Daily Nourishment for February 28, 2024: Word Offerings and Divine Encounters with Lauren Winner
Daily Nourishment Read Time: 45 seconds
Pause/Prompt/Practice Time: 14 minutes
“Prayer, rather, is about offering to God something—some sentences, some odes—we’ve made from words God first gave us.”
—Lauren Winner
Pause.
Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then listen to NPR’s Guy Raz interview Lauren Winner. Give particular attention to a story about how she met God in a particular way during a church service. The story begins 3 minutes and 15 seconds into the interview.
Prompt.
After listening to this story, set a timer for eight minutes and use the scene described as a prompt to begin a prayer, new fiction, a new essay, or a new poem.
What happens next?
Practice.
Here are more questions to consider in the coming hours and days:
How have you met the divine in a way you weren’t expecting?
How do you wish you could notice the divine today or one day soon?
Want More?
Read God’s Words and Liturgy’s Echo by Lauren Winner.
I am increasingly trying to allow the liturgy’s reliance on scriptural language to shape my understanding of what scripture and prayer are. If the church’s worship consists largely of reciting scripture, then scripture in part is the text Christians pray together. And if the church’s worship consists largely of reciting scripture, then prayer isn’t foremost about carrying my individual concerns to God. Prayer, rather, is about offering to God something—some sentences, some odes—we’ve made from words God first gave us.” – Lauren Winner
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Upcoming Workshops & Gatherings
February: February Co-Writing schedule and registration options are ready.
March 3: Thoughtful Readers Gathering with Kaveh Akbar
Today’s Daily Nourishment was provided by Charlotte Donlon.
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