Sunday March 20th-Ps.121 is part of a series of pilgrimage songs on the way to the temple in Jerusalem. It is a prayer for protection on the journey for traveling mercies. In Pilgrim's Progress, the Christian journey is pictured as a pilgrimage toward the Celestial City. Consider making a chart of your spiritual life. Where were crisis moments? To what were you aiming; for what were you seeking? Where do you perceive the hand of God in your decision, your response to an event, a confluence of forces?
Monday-I took my first bike rides along the river recently. the wind was up, and the sunlight glimmered on the waves. What are your favorite things about the river? Rivers are boundaries too, just as the Jordan marked the boundary from slavery to freedom, from wilderness to hearth and home. In the title track The River, Springsteen sings of a couple that goes to the river to recapture the romance and maybe innocence of their youth. (I wonder how he'd react to being part of Lenten material?) Does the river touch your spiritual imagination? Imagine the course of life as a river: how does it move; is it road, deep,raging? What pollutes your river of life? Where does the baptismal river need to cleanse you?
Tuesday- Last week in Bible Study, we read Lk. 13:31-5, where Jesus uses the image of a mother hen. An experiment recently demonstrated that mother hens react when the chicks are under some threat, even a mild one and make a vocalization calling them back toward her. It is not the image of power and control that we usually associate with the divine, but it is certainly an image of concern, empathy, and love.
Wednesday- A friend gave my daughter and me a list of saying from the desert fathers. From Anthony-"I saw so many snares set out before us-what could save us from being ensnared? The answer came-humility." That is not a virtue that comes easily to us Americans. At root, humility is grounded in this life and know that we all have limitations, that no one is perfect. It has its emblem in AA noticing that freedom from addiction comes first in realizing that we are in thrall to something more powerful than us. From where does your virtue of humility arise?
Thursday-The Christian community Sojourners has a magazine and web site (sojo.net); it seeks to look at contemporary culture and social life through a Biblical lens, instead of a market lens. Being successful is not the measure of life as much as faithfulness is. Indeed, its founder, Jim Wallis, regards the specter of material success as an idol as threatening as the Golden Calf.When has the success ethic run counter to your Christian principles? How do you put material success in its proper place and where is it difficult to fight it when it counters your ethics?
Friday-My eyesight doesn't permit me to watch as many movies as I may like, but I do love them. Edward McNulty does too and derives much spiritual benefit from watching and discussing movies.I've said more than once that Jesus would make parables into movies in our time. Our daughters finally convinced me to join facebook, and they ask folks to list favorite movies. What are yours, and what moral value or religious point of view, if any, do they contain? For instance, I can imagine few better stories of redemption than Tender Mercies or the story of the Good Samaritan than in Schindler's List.
Saturday-Lent is unAmerican as it makes us look at our accumulation of things. Moving pushes one to come to grips with all of the stuff we keep and misplace. Moving also reacquaints us with keepsakes. I kept the shirt I wore when our youngest daughter was born and kept a little Notre Dame cheerleading outfit she was given. I appreciate the Goodwill commercial where they urge us to give away clothing that we haven;t worn in a year.
Monday-I took my first bike rides along the river recently. the wind was up, and the sunlight glimmered on the waves. What are your favorite things about the river? Rivers are boundaries too, just as the Jordan marked the boundary from slavery to freedom, from wilderness to hearth and home. In the title track The River, Springsteen sings of a couple that goes to the river to recapture the romance and maybe innocence of their youth. (I wonder how he'd react to being part of Lenten material?) Does the river touch your spiritual imagination? Imagine the course of life as a river: how does it move; is it road, deep,raging? What pollutes your river of life? Where does the baptismal river need to cleanse you?
Tuesday- Last week in Bible Study, we read Lk. 13:31-5, where Jesus uses the image of a mother hen. An experiment recently demonstrated that mother hens react when the chicks are under some threat, even a mild one and make a vocalization calling them back toward her. It is not the image of power and control that we usually associate with the divine, but it is certainly an image of concern, empathy, and love.
Wednesday- A friend gave my daughter and me a list of saying from the desert fathers. From Anthony-"I saw so many snares set out before us-what could save us from being ensnared? The answer came-humility." That is not a virtue that comes easily to us Americans. At root, humility is grounded in this life and know that we all have limitations, that no one is perfect. It has its emblem in AA noticing that freedom from addiction comes first in realizing that we are in thrall to something more powerful than us. From where does your virtue of humility arise?
Thursday-The Christian community Sojourners has a magazine and web site (sojo.net); it seeks to look at contemporary culture and social life through a Biblical lens, instead of a market lens. Being successful is not the measure of life as much as faithfulness is. Indeed, its founder, Jim Wallis, regards the specter of material success as an idol as threatening as the Golden Calf.When has the success ethic run counter to your Christian principles? How do you put material success in its proper place and where is it difficult to fight it when it counters your ethics?
Friday-My eyesight doesn't permit me to watch as many movies as I may like, but I do love them. Edward McNulty does too and derives much spiritual benefit from watching and discussing movies.I've said more than once that Jesus would make parables into movies in our time. Our daughters finally convinced me to join facebook, and they ask folks to list favorite movies. What are yours, and what moral value or religious point of view, if any, do they contain? For instance, I can imagine few better stories of redemption than Tender Mercies or the story of the Good Samaritan than in Schindler's List.
Saturday-Lent is unAmerican as it makes us look at our accumulation of things. Moving pushes one to come to grips with all of the stuff we keep and misplace. Moving also reacquaints us with keepsakes. I kept the shirt I wore when our youngest daughter was born and kept a little Notre Dame cheerleading outfit she was given. I appreciate the Goodwill commercial where they urge us to give away clothing that we haven;t worn in a year.
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