A Lenten Journey in the Holy Land

A Lenten Journey in the Holy Land offered by
The Canadian Campaign for St. George’s College Jerusalem.
Parishes will benefit from this excellent and enriching six-week video/study program
prepared by the Staff of the College.

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A Lenten Journey in the Holy Land

Original content, created in 2021, is derived from River Through the Desert
A Lenten Journey in the Holy Land by Richard Sewell.

Let Light Shine: The Canadian Campaign for St. George’s College Jerusalem is an appeal to friends of the College in Canada. It will run until the end of April 2025. The Campaign objective is to raise $250,000 from Canadian friends of St. George’s College Jerusalem, to provide funds for paying reduced staff salaries and related operations in 2025.

In this time of alarming tension and restrictions, the College has adapted with creativity and resilience. The Dean and remaining staff have produced videos for virtual pilgrimages, developed future curricula, and continue to maintain the facility.

During Lent, we invite parishes to benefit from an excellent six-week video/study program prepared by the Staff of the College, called A Lenten Journey in the Holy Land. As you enjoy this wonderful Lenten Resource, which is free, please consider making an offering for the Canadian Campaign for St George’s College Jerusalem. DONATE HERE.

You may wish to fundraise to help pay part of one staff member’s reduced salary of $28,000 in 2025: $100 for a day | $500 for a week | $2,000 for a month | $3,000 for six weeks | $4,000 for two months | $5,000 for 10 weeks

A Lenten Journey in the Holy Land, week by week

Week One – The Desert

The desert has profound significance in the Christian life. We are most readily drawn to think about the desert because of Jesus’s temptations there which mark the beginning of his public ministry. But that significant moment evokes the much earlier foundational event of the Exodus of the Hebrew people who escaped the clutches of Pharaoh on a long journey towards the ‘Promised Land’. Read more.

Suggested Bible Reading
The Temptation of Jesus
Matthew 4:1-11
Watch video here

Week Two – The Water Well

Water is a vital element in the sustenance of human life. We can survive without water to drink for four days at most. In ancient civilisations, dwellings would only be built around, or near, a reliable fresh water supply. In Jerusalem, it was the Gihon Spring in the Kidron Valley which enabled King David to make the city his capital. If there was no spring, then an underwater supply would need to be found and if successful, then a well could be built over it to enable water to be collected and carried. Read More

Suggested Bible Reading
Jesus and the Woman of Samaria
John 4:1-42
Watch video here

Week Three – The Mountain

A thoughtful reading of the Bible shows that many of the themes and important events in the New Testament are prefigured by themes and events in the Old Testament. This will hold true for much of what we consider in this Lent course. As mentioned before, Matthew, in his gospel account, can be seen to be presenting Jesus as a new Moses leading people out of slavery into liberation. So, it is not surprising that the mountain of Sinai should find some reflections in the life of Jesus. Read More

Suggested Bible Reading
The Transfiguration
Matthew 17: 1-13
Watch video here

Week Four – The Sea

The Sea of Galilee has a special place in the faith and heart of every Christian. So many of us grew up on the stories of Jesus and all that he did on and around the Sea of Galilee. It feels like a familiar place to us even before we have actually visited it in person so, when we do make our pilgrimage to the Holy Land, there can be a sense of feeling as if we have arrived in our spiritual home when we get to Galilee. The Sea is a place of great beauty: a large expense of (usually) blue water and circled by high hills on all sides which afford spectacular views across the sea’s length and breadth. Read more

Suggested Bible Reading
Jesus Stills the Storm
Matthew 8:23-27
Watch video here

Hymn: “I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say”

Week Five – The Road

This fifth week of the Lent study sets us on course for Jerusalem. The road to Jerusalem was well-trodden by the Jews of Palestine in Jesus’s time, and before, because pilgrimage to the Holy City and to the Temple for the great festivals, was a requirement. A crux moment in Jesus’s life in Luke’s gospel is when Jesus ‘set his face to go to Jerusalem’ (Luke 9:51) and culminates in his Triumphal Entry on what has become known to the Church as Palm Sunday. Read More

Suggested Bible Reading
Jesus’s Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem; Jesus
Weeps Over Jerusalem; Jesus Cleanses the Temple
Luke 19: 28-47
Watch video here

Week Six – The Garden

It has often been noted that the Bible begins in a garden with a tree whose fruit leads to the first sin (Genesis 2 and 3) and ends with the New Jerusalem in which there is a tree whose ‘leaves are for the healing of the nations’ (Revelation 22:1-5). John Milton described this powerfully in the 17th century in his epic poems Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained. It might not be entirely incidental that Jesus sought his Father’s will also in a garden (Gethsemane) and sought the strength to fulfil his divine calling, which of course he did (Matthew 26: 36-56). Adam and Eve’s failure to obey God’s will in the Garden of Eden is mirrored in opposite by Jesus’s faithful following of God’s will in Gethsemane. Read More

Suggested Bible Reading
Jesus Prays in Gethsemane;
The Betrayal and Arrest of Jesus
Matthew 26: 36-56
Watch video here

HOW YOU CAN HELP ST. GEORGE’S COLLEGE JERUSALEM

• Make an Online Donation: The simplest and fastest way to give is through CanadaHelps. Your donation is secure, and an official tax receipt will be emailed to you immediately.
• Mail a Cheque: Prefer to mail your donation? Send a cheque to:
      Anglican Diocese of Ottawa
      71 Bronson Avenue,
      Ottawa, ON K1R 6G6.
      (Be sure to note “St. George’s College Jerusalem Fund” in the memo line.)

Donate Now and let light shine.

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The Canadian Campaign for St George’s College Jerusalem