Practice Lament

During Lent 2021, our church came together to Practice Lament. Our priest, my husband Brian, encouraged us that practicing lament was crucial for our congregation for three reasons. One, practicing lament connects us to the suffering we and those around us are experiencing. Two, practicing lament brings deep healing, profound hope, and joyous celebration that are found in Jesus. Three, to practice lament is to prepare for missions. as we recognize the suffering of others and experience God's healing and hope then we are whole enough to offer God's grace to our friends, family, neighbors, coworkers, and classmates. This is the outline of our work practicing lament together for the season of Lent 2021.

NOTE: Drake and Kirstin Dowsett collaborated with Brian and me to create this guidebook. The image on the cover is from the wonderful Austin-based artist Meena Matocha. You can purchase her work, including A Prayer in Times of Isolation (seen above) at her website: http://meenamatocha.com/gallery/

Retrieving Lament Zoom Gatherings for Holy Week 2020

Last year, as Holy Week arrived in the disorienting early weeks of the pandemic, I invited everyone who’d previously written a story for the Retrieve Lament series to gather via Zoom. It felt important for the Sacramental Life Community to process the unknown grief ahead of us in the context of what we’d learned about lament in the past. To my surprise, I was not alone. Three different times last April, we gathered to share, listen, and notice how God meets the brokenhearted.

The holy compulsion motivating the Retrieve Lament series for the past eight years contends for this truth: We need to hear other people’s laments in the presence of Christ and his people. Specifically, we need to hear stories outside of our own perspective and from all different stages of grief. I need to hear expressions of lament at the beginning shocking part of grief, the middle, uncharted terrain of grief, and the lament that comes with the ending chapters of grief. I need to be surrounded by people who aren’t afraid to share their lament in all its unpredictability and strength. 

Brian and I gathered on April 6, 2020, for a conversation with A Sacramental Life Community about retrieving lament in the early months of the Coronavirus pandemic. We built the conversation around what we’ve learned throughout our own journies of lament over the past decade or so.

In part 2 of our Holy Week 2020 conversation with A Sacramental Life Community, we listened to updates from Sharon O’Connor, Jeff Lee, and Cheryl Sellstrom. I’m grateful for their honest assessment of personal suffering and grief and their hard-won affirmation that God meets us in our grief.

In part 3 of our Holy Week 2020 conversation with A Sacramental Life Community, we listened to updates from Kirstin Dowsett, Drake Dowsett, and me. I’m grateful for their honest assessment of personal suffering and grief and their hard-won affirmation that God meets us in our grief.