Lenten Devotionals
Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5| Week 6| Holy Week
Monday, March 3
A story is told of a blacksmith in Kentucky who made a commitment to pray the ancient Eastern Orthodox Jesus Prayer every day as often as possible: “Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” “I?ll give it twenty years,” he said, “and if nothing comes of this practice in that amount of time, I?ll just give it up.” So he practiced the prayer as he rode in his truck from farm to farm, as he shod horses, as he lay in his bed at night.
At the end of twenty years, the blacksmith spoke to an Orthodox priest who was visiting Kentucky. When the blacksmith told the priest that he practiced the Jesus Prayer daily, the priest asked him what had happened in his life as a result of all this praying. Did he, for instance, have any of the phantasmagorias that some people associate with the spiritual? “You mean the lights and colors and all that?” the blacksmith answered. “Oh, I might have seen some; but, you know, things like that are really not the point.” “And you really did this practice for twenty years?” the priest inquired. “Yes,” the blacksmith answered. “This is the twentieth year--and here we are.” (quoted in A Sacred Primer by Elizabeth Harper Neeld)
I remember a phrase from long ago in one of the Disciple Bible Study workbooks. “The Long Look” is looking at today and tomorrow and on into the future with the eyes of God. God?s perspective includes the moments before time existed and whatever happens way into the future, into eternity.
This week?s scripture passages talk about waiting and hope, death and life.
John 11:1-45
Prayer: O God, we thank you for your mercy and love. Your love surrounds us and guides our way and your mercy heals and restores our courage. Help us to persevere in our Lenten journey. We ask this in the name of Jesus who showed us the way. Amen.
Tuesday, March 4
“Our being, our substance, must be porous in order for the Myster of Christ to enter into our lives.... We must let ourselves be plowed so that the furrows of our person become deeper and deeper, so that our earth becomes softer and softer. This is something our being craves, but this plowing...is not easy. In the measure that our being becomes porous, open, grace can penetrate us. Depth is possible. Transformation is possible.” Jean-Marie Howe quoted in The People?s Companion to the Breviary
The dry bones of Ezekiel 37 bring forth images of death, dry and lifeless material. When the Spirit of God comes upon the dry, lifeless bones, new life is possible. Transformation is possible. Could it be that the Spirit was able to work transformation once the bones were all dried up, with no life from within? What seems like death and destruction might make room, space for the Spirit of God. When we feel hollow and all dried up we might be read for the coming of the Spirit.
Ezekiel 37:1-14
Prayer: Christ, you have taught us to let go and to love to the end, persevering to the other side of death which is resurrection. During this Lenten season, call us to prayer that will make our hearts ready to be plowed by the Holy Spirit, ready for transformation.
Wednesday, March 5
Elizabeth Harper Neeld tells of talking to her 85 year old Father about what seemed to her to be God?s lack of caring for her Father and Mother. Because they had given themselves in ministry for many, many years the daughter believed that her parents should be surrounded by all that she thought they deserved, financially and materially in their later years.
“Don?t you think sometimes that God has let you down?”
Her Father looked at her quickly and intently, as if she had lost her senses. “Sister,” he said, “you see that lily growing there?” “God takes care of that lily. And God will take care of your Mother and me.”
The daughter knew that was the end of the discussion. “My father spoke and I understood. What I had just heard was the certainty, assurance, and peace that came from a lifetime of practicing a daily spiritual discipline, through windstorms and through calm. I lifetime of connecting with God. A lifetime of prayer. A lifetime of love.” from A Sacred Primer by Elizabeth Harper Neeld
Psalm 130
Prayer: O God, you have given us this life to know you, to love you, and to be at home with you. Help us to experience you in our hearts as we find you anew in the words of Scripture. This we ask through Jesus shows us your face. Amen.
Thursday, March 6
Pascal, the French philosopher, said a long time ago: “We all have a Godshaped vacuum in our hearts, and we are not happy until that vacuum is filled.” Earlier St. Augustine said: “Our hearts our restless until we find ourselves in you.”
Romans 8:6-11 If God?s Spirit is in you, you will have life
Prayer: O God, you are our light and without you all our ways are darkness. Heal our blindness and lead us to the light of your truth. Help us to open our hearts to receive your healing Spirit. Send forth your light and your life. Amen.
Friday, March 7
“Waiting does not mean doing nothing. It is not fatalistic resignation. It means going about our assigned tasks, confident that God will provide the meaning and the conclusions. It is not compelled to work away at keeping up appearances with a bogus spirituality. It is the opposing of desperate and panicky manipulations, of scurrying and worrying.
And hoping is not dreaming. It is not spinning an illusion of fantasy to protect us from our boredom or our pain. It means a confident alert expectation that God will do what God said God would do. It is imagination put in the harness of faith. It is a willingness to let God do it God?s way and in God?s time. It is the opposite of making plans that we demand that God put into effect, telling God both how and when to do it. That is not hoping in God but bullying God.” from Living the Message by Eugene Peterson
Psalm 130 Waiting and Hoping in the Lord
Prayer: God of mercy, you light up what is hidden in darkness. Give us the mind and heart of Christ so that we may follow him with courage and hope. We seek to be your faithful people as we walk this Lenten journey. Amen.
Saturday, March 8
“Let us look at our own shortcomings and leave other people?s alone; for those who live carefully ordered lives are apt to be shocked at everything and we might well learn very important lessons from the persons who shock us. Our outward comportment and behavior may be better than theirs, but this, though good, is not the most important thing; there is no reason why we should expect everyone else to travel by our own road, and we should not attempt to point them to the spiritual path when perhaps we do not know what it is.... It is better to attempt to...live in silence and in hope, and God will take care of God?s own.” Teresea of Avila, Interior Castle
Romans 8:6-11
Prayer: Jesus, light of the world, we give you thanks for all that you have taught us. We pray that we will be your faithful disciples. May our lives reflect your life, now and always. Amen.
Sunday, March 9
“The seething cauldron in which the activities of all living and cosmic substance are brewed together--is not that the bitter cup that you seek to sanctify? Let creation repeat to itself again today, and tomorrow, and until the end of time, so long as the transformation has not run its full course, the divine saying: “This is my body.” from Teilhard deChardin?s The Prayer of the Universe
deChardin was a Jesuit priest and a scientist who was inspired by the concept of evolution, believing that God is working, in spite of appearances to the contrary, to transform the whole universe into Christ. The words of Jesus in the Gospel of John speak of transformation, change, and new life: “Lazarus, come out!” Lazarus came out wrapped up in the tight cloth of the dead. Jesus said, “Unbind him and let him go!” We wait in hope that the transformation of our individual lives and the whole world is happening, even when we don?t see it or believe it. God is transforming. We are waiting with hope.
John 11:1-45
Prayer: Creating and transforming God, may creation be continually transformed that all may share in the life, death, and resurrection of God become human, our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ. Amen.
