I both love Lent and dread Lent.
I dread it because it asks a great deal of me; everything, in fact. Chiefly it asks me to die a good death with the One whose death defines all deaths and defies death itself.
My essay on Lent via @CTmagazine.
https://t.co/wLqbQbYNq6
Gospel: When Nathaniel finds out where the Messiah is from, he says, "Can anything good come from Nazareth?" Jesus hometown is literally a joke, a tiny, marginal village of 200 to 400 people. But saints can come from anywhere, and holiness always makes its home among humanity.
I am the fiery life of the essence of God; I am the flame above the beauty in the fields; I shine in the waters; I burn in the sun, the moon, and the stars. And with the airy wind, I quicken all things vitally by an unseen, all-sustaining life.
Hildegard of Bingen
A Prayer for New Mercies:
O God, you who promise new mercies every morning:
Where I'm low, lift me up
Where I'm weak, carry me
Where I'm vulnerable, shield me
Where I'm heavy-hearted, refresh me
I pray this so that I might live this day with a resilient & expectant hope.
Amen.
Make me present to people, conversations, and moments throughout my day where you are at work. And thank you for your patience, your otherworldly patience, that waits for me to slow down time and time again.” Brian Morykon
Jesus, I invite you to show me when my heart is clouded by hurry. Teach me to move at your pace. Drive out the greed that tries to force into the present that which belongs to another time. Help me refrain from picking unripe fruit.
Daar kan nie iets nuuts geskep word sonder om iets ouds te vernietig nie, want die oud en die nuut kan nie op dieselfde tydstip bestaan nie.
Sidney Gilroy #nuut#oud#lewe
Spiritual formation refers to how the basic elements of human life—the will, the thoughts, the feelings, the body, the social relationship, and the depths of the soul—have been shaped so that character and life come out of how they have been shaped. #RenewingTheChristianMind
Lord,
I worry because I forget your wisdom.
I resent because I forget your mercy.
I covet because I forget your beauty.
I sin because I forget your holiness.
I fear because I forget your sovereignty.
You always remember me. Help me to remember you.
Amen...
To live in this world, you must be able to do three things: to love what is mortal; to hold it against your bones knowing your own life depends on it; and, when the time comes to let it go, to let it go.
- Mary Oliver
A PRAYER FOR READING THE NEWS:
O Lord, you who are the herald of good news, help me, I pray, to read the news of this day not cynically but with faith, not despairingly but with hope, and not indifferently but with love, so that I might glimpse your good work in the world. Amen.
I know we need more than statements, and we also need to put feet on our prayers… But let’s all pause and pray for Ukraine, and ask God for wisdom about how to respond.
Fear is perhaps the greatest enemy of candour. How many men fear to follow their conscience because they would rather conform to the opinion of other men than to the truth
they know in their hearts!
- Thomas Merton, A Thomas Merton Reader p 124
#ThomasMerton#quotes