Lent at Duke Chapel

Lenten Book Study

As part of its Duke Chapel Reads series, the Chapel is organizing discussion groups about the book Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion by Fr. Gregory Boyle. In it, with wit and tenderness, Fr. Boyle tells the stories and lessons he has learned from creating Homeboy Industries, a nonprofit in Los Angeles that offers former gang members opportunities for work, healing, and belonging.
 

“Reading this book together during the season of Lent is an opportunity to see our shared humanity presented in vivid—and often humorous—detail,” he said. “It is an invitation to the type of fast described by the prophet Isaiah—‘to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke.’”

Students and others who would like to join a reading group during the season of Lent in March and April should contact the Rev. Bruce Puckett, assistant dean of the Chapel.

Stations of the Cross Exhibition

During Lent, the Chapel will have on view in the main sanctuary (nave) the Stations of the Cross exhibition by artist Margaret Adams Parker. The panels of Stations of the Cross depict Christ’s Journey to the Cross with contemporary figures rendered in muted browns. Parker focuses in these paintings on Christ's strength in the face of suffering and the intimacy of his encounters with others on his Via Dolorosa.
 

Parker is a sculptor and printmaker with an extensive exhibition record. Her commissions include the award-winning Mary as Prophet for Virginia Theological Seminary, Reconciliation for Duke Divinity School, Harriet Tubman for St Paul’s Church, Rock Creek Parish, Washington, DC, and The Communion of Saints for St. Agnes Catholic Church, Shepherdstown, West Virginia. 

In conjunction with this exhibition, local ministers have offered reflections for the season of Lent. Read them here.

For those who wish to learn more about the spiritual practices associated with the Stations of the Cross, Parker's book Praying the Stations of the Cross, written with theologian Katherine Sonderegger, is available in the Duke Divinity School bookshop.

Join Parker and Duke Divinity School Professor Ellen Davis for an artist talk about the Stations of the Cross exhibition on Tuesday, April 5, at 5:00 p.m. at the Chapel.

Dean Powery on the Ashes of War and Ash Wednesday

Writing in the (Duke) Chronicle, Chapel Dean Luke Powery sees a connection between the ashes caused by the fires of war, like the one in Ukraine, and the ashes administered on the foreheads of people attending Ash Wednesday services.

The mark on foreheads on Ash Wednesday reveals our common humanity and shows that we are more alike than different," he writes. "Ashes on the forehead are also a sign of mourning, which is a proper response to insane war."

"At our core, we are fragile human beings, so why seek to war against others when we already know that we are delicate ashes?" he says. "We don’t need to make more ashes through the violence of weaponry. Ashes versus ashes makes no sense when we are of the same human family."

Read the article.

A Lenten Prayer—For Personal Lenten Discipline

Lord Jesus, you fasted and prayed in the wilderness for forty days. Help me to fast and pray during this time of Lent. Free my mind from distraction and protect me from the snares of the devil, that I may learn to love you and my neighbors more. Give me a spirit of generosity, so that I might share my gifts more freely with those who have less. Teach me to pray, that I might offer you praise and thanksgiving. Help me make time to reflect on your Word; may it challenge, console, and purify me. Be with me in times of hurt, doubt, and confusion. Fill me with your Holy Spirit, free me from sin, let me rise with you this Easter. I ask this in the name of Jesus, who died that I might be forgiven and have life to the full. Amen.

Ash Wednesday Services

Watch the livestream of the 7:00 p.m. Ash Wednesday Service.

Duke Chapel observed Ash Wednesday, March 2, with services at 8:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. During both services, ministers marked those who attend with ashes as a reminder that “we are dust, and to dust we shall return.” At the 7:00 p.m. service, the Vespers Ensemble and Chapel Choir led the music (view/download the worship guide).

Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the season of Lent. It occurs forty days before Easter, not including six Sundays (which are considered feast days), and recalls Jesus's forty days in the wilderness, itself mirroring the Israelites' forty years in the desert. In addition to regular weekly worship services, the Chapel community will mark the season with the prayers and programs below.