Sunday-Ps. 32 is a classic text on forgiveness and its release for those of us who sin. When and how do we use that word, sin in 2017? How about forgiveness?
Monday-The Lord is more constant and far more extravagant than it seems to imply. Wherever you turn your eyes the world can shine like transfiguration. You don’t have to bring a thing to it except a willingness to see. Only, who could have the courage to see it?” ~Reverend John Ames in Marilynne Robinson’s, 'Gilead: A Novel' (2004)
Tuesday-Francis de Sales: “Each of us has his own endowment from God, one to live in this way, another in that. It is an impertinence, then, to try to find out why St. Paul was not given St. Peter’s grace, or St. Peter given St. Paul’s. There is only one answer to such questions: the Church is a garden patterned with countless flowers, so there must be a variety of sizes, colors, scents — of perfections, after all. Each has its value, its charm, its joy; while the whole vast cluster of these variations makes for beauty in its most graceful form.”
Wednesday-This Lent I don't feel called to give up something and certainly not add on anything to an already full plate. Is there something in between? Ah! To go about what I'm already doing but with new eyes, to live awake with new intent this Lent, with a magnifying glass to see what's there already that I walk past, with a looking glass to notice what I'm overlooking in myself that would change the way I look at other people I see every day. This lent I pray for new eyes that I may live and act transparent, then rise in forty days resilient. Ira Kent Groff
Thursday-Buechner-Ritual-A WEDDING. A HANDSHAKE. A kiss. A coronation. A parade. A dance. A meal. A graduation. A Mass. A ritual is the performance of an intuition, the rehearsal of a dream, the playing of a game.A sacrament is the breaking through of the sacred into the profane; a ritual is the ceremonial acting out of the profane in order to show forth its sacredness.A sacrament is God offering his holiness to men; a ritual is men raising up the holiness of their humanity to God.
Friday-"A rainbow is not just a symphony of colors sent to calm the storm in our souls; it is a talk with God, a mysterious, miraculous conversation with God, heart to heart, the very heart of God saying to our hearts, 'I remember I am your God. Be my walking rainbows, so that the whole world will know to whom you belong, for I am the God who keeps promises, and I have not forgotten our covenant.' That is the hope of the church: that God keeps promises. The mission of the church is to walk among the suffering and give, for we are covenant keepers, walking rainbows, bringing the hope of the good news to the poor." (from "Kneeling in Jerusalem" by Ann Weems)
Saturday-"My life is a mystery which I do not attempt to really understand, as though I were led by the hand in a night where I see nothing, but can fully depend on the love and protection of Him who guides me." —THOMAS MERTON
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