NOTES OF REST LENTEN DEVOTIONAL & LULLABIES
Week 1 - Sleep: Creation
Download the PDF or listen to Julian reading it below. You can also fall asleep to just the music here.
Download the PDF or listen to Julian reading it below. You can also fall asleep to just the music here.
| week_1__sleep_creation.pdf |
Week 2 - Sleep: Fall
Download the PDF and fall asleep to the music below.
Download the PDF and fall asleep to the music below.
| week_2_sleep_fall.pdf |
Week 3 - Sleep: Redemption
Download the PDF and fall asleep to the music below.
Download the PDF and fall asleep to the music below.
| week_3_sleep_redemption.pdf |
Week 4 - Sleep: Restoration
Download the PDF and fall asleep to the music below.
Download the PDF and fall asleep to the music below.
| week_4_sleep_restoration.pdf |
Week 5 - Sleep: Notes of Rest
Download the PDF and fall asleep to the music below.
Download the PDF and fall asleep to the music below.
| week_5_sleep_notes_of_rest.pdf |
Our theme this Lent is “Sleep For A Weary World.” Sleep and dreams feature prominently in Scripture as:
And yet so many of us struggle with our relationship to sleep, as does our world. How can we return to this gift that God has given us? How can we be renewed in our rest so that we can be fully alive for the sake of the world? How can we stand in solidarity with those deprived of sleep for a myriad of reasons, both personal and systemic?
As we prepare ourselves for Lent, here are some reflection questions to get you started:
We’re delighted to partner with Julian Davis Reid of Notes of Rest for our Lenten practice this year. Starting the first Sunday of Lent, February 18, we’ll be sending out a weekly devotional written by Julian with prayer and a link to a lullaby. Make sure to sign up for our newsletter on the homepage to receive it! This will coincide with our sermon series where each Sunday, we will follow the arc of creation, fall, redemption, restoration as it relates to God’s healing purpose in our lives through sleep.
We have also created three opportunities to support your sleep practice during Lent:
This Saturday, February 17 from 9 am to 12 pm, Lisha will lead a Lenten Restorative Yoga Retreat. This retreat will equip you with gentle movements, deep stretches, and moments of stillness for stress relief and whole body healing, practices you can carry throughout Lent (and beyond). RSVP to [email protected].
This Sunday, February 18 from 11:30 am to 1 pm, we have invited Emilie Nimocks, a spiritual director here in the NYC area to give a workshop entitled “Dreams, Images and the Self.” In this workshop we will place dreams within a Christian context alongside what we know about dreams: the value of paying attention to our inner world, dreams as an expression of the wisdom of the unconscious, and the insights they may offer about our emotional, physical, creative, and spiritual dimensions. No RSVP needed.
On Sunday nights during Lent, February 18 through March 17 at 9 pm on Zoom, various members of our St. Peter’s community will be leading Compline, the night prayers of the Church that help prepare us for sleep and form us for entrusting ourselves, our loved ones and our world to our loving Creator. Email [email protected] for the Zoom link.
Don’t let this overwhelm you! Don’t try to do everything. Perhaps pick one sleep practice and one of these opportunities and make a commitment to those.
Further Resources:
- a basic human need (1 Kings 19:5)
- God’s gift to those who are beloved (Psalm 127:2) 3)
- a significant way that God speaks and gives guidance (Matthew 1:20)
And yet so many of us struggle with our relationship to sleep, as does our world. How can we return to this gift that God has given us? How can we be renewed in our rest so that we can be fully alive for the sake of the world? How can we stand in solidarity with those deprived of sleep for a myriad of reasons, both personal and systemic?
As we prepare ourselves for Lent, here are some reflection questions to get you started:
- How would you rate the quality of your sleep from 1 to 5, 1 being poor and 5 being excellent?
- Is there anything preventing you from a good night’s sleep? (there is no judgment in this question, e.g. new baby, menopause, stress, etc.)
- What do you do when you can’t sleep?
- What are the practices that can help or hinder your sleep? E.g. getting off screens an hour before bed, keeping a sleep diary or dream journal, drinking caffeine/alcohol late in the evening, working late, etc.
We’re delighted to partner with Julian Davis Reid of Notes of Rest for our Lenten practice this year. Starting the first Sunday of Lent, February 18, we’ll be sending out a weekly devotional written by Julian with prayer and a link to a lullaby. Make sure to sign up for our newsletter on the homepage to receive it! This will coincide with our sermon series where each Sunday, we will follow the arc of creation, fall, redemption, restoration as it relates to God’s healing purpose in our lives through sleep.
We have also created three opportunities to support your sleep practice during Lent:
This Saturday, February 17 from 9 am to 12 pm, Lisha will lead a Lenten Restorative Yoga Retreat. This retreat will equip you with gentle movements, deep stretches, and moments of stillness for stress relief and whole body healing, practices you can carry throughout Lent (and beyond). RSVP to [email protected].
This Sunday, February 18 from 11:30 am to 1 pm, we have invited Emilie Nimocks, a spiritual director here in the NYC area to give a workshop entitled “Dreams, Images and the Self.” In this workshop we will place dreams within a Christian context alongside what we know about dreams: the value of paying attention to our inner world, dreams as an expression of the wisdom of the unconscious, and the insights they may offer about our emotional, physical, creative, and spiritual dimensions. No RSVP needed.
On Sunday nights during Lent, February 18 through March 17 at 9 pm on Zoom, various members of our St. Peter’s community will be leading Compline, the night prayers of the Church that help prepare us for sleep and form us for entrusting ourselves, our loved ones and our world to our loving Creator. Email [email protected] for the Zoom link.
Don’t let this overwhelm you! Don’t try to do everything. Perhaps pick one sleep practice and one of these opportunities and make a commitment to those.
Further Resources:
- The Nap Ministry's Rest Deck: 50 Practices To Resist Grind Culture: Tricia Hersey, a.k.a. The Nap Bishop, created this set of 50 cards which offer encouragements and practices to free your mind from grind culture, a "soothing balm for disconnection and exhaustion, and an uplifting companion for anyone who wants to infuse each day with rest and peace."
- Angels of the Hour: From Benedictine monk David Steindl-Rast, a series of 8 prayers for the traditional monastic "hours" prayed throughout the night and day, each represented by an "angel" with a meditation and audio recording of chants.
- The Aidan Compline: From the Northumbria Community. A beautiful Celtic prayer from a beautiful saint before one sleeps.
- Sleep Prayers for Evening/Morning: A few select prayers from Cole Arthur Riley's Black Liturgies and Angel of the Hour. You can download it below.
| sleep_prayers.pdf |