One More Day…

Tags

deep breath, extra day, gift, holy season, leap year, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

“Thirty days has September…” If you learned that entire device to know how many days are in each month, maybe you’re like me — uncomfortable with it because it gets to: “Save February with 28 till leap year comes with 29…” at which point I was always lost because the rhythm and the rhyme went somewhere that I couldn’t follow!! Regardless of inability to correctly remember what was supposed to help, I am always aware of the brevity of February!

Today is that every-four-year-gift of an extra day and I am grateful for this “Leap Year” gift. It’s embarrassing to say but somehow I “leapfrogged” from Wednesday when I proposed attentiveness to Lenten practice to today without a thought about the six weeks of Lent!

How kind of the universe and the calendar to give me this extra time to get going! If you have been busy like me, won’t you join me in a deep breath and a deep dive into this holy season? I’ll meet you and Jesus in the desert tomorrow morning…

Assessment

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carrying crosses, empowerment, enough, goals, grace, holy season, Isaiah, Jesus, Joyce Rupp, Philippians, Prayer Seeds, St. Paul, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Today is the fifth Sunday of Lent. We don’t have much more time to achieve what we projected at the beginning of these 40 days, this “holy season.” How am I doing? Sometimes it seems that I am very aware of my desire to change, to jettison the parts of me that I see as less than acceptable, as holy, or as enough for God. I read Isaiah’s message from God: See, I am doing something new!…Do you not perceive it?” and I wonder if I really understand how present God’s Spirit is, how alive and active in every breath I take. I remember how Jesus treated the woman caught in adultery and hear St. Paul speak his faith to the Philippians: Forgetting what lies behind but straining forward to what lies ahead, I continue my pursuit toward the goal…and again I move to self doubt.

As usual, however, when I turn to Joyce Rupp, I find what I need to go forward. Her Lenten reflection called Carrying Crosses* contains a petition and then a recognition of what is true and necessary for us as we strive to accept ourselves as God sees and loves us every day. I am always grateful for her ability to speak just the right words at the right time. Listen:

Expand my perception of the good things my life already holds. Decrease apprehension about not having enough, being enough, doing enough or growing enough.

Confident in your grace and daily empowerment, I give myself to you as fully as I am able at this time. As I carry the crosses that are mine, remind me often that you are always with me and never against me. I place my desire for union with you into your loving care. Amen.

Amen, indeed.

*Prayer Seeds, p.90.

Starting Now

Tags

covenant, Genesis, holy season, Lent, path, rainbow, spring, teach, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, truth

Two things occur to me as I read the lectionary texts for this First Sunday of Lent. Initially, as the sky clears after a night of snow here, Genesis announces God’s promise of the covenant that never again shall all bodily creatures be destroyed by the waters of a flood. I muse that I haven’t seen a rainbow – that amazing sign of God’s covenant – for a very long time. It’s not that I haven’t looked, nor do I think God has had a change of mind, but it does make one wonder – in light of all the devastating floods this past year – if we are paying enough attention. Happily we now know the vastness of the world as well as the cooperation that has been manifested after each tragedy, allowing the restoration of stricken areas through generosity and teamwork.

Secondly, and most likely due to the slow pace of life in my home for the past two weeks because of the nasty flu bug, it seems as if Valentine’s Day/Ash Wednesday was much longer ago than half a week. When I read “First Sunday of Lent” this morning, therefore, on the US Bishops website, I react with a surprised: “What!? So…all the “Lent-ing” so far was just practice…preamble, maybe?” and I wonder if the “Holy Season” will drag along seemingly forever. But that might not be a bad thing, given my lack of preparedness so far! Maybe I’m being given a second chance to wake up, to shake off the lethargy of inaction and make something of these next several weeks.

So in the hope that spring awaits at the end, I resolve to pay more attention beginning today, as I pray with the psalmist: Your ways, O Lord, make known to me; teach me your paths. Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God, my Savior!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Even Now…

Tags

A Sleep of Prisoners, Christopher Fry, divine heart, fasting, holy season, Joel, Lent, love, renewal, repentance, soul, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Valentine's Day

As the curtain opens on another season of Lent and we gear up for repentance and renewal, the prophet Joel is way out ahead of us announcing God’s invitation. “Even now,” God says…”Even now,” the poet Christopher Fry writes in the play, A Sleep of Prisoners, “when wrong comes up to face us till we take the longest stride of soul we ever took…”

I am so captivated by those two words that seem to offer so much hope in a dark time. Even now…I begin reflecting on the world situation to find what needs to be redeemed by the poet’s words but I’m quickly thrown back to the personal as Joel continues. “Rend your hearts,” he says, “not your garments.” It’s a necessary course correction that has been needing attention for some time. Winter can be such a lazy season if we are not careful. We can slip into a listless, sluggish round of tasks that lulls us into the mediocre land of February, the “after-the-holidays” let-down that is not our best moment.

Then Joel comes along calling for a fast. “Blow the trumpet in Zion!” he commands. In other words: “Wake up! Get busy! There’s a lot to do before the flowers bloom.” It’s up to us to hear the word of God and act on it. Oh, and coincidentally, today is Valentine’s Day – just another reminder of the kind of God we have who longs for our love even as a greater love is pouring from the divine heart into our own!

So let us be about this holy season – starting now…yes, even now.