Thank you for signing up to follow my Lent blog! Each day of Lent I’m going to post about a different woman from the Old Testament and on Saturdays we have some wonderful guest posts written by some fabulous women.
Firstly you might want to make sure the emails don’t go into your spam/junk folder by marking this email address as a ‘not junk’.
They should take about 5 mins to read, and each will end with a short prayer. I’ll send them at 6.30am each day. You might find it helpful to find a regular time of day that suits you to read them, perhaps in the mornings and some people like to have a particular place, such as a favourite chair.
We’ll begin tomorrow but I thought I’d start with a little introduction.
I began this blog last summer as a challenge for myself to a) form a writing habit, b) find out for myself more about the women of the bible, and c) learn how to use WordPress (which took a while!).
A bit about me. I’m ordained as a C of E Priest and currently work as College Chaplain and Welfare Coordinator at Christ Church, an Oxford College. I came to faith in my early 20’s having grown up in rural Bucks and my childhood was more ‘pony club’ than ‘church youth club’. I’ve often felt that my knowledge of the Old Testament was a bit scrappy, and so when I began this blog most of the women were a mystery to me.
There is an assumption that women are largely ignored in the biblical narrative, and that when they are written about they are marginal characters to the main story, or are only allowed to be either mother, whore or seductress. This is certainly the case for some of the women we’ll look at over Lent, and there are some tragic stories that we won’t gloss over and ignore. But there are also many, many women who are central to the narrative, complex in character, and who use the power they have for good, and sometimes for evil.
When I began the blog I intended to use New Testament women as well, but I found there were so many fantastic women in the Hebrew scriptures and so I decided to stay there, with two exceptions from the Apocrypha.
I hope you enjoy reading about these wonderful women as much as I have enjoyed writing these blogs. Also, if you enjoy them, please do pass the link on to your friends!
Every blessing,
Clare
A prayer for our journey
Let us make our way together, Lord; wherever you go I must go: and through whatever you pass, there too I will pass.
Teresa of Avila, 1515-1582
Consider the Lilies - Clare Hayns 
This looks great Clare. Top Word Pressing!
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Thanks! Took a while to work it out 🙂
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It gets better and better, with more options that can be a bit baffling. Out of interest, what is the thinking behind the ‘Consider the lilies’ title or did I miss an explanation somewhere?
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It’s partly because I love Stanley Spencer’s painting of that title (with a really fat Jesus looking at daisies – look it up) which is based on the verse in Matthew when Jesus tells his disciples not to worry or strive but ‘Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these’. Anyway – you asked!! Perhaps I should do an explanation post.
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Ask and ye shall be answered. Jesus is looking a little chubby there, isn’t he? Presumably that was just before the 40 days in the wilderness.
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I like the fact the lilies are daisies and he’s amazed by such ordinary things – reminds me of kids gazing in wonder.. reminds me to stop and do that every now and then.. but I’m not very good at it!
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It’s a beautiful verse and very fitting for these days when we should be considering slowing down and appreciating our environment. An explanation post would be good, you could legally use the image as it is available for ‘fair use’ in WikiArt https://www.wikiart.org/en/stanley-spencer/christ-in-the-wilderness-consider-the-lilies
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Ah thanks – I had it on the blog but took it down as I wasn’t sure I could use it.
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Lovely Clare, I look forward to your Lenten blogs We do have. group that looks at the Bible as literature and the old testament does come as a bit of a surprise. Your prayer sounds a bit like Ruth. Mollie
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Thank you Claire, for providing me with a special moment each day during this coming period of time. Much appreciate you. Many Blessings. Alice.
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Hope you enjoy them – every blessing for your Lent journey. C
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I enjoy looking through an article that will make men and women think.
Also, thanks for allowing for me to comment!
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