Easter

I shall not die, but I shall live, and recount the deeds of the Lord. The Lord has punished me severely, but he did not give me over to death.  Psalm 118:17-18

Our short lives on earth are sowing time.  If there were no resurrection of the dead, everything we live on earth would come to nothing.  How can we believe in a God who loves us unconditionally if all the joys and pains of our lives are in vain, vanishing in the earth with our mortal flesh and bones?  Because God loves us unconditionally, from eternity to eternity, God cannot allow our bodies ~ the same as that in which Jesus, his Son and our Savior, appeared to us ~ to be lost in final destruction.
     No, life on earth is the time when the seeds of the risen body are planted.  Paul says, "What is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable.  It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory.  It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power.  It is sown a physical body, it is raised a spiritual body" (1 Corinthians 15:42-44).

This wonderful knowledge that nothing we live in our bodies is lived in vain holds a call for us to live every moment as a seed of eternity. 

Holy Saturday

We have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.  Romans 6:4

The resurrection of Jesus was a hidden event.  Jesus didn't rise from the grave to baffle his opponents, to make a victory statement or to prove to those who crucified him that he was right after all.  Jesus rose as a sign to those who loved him and followed him that God's divine love is stronger than death.  To the women and men who committed themselves to him, he revealed that his mission had been fulfilled.  To those who shared in his ministry, he gave the sacred task to call all people into the new life with him.  
     The world didn't take notice.  Only those whom he called by name, with whom he broke bread and to whom he spoke words of peace were aware of what happened.  Still, it was this hidden event that freed humanity from the shackles of death.

O God, help me to know and appreciated the awesome mysteries of redemption that are largely hidden from our view.

Good Friday

Into your hand I commit my spirit; you have redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God.  Psalm 31:5

Jesus says, "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me." He does not say, "Make a cross" or "Look for a cross".  Each of us has a cross to carry.  There is no need to make one or look for one.  The cross we have is hard enough for us!  But are we willing to take it up, to accept it as our cross?
     Maybe we can't study, maybe we suffer from depression, maybe we experience conflict in our families, maybe we are victims of abuse.  We didn't choose any of it, but these things are our crosses.  We can ignore them, reject them, refuse them or hate them.  But we can also take up these crosses and follow Jesus with them.

We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you, because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world!

Holy Thursday

For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, be broke it and said, "This is my body that is for you.  Do this in remembrance of me."  1 Corinthians 11:23-24

When Jesus took bread, blessed it, broke it and gave it to his disciples, he summarized in these gestures his own life.  Jesus is chosen from all eternity, blessed at his baptism in the Jordan River, broken on the cross and given as bread to the world.  Being chosen, blessed, broken and given is the sacred journey of the Son of God, Jesus the Christ.
     When we take bread, bless it, break it, and give it with the words, "This is the body of Christ," we express our commitment to make our lives conform to the life of Christ.  We, too, want to live as people chosen, blessed and broken, and then become food for the world.

Thank you, Jesus, for the gift of the Eucharist.  Help me to appreciate it and to live up to the challenge of unselfish giving that it presents to us. 

 

Holy Communion at the Sea of Galilee in January 2012.

Wednesday of Holy Week

Insults have broken my heart, so that I am in despair.  I looked for pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none.  Psalm 69:20

We belong to a generation that wants to see the results of our work.  We want to be productive and see with our own eyes what we have made.  But that is not the way of God's Kingdom.  Often our witness for God does not lead to tangible results.  Jesus himself died as a failure on the cross.  There was no success there to be proud of.  Still, the fruitfulness of Jesus' life is beyond any human measure.  As faithful witnesses of Jesus, we have to trust that our lives, too, will be faithful, even though we cannot see their fruits.  The fruits of our lives may be visible only to those who live after us.
     What is important is how well we love.  God will make our love fruitful, whether we see that fruitfulness or not.

Lord, help me to learn not to expect "success" in all that I do.

Tuesday of Holy Week

Jesus was troubled in spirit, and declared, "Very truly, I tell you, one of you will betray me."  The disciples looked at one another, uncertain of whom he was speaking.  John 13:21-22

People who live close together can be sources of great sorrow for one another.  When Jesus chose his twelve apostles, Judas was one of them.  Judas is called a traitor.  A traitor, according to the literal meaning of the Greek word for "betraying", is someone who hands the other over to suffering. 
     The truth is that we all have something of the traitor in us because each of us hands our fellow human beings over to suffering somehow, somewhere, mostly without intending or even knowing it.  Many children, even grown-up children, can experience deep anger toward their parents for having protected them too much or too little.  When we are willing to confess that we often hand those we love over to suffering, even against our best intentions, we will be more ready to forgive those who, mostly against their will, are the causes of our pain.

Consider the ways you may be causing others to suffer.

Monday of Holy Week

The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?  The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?  Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord.  Psalm 27:1,14

In a world so full of social and political turmoil and immense human suffering, people of faith will often be ridiculed because of their so-called ineffectiveness.  Many will say, "If you believe that there is a loving God, let your God do something about this mess!"  Others will simply declare religion irrelevant, while others will consider it an obstacle to the creation of a new and better world.
     Jesus tells his followers that, as he was, they will be persecuted, arrested, tortured and killed.  But he also tells us not to worry but to trust in him at all times...Let's not be afraid of the skepticism and cynicism coming our way, but trust that God will give us the strength to hold our ground.

Lord, help me to be courageous in living my faith ~ and in defending it when I am called on to do so.

Passion Sunday

The Lord God helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set my face like flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame.  Isaiah 50:7

Many people live with the unconscious or conscious expectation that eventually things will get better; wars, hunger, poverty, oppression and exploitation will vanish; and all people will live in harmony.   Their lives and work are motivated by that expectation.  When this does not happen in their lifetimes, they are often disillusioned and experience themselves as failures.
     But Jesus doesn't support such an optimistic outlook.  He foresees not only the destruction of his beloved city, Jerusalem, but also a world full of cruelty, violence and conflict.  For Jesus there is no happy ending in this world.  The challenge of Jesus is not to solve all the world's problems before the end of time but to remain faithful at all cost.

Are your expectations grounded in Christian faith?

Saturday, Fifth Week of Lent

My dwelling place shall be with them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.  Then the nations shall know that I the Lord sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary is among them forevermore.  Ezekiel 37:27-28

A mosaic consists of thousands of little stones.  Some are blue, some are green, some are yellow, some are gold.  When we bring our faces close to the mosaic, we can admire the beauty of each stone.  But as we step back from it, we can see that all these little stones reveal to us a beautiful picture, telling a story none of these stones can tell by itself.
     That is what our life in community is about.  Each of us is like a little stone, but together we reveal the face of God to the world.  Nobody can say, "I made God visible."  But others who see us together can say, "They made God visible."  Community is where humility and glory touch.

For thought:  What part are you playing in your neighborhood?  In your parish?  Are you doing too little?  Are you trying to do too much?

Friday, Fifth Week of Lent

In my distress I called upon the Lord; to my God I cried for help.  From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry to him reached his ears.  Psalm 18:6

Consolation is a beautiful word.  It means "to be" (con-) "with the lonely one" (solus).  To offer consolation is one of the most important ways to care.  Life is so full of pain, sadness and loneliness that we often wonder what we can do to alleviate the immense suffering we see.  We can and must offer consolation.  We can and must console the mother who lost her child, the person with AIDS, the family whose house burned down, the soldier who was wounded, the teenager who contemplates suicide, the old man who wonders why he should stay alive.
     To console does not mean to take away the pain but rather to be there and say, "You are not alone, I am with you.  Together we can carry the burden.  Don't be afraid.  I am here."  That is consolation.  We all need to give it as well as to receive it.

Who needs your consolation today??

Thursday, Fifth Week of Lent

I will establish my covenant between me and you, and your offspring after you throughout their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you.  Genesis 17:7

When God makes a covenant with us, God says, "I will love you with an everlasting love.  I will be faithful to you, even when you run away from me, reject me, or betray me."  In our society we don't speak much about covenants; we speak about contracts.  When we make a contract with a person, we say, "I will fulfill my part as long as you fulfill yours.  When you don't live up to your promises, I no longer have to live up to mine."  Contracts are often broken because the partners are unwilling or unable to be faithful to their terms. 
     But God didn't make a contract with us; God made a covenant with us, and God wants our relationships with one another to reflect that covenant.  That is why marriage, friendship and life in community are all ways to give visibility to God's faithfulness in our lives together.

O Faithful One, help me to be faithful to all my commitments. 

Wednesday, Fifth Week of Lent

If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth and the truth will make you free.  John 8:31-32

True freedom is the freedom of the children of God.  The political, economic, social and even religious powers surrounding us all want to keep us in bondage so that we will obey their commands and be dependent on their rewards, instead of relying on God.
     But the spiritual truth that leads to freedom is the truth that we belong not to the world but to God, whose beloved children we are.  By living lives in which we keep returning to that truth in word and deed, we will gradually grow into our true freedom.

What shows that you belong to God, not to the world?

Tuesday, Fifth Week of Lent

The people spoke against God and Moses: "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness?  For there is no food and no water, and we detest this miserable food."  Numbers 21:5

How do we wait for God?  We wait with patience.  But patience does not mean passivity.  Waiting patiently is not like waiting for the bus to come, the rain to stop or the sun to rise.  It is an active waiting in which we live the present moment to the full in order to find there the signs of the One we are waiting for.
     The word patience comes from the Latin verb patior, which means "to suffer."  Waiting patiently is suffering through the present moment, experiencing it to the full and letting the seeds that are sown in the ground in which we stand grow into strong plants.  Waiting patiently always means paying attention to what is happening right before our eyes and seeing there the first rays of God's glorious coming.

O God, when even trivial delays ~ missing a stop light or getting in a slow line irritate me, I realize how much I need to learn patience.  Help me to make all my waiting a waiting for you.  Amen.

Monday, Fifth Week of Lent

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.  He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters; he restores my soul.  He leads me in right paths for his name's sake.  Even though I walk in the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.  Psalm 23:1-4

Life is unpredictable.  We can be happy one day and sad the next, healthy one day and sick the next, rich one day and poor the next, alive one day and dead the next.  So who is there to hold on to?  Who is there to feel secure with?  Who is there to trust at all times?  Only Jesus, the Christ.  He is our Lord, our shepherd, our rock, our stronghold, our refuge, our brother, our guide and our friend.  He came from God to be with us.  He died for us, he was raised from the dead to open for us the way to God, and he is seated at God's right hand to welcome us home.

Jesus, loving shepherd, guide and friend, may I always turn to you for the help I need to live my faith.  Amen.

Sunday, Fifth Week of Lent

Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.  John 12:25

The great paradox of life is that those who lose their lives will gain them.  This paradox becomes visisble in very ordinary situations.  If we cling to our friends, we may lose them, but if we are nonpossessive in our relationships, we will make many firends.  If fame is what we seek and desire, it often vanishes as soon as we acquire it, but if we have no need to be known, we might be remembered.  When we want to be in the center, we easily end up on the margins, but when we are free enough to be wherever we must be, we often find ourselves in the center.  Giving away our lives for others is the greates of all human acts.  This will gain us our lives.

Which of your daily routines reveal self-centeredness?  Which reveal openness to God and to others?

Saturday, Fourth Week of Lent

Nicodemus...asked, "Our law does not judge people without first giving them a hearing to find our what they are doing, does it?"  John 7:51

One of the hardest spiritual tasks is to live withour prejudices.  Sometimes we aren't even aware how deeply rooted our prejudices are.  We may think that we relate to people who are different than we are in color, religion, sexual orientation or lifestyles as equals, but in concrete circumstances our thoughts, uncensored words and knee-jerk reactions often reveal that our prejudices are still there.
     Strangers, people different from us, stir up fear, discomfort, suspicion and hostility.  This happens just by being the "other".  Only when we fully claim that God loves us in an unconditional way and look at "those other persons" as equally loved can we begin to discover that the great variety in humanity is an expression of the immense richness of God's heart.  Then the need to prejudge people can gradually disappear.

Lord, make known to me my prejudices, and help me to overcome them.  Amen.

Friday, Fourth Week of Lent

The Lord is near to the brokenhearted, and saves the crushed in spirit.  Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord rescues them from all.  He keeps all their bones; not one of them will be broken.  Psalm 34:18-20

Jesus was broken on the cross.  He lived his suffering and death not as an evil to avoid at all costs but as a mission to embrace.  We, too, are broken.  We live with broken bodies, broken hearts, broken minds or broken spirits.  We suffer from broken relationships.
     How can we live our brokenness?  Jesus invites us to embrace our brokenness as he embraced the cross and live it as part of our mission.  He asks us not to reject our brokenness as a curse from God that reminds us of our sinfulness but to accept it and put it under God's blessing for our purification and sanctification.  In this way, our brokenness can become a gateway to new life.

What helps you accept your condition as broken, sinful and flawed ~ yet redeemed and called to contribute in your own special ways to this world and loving your neighbor?

*I took this photo under the streets of Old Jerusalem in January of 2012.

Thursday, Fourth Week of Lent

You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that testify on my behalf.  Yet you refuse to come to me to have life.  John 5:39-40

Reading often means gathering information, acquiring new insight and knowledge and mastering a new field.  It can lead us to degrees, diplomas and certificates.  Spiritual reading, however, is different.  It means not simply reading about spiritual things but also reading about spiritual things in a spiritual way.  That requires a willingness not just to read but to be read, not just to master but to be mastered by words.  As long as we read that Bible simply to acquire knowledge, our reading does not help in our spiritual lives.  We can become very knowledgeable about spiritual matters without becoming truly spiritual people. 
     As we read spiritually about spiritual things, we open our hearts to God's voice.  Sometimes we must be willing to put down the book we are reading and just listen to what God is saying to us through its worlds.

Today, when you read from John 5, stop and listen occasionally for the messages that may be directed to you.  Check out the link below to learn more about spiritual reading through the spiritual practice of Lectio Divina.

Lectio Divina

Wednesday, Fourth Week of Lent

But Zion said, "The Lord has forsaken me, my Lord has forgotten me."  Can a women forget her nursing child, or show no compassion for the child of her womb?  Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you.  Isaiah 49:14-15

What is the basis of our security?  When we start thinking about that question, we may give many answers: success, money, friends, property, popularity, family, connections, insurance and so on.  We may not always think that any of these form the basis of our security, but our actions or feelings may tell us otherwise.  When we start losing our money, our friends or our popularity, our anxiety often reveals how deeply our sense of security is rooted in these things. 
     A spiritual life is a life in which our security is based not in any created things, good as they may be, but in God, who is everlasting love.  We probably will never be completely free from our attachement to the temporal world, but if we want to live in that world in a truly free way, we'd better not belong to it.

What did the most recent crisis in your life reveal about the basis for your security?

Tuesday, Fourth Week of Lent

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.  Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change, though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea; though its water roar and foam, though the mountains tremble with its tumult.  Psalm 46:1-3

How often have you wanted to be able to see into the future.  Have you wanted to know, "What will next year be for me?  Where will I be five or ten years from now?"  There are no answers to these questions.  Mostly we have just enough light to see the next step: what we have to do in the coming hour or the following day.  The art of living is to enjoy what we can see and not complain about what remains in the dark.  When we are able to take the next step with the trust that we will have enough light for the step that follows, we can walk through life with joy and be surprised at how far we go.  Let's rejoice in the little light we carry and not ask for the great beam that would take all the shadows away.

Instead of seeking too many answers about your future, resolve today to embrace the present and thank God for what you have.

Monday, Fourth Week of Lent

Sing praises to the Lord, O you his faithful ones, and give thanks to his holy name.  For his anger is but for a moment; his favor is for a lifetime.  Weeping may linger for the night but joy comes with the morning.  Psalm 30:4-5

JOY is what makes life worth living, but for many joy seems hard to find.  Some complain that their lives are only sorrowful and depressing.  What then brings the joy we so desire?  Are some people just lucky, while others have run out of luck?  Strange as it may sound, we can choose joy.  Two people can be part of the same event, but they may choose to live it quite differently.  One may choose to trust that what happened holds a promise.  The other may choose despair and be destroyed by it.  What makes us human is precisely this freedom of choice.

JOY and sorrow are never separated.  When our hearts rejoice at a spectacular view, we may miss our friends who cannot see it, and when we are overwhelmed with grief, we may discover what true friendship is all about.  Joy is hidden in sorrow and sorrow in joy.  If we  try to avoid sorrow at all costs, we may never taste joy.   Joy and sorrow are the parents of our spiritual growth.

Today, strive to embrace your joys as well as your sorrows.

Sunday, Fourth Week of Lent

For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.  Ephesians 2:10

So many terrible things happen every day that we stat wondering whether the few things we do ourselves make any sense.  When people are starving in our communities and afar, when wars are raging close to our borders, when countless people in our cities have no homes to live in, our own activities look futile.  Such considerations, however, can paralyze and depress us.

Here the word "call" becomes important.  We are not called to save the world, solve all the problems and help all people.  But each of us has our own unique call, in our families, in our work, in our world.   We have to keep asking God to help us see clearly what our call is and to give us the strength to live our that call with trust.  Then we will discover that our faithfulness to a small task is the most healing response to the illnesses of our time.

What small tasks are you called to be faithful to today?

Saturday, Third Week of Lent

Come, let us return to the Lord; for it is he who has torn, and he will heal us; he has struck down, and he will bind us up.  After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him.  Let us know, let us press on to know the Lord; his appearing is as sure as the dawn.  Hosea 6:1-3

Dying is returning home.  But even though we have been told this many times by many people, we seldom desire to return home.  We prefer to stay where we are.  We know what we have; we do not know what we will get.  Even the most appealing images of the afterlife cannot take away the fear of dying.  we cling to life, even when our relationships are difficult, our economic circumstances harsh and our health quite poor. 

Still, Jesus, came to take the sting out of death and to help us gradually realize that we don't have to be afraid of death, since death leads us to the place where the deepest desires of our hearts will be satisfied.  It is not easy for us to truly believe that, but every little gesture of trust will bring us closer to this truth. 

Today:  Try to picture heaven as the fulfillment of your deepest desire. 

Friday, Third Week of Lent

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.  Mark 12:30

Hiddenness is an essential quality of the spiritual life. Solitude, silence, ordinary tasks, being with people without great agendas, sleeping, eating ,working, playing...all of that without being different from others, that is the life Jesus lived and the life he asks us to live.  It is in hiddenness that we can find a true intimacy with God and a  true love for people.  Even during his active ministry, Jesus continued to return to hidden places to be alone with God.   If we don't have a hidden life with God, our public life for God cannot bear fruit...

Solitude allows us to be alone with God.  There we experience that we belong not to people, not even to those who love us and care for us, but to God an God alone.

Resolve to spend some time today alone with God.

St. George's Monastery

Thursday, Third Week of Lent

O that today you would listen to his voice!  Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness, when your ancestors tested me, and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.  Psalm 95:7-9

Our emotional lives move up and down constantly.  Sometimes we experience great mood swings; from excitement to depression, from joy to sorrow, from inner harmony to inner chaos.  A little event, a word from someone, a disappointment in work, many things can trigger such mood swings.  Mostly we have little control over these changes.  It seems that they happen to us rather than being created by us. 

So it is important to know that our emotional life is not the same as our spiritual life. Our spiritual life is the life of the Spirit of God within us.  As we feel our emotions shift, we must connect our spirits with the Spirit of God and remind ourselves that what we feel is not who we are.  We are and remain, whatever our moods, God's beloved children.

Although it can be hard to control our moods, we can gradually overcome them by a well-disciplined spiritual life.  This can prevent us from acting our our moods.  We might not "feel" like getting up in the morning because we "feel" there is no point, that nobody loves us and that our work is boring.  But if we get up anyway, to spend some time reading the Gospels, praying the Psalms and thanking God for a new day, our moods may lose their power over us.

Holy Spirit, help me.  Amen

Action:  Consider signing up for a Bible Reading plan.  Here is one that I am using this year. 
YouVersion Bible Reading Plan

Wednesday, Third Week of Lent

For what other great nation has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is whenever we call to him?  And what other great nation has statues and ordinances as just as this entire law that I am setting before you today?  Deuteronomy 4:7-8

God made a covenant with us.  The word covenant means "coming together".  God wants to come together with us.  In many of the stories in the Hebrew Bible, we see that God appears as a God who defends us against our enemies, protects us against dangers and guides us to freedom.  God is God-for-us.  When Jesus comes a new dimension of the covenant is revealed.  In Jesus, God is born, grows to maturity, lives, suffers and dies as we do.  God is God-with-us.  Finally, when Jesus leaves he promises the Holy Spirit.  In the Holy Spirit, God reveals the full depth of the covenant.  God wants to be as close to us as our breath.  God wants to breathe in us, so that all we say, think and do is completely inspired by God.  God is God-within-us.  Thus, God's covenant reveals to us how much God loves us.

Today:  Be grateful for the awesome gift of Christian faith and for your redemption. 

This video is from the National Youth Gathering last summer.  Watch closely and you will see some familiar faces.  We were all reminded of the awesome gift of our Christian faith during this time...we know we need to remember to be thankful all the time. 

Tuesday, Third Week of Lent

Then Peter came and said to him, "Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive?  As many as seven  times?"  Jesus said to him, "Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times."  Matthew 18:21-22

Community is not possible without the willingness to forgive one another "seventy-seven times".  Forgiveness is the cement of community life.  Forgiveness holds us together through good times and bad times, and it allows us to grow in mutual love...

To forgive another person from the heart is an act of liberation.  We set that person free from the negative bonds that exist between us.  We say, "I no longer hold your offense against you."  But there is more.  We also free ourselves from the burden of being the "offended one".  As long as we do not forgive those who have wounded us, we carry them with us or, worse, pull them as a heavy load.  The great temptation is to cling in anger to our enemies and then define ourselves as being offended and wounded by them.  Forgiveness, therefore, liberates not only the other but also ourselves.  It is the way to the freedom of the children of God.

Action:  What are the grudges you are clinging to?  Release them.

Monday, Third Week of Lent

As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God.  My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.  When shall I come and behold the face of God?  Psalm 42:1-2

Do you think about the resurrection?  It seems that most of are doing everything possible to prolong our mortal lives.  Still, as we grow more deeply into the spiritual life ~ life in communion with our risen Lord ~ we gradually get in touch with our desire to move through the fate of death into eternal life with Christ.  This is no death wish, but a desire for the fulfillment of all desires.

The knowledge that Jesus came to give us immortality must help us develop an inner desire to be born to a new, eternal life with him and encourage us to find ways to prepare for it...The sacramental life and the life with the Word of God gradually make us ready to let go of our mortal bodies and receive the mantle of immortality.

Therefore, death is no longer able to put an end to everything because the love and sacrifice of Christ promises the Kingdom of eternal love.

O Lord, help me to make union with you the desire that most deeply affects my daily life ~ and my attitude toward my death.

Sunday, Third Week of Lent

I am the Lord you God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, our of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me.  You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.  Exodus 20:2-4

Sometimes we behave like children in a toy shop.  We want this, and that, and then something else.  The many options confuse us and can even create restlessness.  When someone says, "Well, what do you want?  You can have one thing.  Make up your mind", we do not know what to choose.

As long as our hearts keep going back and forth between these many wants, we cannot move forward in life with inner peace and joy.  That is why we need inner and outer disciplines, to get beyond these wants and discover our mission in life. 

Think about this:  What are your spiritual priorities?  How do those priorities affect and impact your daily life?

Saturday, Second Week of Lent

The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love...He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities.  For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him.  Psalm 103:8, 10-11

We all have our secrets; thoughts, memories, feelings that we keep to ourselves.  Often we think, "If people knew what I feel or think, they would not love me".  These carefully kept secrets can do us much harm.  They can make us feel guilty or ashamed and may lead us to self-rejection, depression and worse...

One of the greatest dangers in the spiritual life is self-rejection.  When we say, "If people really knew me, they wouldn't love me", we choose the road toward darkness.  Often we are made to believe that self-deprecation is a virtue, called humility.  But humility is in reality the opposite of that.  It is the grateful recognition that we are precious in God's eyes and that who we are is a gift.  To grow beyond self-rejection we must have the courage to listen to the voice calling us God's beloved sons and daughters, and the determination always to live our lives according to this truth.

Question:  What helps you to realize that you are precious in God's eyes?

Friday, Second Week of Lent

Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his children, because he was the son of his old age; and he had made him a long robe with sleeves.  But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably to him...They saw him from a distance, and before he came near to them, they conspired to kill him.  Genesis 37: 3-4, 18

How can someone ever trust in the existence of an unconditional divine love when most, if not all, of what he or she has experienced is the opposite of love ~ fear, hatred, violence, abuse?

Because they are not condemned to be victims!  There remains with them, the possibility to choose love. Many people who have suffered the most horrendous rejections and been subject to the most cruel torture have been able to choose love.  By choosing love they became witnesses not only to human resiliency but also to the divine love that transcends all human loves.  Those who choose, even on a small scale, to love in the midst of hatred and fear are the people who offer true hope to our world.

Action:  Resolve today not to play the victim or to feel sorry for yourself, but instead to choose to rise above the hatred in your life.

Visit The Forgiveness Project today and be inspired by some people who have chosen love and forgiveness over hatred and victimization.  Keep the Kleenex handy. 

Thursday, Second Week of Lent

The heart is devious above all else; it is perverse ~ who can understand it?  I the Lord test the mind and search the heart, to give to all according to their ways, according to the fruit of their doings.  Jeremiah 17:9-10

The many contradictions of our lives ~ such as being home while feeling homeless, being busy while feeling bored, being popular while feeling lonely, being believers while having many doubts ~ can frustrate, irritate and even discourage us.  They make us feel that we are never fully present in our lives.  Every door that opens for us makes us see how many more doors are closed.  

But there is another response.  These same contradictions can bring us into touch with a deeper longing , for the fulfillment of a desire that lives beneath all desires and that only God can satisfy.  Contradictions then, can help us move toward God.

Lord, help me to realize that my heart and mind will always be restless and conflicted until they rest in you. 

Wednesday, Second Week of Lent

But Jesus answered, "You do not know what you are asking.  Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink?"  Matthew 20:22

"Can we drink the cup"? This is probably the most challenging and radical question we can ask ourselves.  The cup is the cup of life, full of sorrows and joys.  Can we hold our cups and claim them as our own?  Can we lift our cups to offer blessings to others?

Drinking our cups means fully understanding what each of us has acknowledged as our life, with all its unique sorrows and joys.  How do we drink our cups?  We drink them as we listen in silence to the truth of our lives, as we speak in trust with friends about ways we want to grow and as we act in deeds of service.  Drinking our cups is following God's call and staying faithfully on the path that is ours.  When we have emptied our cups to the bottom, God promises to fill them with "water" for eternal life.

Question:  What do you fail to accept and appreciate about your life?

Tuesday, Second Week of Lent

You are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all students.  And call no one your father on earth, for you have one Father ~ the one in heaven.  Matthew 23:8-9

Who are we?  Are we what we do?  Are we what others say about us?  Are we the power we have?  It often seems that way in Western society.  But the Spirit of Jesus given to us reveals our true spiritual identities.  The Spirit reveals that we belong not to a world of success, fame or power but to God.  The world enslaves us with fear; the Spirit frees us from that slavery and restores us to the true relationship.  That is what Paul means when he says, "All who are guided b the Spirit of God are sons (and daughters) of God, for what you received was not the spirit of slavery to bring you back into fear; you received the spirit of adoption, enabling us to cry out, "Abba, Father!"  (Romans 8:15).  Who are we?  We are God's beloved sons and daughters!

Calling God "Abba, Father" is a cry of the heart, a prayer from deep inside of us.  It has nothing to do with naming God but everything to do with claiming God as the source of who we are.

Thought for today:  What keeps you from freely and wholeheartedly responding to God as your loving Father?

Monday, Second Week of Lent

Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.  Do not judge, and you will not be judged...Forgive, and you will be forgiven.  Luke 6:36-37

We are all wounded people.  Who wounds us?  Often those whom we love and those who love us.  When we feel rejected, abandoned, abused, manipulated or violated, it is mostly by people very close to us: our parents, friends, spouses, lovers, children, neighbors, or teachers.  Those who love us would us too.  That's the tragedy of our lives.  This is what makes forgiveness from the heart so difficult.  It is precisely our hears that are wounded.  We cry out, "You, who I expected to be there for me, you have abandoned me.  How can I ever forgive you for that?"

Forgiveness often seems impossible, but nothing is impossible for God.  the God who lives within us will give us the grace to go beyond our wounded selves and say, "In the name of God you are forgiven."

Lord, help me to forgive all who have hurt me.  Amen.

Sunday, Second Week of Lent

If God is for us, who is against us?  He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else?  Who will bring any charge against God's elect?  It is God who justifies.  Who is to condemn?  Romans 8:31-34

Many voices are vying for our attention.  There is a voice that says, "Prove that you are a good person."  Another voice asks, "Who do you think you are?"  There also is a voice that says, "Nobody really cares about you after all", and the one that says, "Be sure to become successful, popular and powerful."  But underneath all these often very noisy voices is a still, small voice that says, "You are my Beloved, my favor rest on you."  That's the voice we need to hear.  To hear that voice, however, requires special effort;  it requires solitude, silence and a strong determination to listen.

That's what prayer is.  It is listening to the voice that calls us "my Beloved".

Action:  Consider what you can do today to help yourself learn to hear the voice of God within?

Saturday, First Week of Lent

Today the Lord has obtained your agreement; to be treasured people, as he promised you, and to keep his commandments; for him to set you high above all nations that he has made, in praise and in fame and in honor; and for you to be a people holy to the Lord your God.  Deuteronomy 26:18-19

Through baptism we become part of a family much larger than our biological family.  It is a family of people "set apart" by God to be light in the darkness.  These set-apart people are called saints.  Although we tend to think about saints as holy and pious, and picture them with halos above their heads, true saints are much more accessible.  They are men and women, youth and children,  like us, who live ordinary lives and struggle with ordinary problems.  What makes them saints is their clear and unwavering focus on God and God's people. 

The saints are our brothers and sisters, calling us to become like them.

Action:  When you think about saints, who comes to mind?  Where do you locate yourself in the set-apart people"?  What reminds you that you are one of the "set-apart people"  called to be holy? 

If it has been awhile since you heard or read the Service of Baptism, take some time to do so today.  These words (or similar words) were spoken over you at your baptism.  When you read this, read it out loud, and say your name boldly when you get to the appropriate places.  

From the Service for Holy Baptism (ELW 227-231)

In baptism our gracious heavenly Father frees us from sin and death by joining us to the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.  We are born children of a fallen humanity; by water and the Holy Spirit we are reborn children of God and made members of the church, the body of Christ.  Living with Christ and in the communion of saints, we grow in faith, love, and obedience to the will of God.

You belong to Christ, in whom you have been baptized.  Alleluia!

Let us pray,  We give you thanks, O God, that through water and the Holy Spirit you give your daughters and sons new birth, cleanse them from sin, and raise them to eternal life.  Sustain __________ with the gift of your Holy Spirit:  the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord, the spirit of joy in your presence, both now and forever.  Amen.

_____________, child of God, your have been sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked with the cross of Christ forever.  Amen.

Friday, First Week of Lent

So when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift.  Matthew 5:23-24

How can we forgive those who do not want to be forgiven?  Our deepest desire is that the forgiveness we offer will be received.  This mutuality between giving and receiving is what creates peace and harmony.  But if our condition for giving forgiveness is that it will be receive, we seldom will forgive! Forgiving the other is first and foremost an inner movement.  It is an act that removes anger, bitterness and the desire for revenge from our hearts and helps us to reclaim our human dignity.  We cannot force those we want to forgive into accepting our forgiveness.  They might not be able or willing to do so.  They many not even know or feel that they have wounded us.

The only person we can really change is ourselves.  Forgiving others is first and foremost healing our own hearts. 

Action:  What forgiving have you delayed?  Can you do it now?

Thursday, First Week of Lent

Is there anyone among you, if your child asks for bread, will give a stone?  Or if the child asks for fish, will you give a snake?  If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him!  Matthew 7:9-11

God is a God of abundance, not a God of scarcity.  Jesus reveals to us God's abundance when he offers so much bread to the people that there are twelve large baskets with leftover scraps, and when he make his disciples catch so many fish that their boa nearly sinks.  God doesn't give us just enough, God gives us more than enough: more bread and fish than we can eat, more love than we dared to ask for.

God is a generous giver, but we can only see and enjoy God's generosity when we love God with all of our hears, minds and strength.  As long as we say, "I will love you, God, but first show me your generosity," we will remain distant from God and unable to experience what God truly wants to give us, which is life and life in abundance.

Lord, help me to love you with all my hear, mind and strength so that I can receive all the bounty of your love.

Action: Since we know that God is the God of abundance and there are enough food and resources in the world for all people, why do so many die each day of hunger related diseases?  Part of the answer to this question is that we do not share or care for the "least of these" in the way God intended.   Our youth will be wrestling with this issue at the 30-Hour Famine on March 1st and 2nd.  I encourage you to find ways to make a difference in lives of families in the Osceola community by donating Mac-n-Cheese to the backpack program.  Your action now makes a difference to a child tomorrow when the back packs are sent home with them for the weekend.

http://local.yahoo.com/details?id=16811726&stx=open+cupboard&csz=Osceola+WI 

Wednesday, First Week of Lent

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.  Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.  Psalm 51:1-2

Often hell is portrayed as a place of punishment and heaven as a place of reward.  But this concept easily leads us to think about God in terms of our earthly judicial system.  When we sin we can go to prison. Or maybe we think about God as Santa Claus, who keeps a naughty and nice list and if we are real good we will find something wonderful in our stockings at the end of the year.

God, however, is neither a member of the judicial system nor Santa Claus. God does not send us to heaven or hell depending on how often we obey or disobey.  God is love and only love. In God there is no hatred, desire for revenge or pleasure in seeing us punished.  God wants to forgive, heal, restore, show us endless mercy and see us come home.  But just as the father of the prodigal son let his son make his own decision, God gives us the freedom to refuse divine love, even at the risk of destroying ourselves.  Hell is not God's choice.  It is ours.

For thought:  The following are pictures taken inside a monastery in the Holy Land.  This Orthodox faith tradition uses ikon's throughout their worship spaces, to enhance prayer and aid in meditation.  Which image, or images, of God do you bring to prayer and meditation?

Tuesday, First Week of Lent

When you are praying, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard because of their many words.  Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.  Pray then in this way:  Our Father in heaven...  Matthew 6:7-9

Our minds are always active.  We analyze, reflect, daydream or dream.  There is not a moment during the day or night when we are not thinking.  You might say our thinking is "unceasing".  Sometimes we wish that we could stop thinking for a while; that would save us from many worries, guilt feelings and fears.  Our ability to think is our greatest gift, but it is also the source of our greatest pain.  Do we have to become victims of unceasing thoughts?  No, we can convert our unceasing thinking into unceasing prayer by making our inner monologue into a continuing dialogue with God, who is the source of all love.

Let's break out of our isolation and realize that Someone who dwells in the center of our beings wants to listen with love to all that occupies and preoccupies our minds.

O Holy Spirit, convert my never-ending flow of thoughts into prayer.

Action:  Today, every time your catch yourself worrying, say a little prayer.

Monday, First Week of Lent

You shall not hate in your heart anyone of your kin; you shall reprove your neighbor, or you will incur guilt yourself.  You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself.  Leviticus 19:17-18

The knowledge of being loved in an unconditional way, before the world presents us with its conditions, cannot come from books, lectures, television programs or workshops.  This spiritual knowledge comes from people who witness to God's love for us through their words and deeds.  These people can be close to us, but they can also live far away or may even have lived long ago.  Their witness announces the truth of God's love and calls us to act in accordance with it...

How can we choose love when we have experienced so little of it?  We choose love by taking small steps of love every time there is an opportunity.  A smile, a handshake, a word of encouragement, a phone call, a card, a moment of attention, a helping hand, a visit ~ all these are little steps toward love.

Each step is like a candle burning in the night.  It does not take the darkness away, rather it guides us through the darkness.

O Lord, help me to take the small steps of love I need to take today. 

Action:  Today, choose to show love toward someone.  Do yourself a favor, and make it a "difficult" someone, someone whom you have not spoken in ages, OR perhaps someone you have a grudge against. 

Sunday, First Week of Lent

(Jesus said,) "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news."  Mark 1:15

Patience is a hard discipline for some of us.  It is not just waiting until something happens over which we have zero control:  the arrival of a bus, the end of an ice storm, a friend to return, the resolution of a conflict.  Patience is not about waiting passively until someone else does something.  Patience asks us to live each moment to the fullest, to be completely present to the moment, to taste the here and now, to be where we are.  When we are impatient, we try to get away from where we are.  We behave as if the real thing will happen tomorrow, later and somewhere else.  Let's be patient and trust that the treasure we look for is hidden in the ground on which we stand.

O God who waits in eternity, help me to live graciously in the here and now. 

Welcome to the Lenten devotional blog.  For the next few weeks we will work through a reflection titled, "Called to Life, Called to Love" by Henri Nouwen.  Periodically I will include pictures, hymns, and links that will enhance the journey.

During Lent we not only prepare ourselves to celebrate the mystery of the death and resurrection Jesus, but also the death and resurrection that constantly takes place within us as Children of God.  

May your journey be gentle, reflective, and a time of growth.  

Shalom.