it up so that you can sit in front of it. For other creative ideas, click here.
Consider what supplies you’d like to have accessible. I strongly encourage you to at least have a journal and writing implement. For the Day of Quiet at Epiphany, I usually put out:
- pens and markers
- crayons, colored pencils and sometimes watercolors
- scissors and erasers
- A variety of paper of different colors
It’s fun to prepare whatever you have in case the Spirit moves you to do art. See below for ways to spend your time on the Day of Quiet so you can figure out what you want to set up for yourself.
Personally, I’m much more attentive to the flavor of my food when I’m in silence. Take some time to prepare nice food for yourself during this time. You may want to do this in advance or use the time of preparing your food to be a prayerful, Day of Quiet activity (chopping can be quite meditative!).
Let any others in your home know that you’ll be devoting yourself to a time of quiet. Invite them to join you! It’s actually fun to be silent together.
Silence Technology Notifications
Some people use their tablets or phones to read or listen to prayer. However, if you need your technology to support prayer, try to silence all notifications.
How to spend your Day of Quiet
Page down for guided prayer activities, prayers and scripture passages to use during your Day of Quiet.
Pray, meditate, notice beautiful things outside (even if it’s just rain on the windowpane or clouds outside!), do art, eat well and relax. Some people find walking meditations outside to be very fruitful.
Take some time to just be quiet and still within yourself. It might take a while to let go of your mental chatter and be truly calm. Don’t give up too quickly.
Some people like to have peaceful, relaxing music during some of the time and others find it keeps them from going deep.
Write in your journal! In the coming years, you will really appreciate reading anything you’ve written in a journal during this time in our world. Research has shown that reflection and journaling are very helpful psychologically in times of anxiety or stress. So, I strongly encourage you to journal!
At noon and repeated at 3:00 pm, Diana will lead a Guided Visualization in the Zoom call, or you can do it anytime you want by clicking on the video on the Epiphany Facebook page posted a few days ago.
Guided Prayer Activities for the Day of Quiet
Visio Divina for Virtual Day of Quiet
Engaging God in your Decision-Making
River of Life Reflection Exercise
Prayers and Scripture Passages for the Day of Quiet
It would be Easier to Pray if I were Clear
Other images of prayers are available in this folder, and also on the Epiphany Parish Facebook page in an album under the “Photos” section.