Lent: Preparing for Easter

Image: NLM

At the Easter Vigil and at Mass on Easter Sunday, we will “renew the promises of our baptism” after we are asked:

Do you reject sin
so as to live in the freedom of God’s children?
Do you reject the glamor of evil
and refuse to be mastered by sin?
Do you reject Satan,
and all his works and empty promises?
Do you believe in God, the Father almighty,
maker of heaven and earth...?
Do you believe in Jesus Christ,
the only begotten Son of God...?
Do you believe in the Holy Spirit,
the Lord and giver of life...?
Do you believe in
one, holy, catholic and apostolic church?
Do you believe in the forgiveness of sins?
Do you look for the resurrection of the dead
and the life of the world to come?

And we respond, “I do. I do. I do...”

But do we?
Do we believe?
Do we even understand the questions?

Lent is a good time for us to study and pray over these questions so that we can be prepared to answer them with a strong, “I do!” at Easter.

Fr. Bill Reiser, SJ has proposed some additional questions to ponder as we prepare in Lent to renew our baptismal promises at Easter. Perhaps his questions will provide food for thought and prayer as we prepare this Lent to celebrate the Paschal mystery.

- Do you accept Jesus as your teacher, as the example whom you will always imitate and as the one in whom the mystery of God’s love for the world has been fully revealed?

- Do you dedicate yourself to seeking the reign of God and God’s justice, to praying daily, to meditating on the Gospels and to celebrating the Eucharist faithfully and devoutly?

- Do you commit yourself to that spirit of poverty and detachment that Jesus enjoined on his disciples, and to resisting the spirit of consumerism and materialism that is so strong in our culture?

- Do you accept responsibility for building community, for being a person of compassion and reconciliation, for being mindful of the poor and the oppressed, and for truly forgiving those who have offended you?

- Will you try to thank and praise God by your works and by your actions, in times of prosperity as well as in moments of suffering, giving loyal witness to the risen Jesus by your faith, by your hope, and by the style of your living?

- Do you surrender your life to God as a disciple and companion of Jesus? Do you believe that God is the Lord of history, sovereign over nations and peoples, and that God’s promise to redeem all of creation from its bondage to death and decay will one day be accomplished?

All of these questions, the traditional and the additional, are offered here as “food for thought and prayer” during the Lenten season.

Some 40 days from now we’ll be renewing our baptismal promises and professing our faith in God. Let us pray for one another that this season of preparation will find us ready to answer “I do!” with voices and hearts filled with faith.
2009LentPostCollection
-ConcordPastor

Daily Prayer in Lent - Ash Saturday

Word for the Season

Even now, says the LORD,

return to me with your whole heart...
Joel 2:12

Word for the Day

Thus says the LORD:
If you remove from your midst oppression,
false accusation and malicious speech...
then light shall rise for you in the darkness...
(See today's readings for Isaiah 58)

Reflection

No doubt about it:
my heart harbors ill will
where harsh judgments dock
and angry words float freely,
riding dark waves of envy...
A harbor clouded and choked
with wrecks of grudges
and dregs drawn up from murky deeps...
A cold cove it is, craving warmth
and a sea change of grace...

Prayer
I return to you today, Lord,
from this harbor on my soul's shore...
Help me unload my heart's hold
of words and wishes stored only for hurt...
Sweeten the stale waters my heart sails
and fill me with a cargo of kindness,
such as I seek from others...
Rise like the sun over my heart's bow
and with the dawn's warmth
cleanse and heal me...
I trust you, Lord,
and pray you will trust me
to return to you this Lent, day by day,
with my whole heart...
Amen. 2009LentPostCollection

Image: Gwen Meharg

-ConcordPastor

Williamson's "apology" not enough

Bishop Richard Williamson, second from left in foreground, is escorted out of Heathrow airport by police and security officers after arriving on a flight from Argentina, in London, Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2009. Argentina's government on Thursday ordered the traditionalist Catholic bishop to leave the country or face expulsion, citing his failure to declare a job change as required by immigration law as well as his denials of the Holocaust, which it called "an insult" to humanity. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

The Vatican said Friday that the apology issued by an ultraconservative bishop who denied the Holocaust was not good enough to admit him into the Catholic Church as a clergyman.

(The text of Williamson's "apology" is at Zenit.)

Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi said Bishop Richard Williamson's statement "doesn't appear to respect the conditions" the Vatican set out for him.(Read the complete AP report here.)

If We Only Have Love...

If the name Jacques Brel means something to you, then you might also know the name of Eric Blau who, with Mort Shuman, translated Brel's music from French into English and produced the musical review, Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris.

Eric Blau died this week at 87, leaving his wife, Elly Stone, who (along with Shuman) was one of the quartet in the first recording of the American production of Brel's music. Blau's passing brings a flood of memories of Brel's music.

I've enjoyed this cabaret performance some 14 times over the years and have loved it every time. Today's audiences may find Brel's music a bit dated but as someone who lived through the '60's and 70's, this French troubadour's songs are pure gold. I remember playing and singing Brel's If We Only Have Love (Quand On a Que L’amour) back in the day when I teamed up musically with a man who's still a dear friend. We sang this song many times, often at Joe's dad's request in a chalet in Vermont, in a place called Alpenwald. Those were the days, my friend...

Here's the English version of Brel's showstopper, from the original cast album: If We Only Have Love

And here's Brel's solo of the same in French and with the original lyrics...



-ConcordPastor

Some good news on Catholic-Jewish relations

Image: CCL-BC

RNS reports this good news:

In the wake of controversies that have roiled longtime Jewish-Catholic relations, leaders from both faiths announced the launch of a new permanent dialogue between Catholics and Jews in the US.

Religion News Service reports that the joint project of the Pope John Paul II Cultural Center and the Anti-Defamation League, announced here Thursday comes at a time of significant tension between the Vatican and the international Jewish community.

Twenty-eight leaders joined for Thursday's launch at the John Paul Center, with plans to determine by May who will be included in the forthcoming dialogue. Hugh Dempsey, deputy director of the center, said it will include a wide range of Jewish organizations, scholars, and rabbinical associations as well as the Vatican and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, said the dialogue began as leaders marked 30-days since the death of interfaith relations pioneer Rabbi Leon Klenicki.

But Thursday's meeting was also intended to respond to what he called the recent "mini-crises," Foxman said.

"We were concerned that they not build into a major crisis," he said.

Cardinal Sean Patrick O'Malley of Boston said most Catholics were alarmed by the recent crisis surrounding Williamson.

"Obviously, the whole church is very, very pained by the outrageous statements that he made and have been quick to disassociate ourselves from them," said O'Malley. "The Holocaust is certainly the greatest crime in the history of humanity and for anyone to try to diminish that or downplay it is absolutely outrageous."
...

(read the complete report)

Daily Prayer in Lent -Ash Friday

Word for the Season

Even now, says the LORD,

return to me with your whole heart...
Joel 2:12

Word for the Day

My sacrifice, O God, is a contrite spirit;
a heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.
(See today's readings for Psalm 51)

Reflection

The truth is
I have sins I'm not sure I'm sorry for...
I know I've done things against God's law
and outside the bounds of his love,
things I'm not proud of
but things I thought I needed to do,
had to do - and so I did them.
Is it my pride that keeps me
from facing what I've done,
from naming my sin and praying for pardon?

Prayer
I return to you today, Lord,
with a heart burdened with things I've done
that I find hard to face,
with choices I made
that I wish I'd never had to make...
I've sinned in ways I never thought I'd sin
and so I find it hard to admit
to things I thought I'd never do...
But this is a piece of my heart I must bring to you
if I want to return to you with my whole heart...
Give me a contrite spirit, Lord...
Help me to name my sins and know your mercy...
A heart contrite and humbled, Lord,
you will never turn away...
I trust you, Lord,
and pray you will trust me
to return to you this Lent, day by day,
with my whole heart...
Amen. 2009LentPostCollection

Image: Gwen Meharg

-ConcordPastor

We must never forget...

Image by Communications Currents

Earlier this week Cardinal Sean O'Malley met with Jewish leaders in Boston for a sit-down on matters related to the lifting of the excommunication of the schismatic SSPX bishops, in particular Richard Williamson who has now come forward with something of an apology.

Williamson does not recant his earlier remarks.

Zenit has Williamson's statement here. Check out Michael Paulson's Articles of Faith, for his interview of O'Malley after the meeting.

On the local scene...

I received a phone call this week from the folks in Concord who are planning the town's annual Holocaust remembrance this spring. This will be the 29th annual Holocaust Remembrance in Concord. As has happened a number of times in my 15 years here, the call came to invite me to give an invocation at the event on April 26th. I readily accepted, grateful that the news stories of the past several weeks had not ruptured what are solid ties between people of different faiths in my community.

Then I began to think back to such services in years past... There are usually about 75, maybe 100 people in attendance, Jews and gentiles. Why not more people? I can't say that my parish has been heavily represented in those present. And that leads me to ask you, my readers, "Have you attended such services in the past?" (Many communities have such a remembrance service every spring.)

There's been a lot of noise made over the pope's lifting the excommunications and Williamson's denial of the Holocaust but making noise (or posting comments on blogs) is easy.

What a witness it would give, what telling testimony to our outrage over Williamson we would offer if we made every effort to attend the local Holocaust memorial observance in our communities this spring.

Our Jewish neighbors have never met Richard Williamson but they know us: we are the face of the Catholic Church in our communities.

Shoah: we must never forget...

-ConcordPastor

Word for the Weekend - March 1

Image: MrBees (Click on image for larger version!)

I'm late in posting the Word for the Weekend: blogging for Ash Wednesday and Lent took quite a bit of time but I hope I'm now back on track. (And a warm welcome to readers guided here by The Anchoress and Deacon Greg Kandra at The Bench.)

This Sunday's scriptures and background materials can be found here and help hints for those bringing children to Mass this weekend are here.

As is the case every year on the First Sunday of Lent, the gospel is an account of Jesus being tempted in the desert before beginning his public ministry. The first scripture tells of God's covenant with Noah after the flood and the naming of the rainbow as the sign of that covenant. The Lenten aspect of all this relates to water (baptismal) as both death dealing and life giving - we are baptized into Christ's death that we might share in his resurrection. In the "strong" seasons of the church year, all three texts have a thematic resonance - as you'll see in Peter's reference to Noah in the second lesson.

-ConcordPastor

Jesus, our Passover and our lasting peace...

Agnus Dei by Francisco de Zurburán

For some years now, I have prayed the first Eucharistic Prayer for Reconciliation on Ash Wednesday and all the Sundays of Lent. Of all the Eucharistic prayers it is my favorite on account of its beautiful language and its rich Paschal theology. From a presider's point of view, this text seems to pray itself, so easily does it lend itself to proclamation.

Eucharistic Prayer for Reconciliation - I

Father, all-powerful and ever-living God,
we do well always and everywhere
to give you thanks and praise.

You never cease to call us to a new and more abundant life.
God of love and mercy, you are always ready to forgive;
we are sinners, and you invite us to trust in your mercy.

Time and time again we broke your covenant,
but you did not abandon us.
Instead, through your Son, Jesus our Lord,
you bound yourself even more closely to the human family
by a bond that can never be broken.

Now is the time for your people to turn back to you
and to be renewed in Christ your Son,
a time of grace and reconciliation.

You invite us to serve the family of humankind
by opening our hearts to the fullness of your Holy Spirit.

In wonder and gratitude, we join our voices
with the choirs of heaven to proclaim the power of your love
and to sing of our salvation in Christ:

Holy, holy, holy Lord…

Father, from the beginning of time
you have always done what is good for us
so that we may be holy as you are holy.

Look with kindness on your people gathered here before you:
send forth the power of your Spirit
so that these gifts may become for us
the body and blood of your beloved Son, Jesus the Christ,
in whom we have become your sons and daughters.

When we were lost and could not find the way to you,
you loved us more than ever:
Jesus, your Son, innocent and without sin,
gave himself into our hands and was nailed to a cross.

Yet before he stretched out his arms
between heaven and earth,
in the everlasting sign of your covenant,
he desired to celebrate the Paschal feast
in the company of his disciples.

While they were at supper,
he took bread and gave you thanks and praise.
He broke the bread, gave it to his disciples, and said:
Take this, all of you, and eat it:
this is my Body which will be given up for you.

At the end of the meal,
knowing that he was to reconcile all things in himself
by the blood of his cross,
he took the cup, filled with wine.

Again he gave you thanks,
handed the cup to his friends, and said:
Take this, all of you, and drink from it:
this is the cup of my blood,
the blood of the new and everlasting covenant.
It will be shed for you and for all so that sins may be forgiven.
Do this in memory of me.

Let us proclaim the mystery of faith…

We do this in memory of Jesus Christ,
our Passover and our lasting peace.
We celebrate his death and resurrection
and look for the coming of that day
when he will return to give us the fullness of joy.

Therefore we offer you, God ever faithful and true,
the sacrifice which restores us to your friendship.

Father, look with love on those you have called
to share in the one sacrifice of Christ.
By the power of your Holy Spirit
make them one body, healed of all division.

Keep us all in communion of mind and heart
with Benedict, our pope, and Sean, our bishop.
Help us to work together for the coming of your kingdom,
until at last we stand in your presence
to share the life of the saints,
in the company of the Virgin Mary and the apostles,
and of our departed brothers and sisters
whom we commend to your mercy.

Then, freed from every shadow of death,
we shall take our place in the new creation
and give you thanks with Christ, our risen Lord.

Through him, with him, in him,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
all glory and honor is yours,
almighty Father, for ever and ever.
Amen.

-ConcordPastor

Daily Prayer in Lent - Ash Thursday

Word for the Season

Even now, says the LORD,

return to me with your whole heart...
Joel 2:12

Word for the Day

If you obey the commandments of the LORD,
loving him and walking in his ways,
you will live
and the LORD, your God, will bless you...
I have set before you life and death,
blessing and curse.
Choose life, then, that you may live,
by loving the LORD, your God...
(see today's readings for Deuteronomy 30:15-20)

Reflection

It makes so much sense to choose the blessing
but 0h-how-sweet the curse can sometimes smell!
So persuasively seductive...
Too often I choose for the moment
with little thought of tomorrow
and its consequences...
I take the easy way out
or I settle quickly for the cheap imitation
when, with patience, I might have had the real thing...
Life stares me in the face but I let it pass me by,
choosing death by bits and pieces...

Prayer
I return to you today, Lord,
with a heart that often chooses poorly and selfishly...
Give me wisdom
to seek, to know and to choose
what is good, true, whole and pure...
Make me hungry for life
and thirsty for joy...
Allow no curse to tease and tempt me -
and let no grace escape my notice...
Give me strength to walk in your ways
and to choose the blessings, the life
you set before me...
I trust you, Lord,
and pray you will trust me
to return to you this Lent, day by day,
with my whole heart...
Amen. 2009LentPostCollection

Image: Gwen Meharg

-ConcordPastor

Did you miss getting Ashes on Wednesday?

Not to worry!

Ash Wednesday is only Day One - there's a season of 6 weeks ahead of us and it's never too late to get on board the Lenten train.

Check the sidebar and you'll see an ashen Cross like the one above. Click on the Cross there and you'll find a running collection of all the Lenten posts on my blog, through the season.

For a Lenten season filled with grace and peace:
for fasting that leads us to prayer
and for prayer that leads us to serve the poor,
let us pray to the Lord...

-ConcordPastor 2009LentPostCollection

Ash Wednesday 2009

You thumbed grit
into my furrowed brow,
marking me
with the sign of mortality,
the dust of last year’s palms.

The cross you traced
seared, smudged skin,
and I recalled other ashes
etched
into my heart
by those who love too little
or not at all.

- Elizabeth-Anne Vanek in Extraordinary Time

Image: Nola.com 2009LentPostCollection

Daily Prayer in Lent - Ash Wednesday

Word for the Season

Even now, says the LORD,

return to me with your whole heart...
Joel 2:12

Reflection

It's the word "whole" that makes things hard here...
Returning? Sounds like a good idea...
Starting now? Why not? It's Lent!
From the heart? Where else?
With my whole heart?
Whoa!
See, that's the hard part:
the Lord asks for all of me...
even the parts I want to hide, cling to,
or keep for myself...
It's the word "whole" that makes things hard here...

Prayer
The truth is, Lord,
I'm not sure I'm ready
to come back to you with my whole heart
- and to say otherwise wouldn't be the whole truth.
So be patient with me, please...
Let's you and I work this out this Lent...
Can we do this one day at a time,
a piece of my heart each day?
And will you help me with the parts
I have trouble with,
the heart-parts I hold on to?
I trust you, Lord,
and pray you will trust me
to return to you this Lent, day by day,
with my whole heart...
Amen. 2009LentPostCollection

Image: Gwen Meharg

-ConcordPastor

Ash Wednesday 2009

Remember, man... Remember, woman...
you are dust
and to dust
you shall return...
(Roman Rite)


What we call the beginning is often the end
And to make an end is to make a beginning.
The end is where we start from.
(T.S.Eliot)


Turn away from sin
and be faithful
to the gospel...
(Roman Rite)

2009LentPostCollection

Another homily on Sunday's scriptures

Mural of the Healing of the Paralytic from the house church in Dura Europos. Dated to about 235 AD, it is among the most ancient depictions of Jesus. (Click on image for larger version)

Gregory Burch was ordained to the permanent diaconate in the spring of 2008 and assigned to my parish. I want to share with you the homily he preached this past Sunday. The message of healing and reconciliation here is a fine preparation for our entering the season of Lent.
-ConcordPastor

Homily for the Seventh Sunday Ordinary Time B
Isaiah 43:18-19, 21-22, 24b-25,
2 Corinthians 1:18-22,
Mark 2:1-12

Imagine this scene if you will: You live on a hill by Capernaum, where your gaze stretches south to the sun-sparkled waves of the Sea of Galilee. Jesus has returned home. You are a paralytic. Through the faith and urging of your friends and family you are raised toward the blue sky and born on shoulders, through the dust of the crowd. They deliver you to the very feet of Jesus, where you lay, helpless, upon your mat. The Son of God, Jesus, the incarnate form of He who made heaven and earth, who conceived of you before conception and who shaped you in the womb, smiles upon you. With infinite love he looks down. As he speaks the breath of life issues from his lips, and he says: “Your sins are forgiven. Rise, pick up your mat and go home.”

As the crowd watches ….you just lay there. You don’t get up. You can, but you insist that you cannot.

This is the position many of us find ourselves in over and over again. We become self-made paralytics who refuse to move, refuse to walk, because we cannot ask for forgiveness, or, when given, we cannot fully accept forgiveness. We cannot accept the free gift of love that mends our wounds and makes us whole, frees us and sends us home.

Why do we do this to ourselves? Why do we beat ourselves up, time and again - as if my sin is the greatest shame of all time, as if my sin is the one that can never be forgiven.

How odd it is that we fail to seek and accept personal forgiveness, and yet the core of the Christian message is that Jesus came in order to make atonement possible.

Jesus Christ came into this world and lived among us to demonstrate God’s constant invitation to be enfolded by his love and compassion. God communicates his inmost life through the mission of Jesus. The purpose of Jesus’ earthly ministry was precisely to forgive and take away our sins.

We all wrestle with our failings. Through human frailty we succumb to sin’s temptation and become alienated from God’s intention for us. We become spiritually crippled.

Sin is a signal that there is a brokenness in our life that keeps us from getting up and walking forward. The injury may take on many forms. Some experience a rupture in their relationship with God and loved ones when ties of trust and fidelity are strained and snap.

Many experience a spiritual palsy that causes their legs to weaken when they knowingly act against there own conscience. Others experience brokenness when they abuse the gifts of creation.

Jesus likens healing of body to the healing of soul, for when the hurt of sin cripples us, the disruption to our spirit paralyses our relationships and our own ability to love freely.

Perhaps forgiveness is so difficult for us to ask for and fully accept because we know how hard it is for ourselves to forgive. Who among us is not, right now, estranged from someone (someone we once loved) for a hurt received that began with: a simple slight, an angry word, a lie, a theft, an addiction. The events keep rolling round and round and our hurt grows and grows until forgiveness seems impossible. There comes a time when it is our own anger, hurt and inability to forgive that keeps us paralyzed and trapped on a little mat. It is that black thing that we have created and carry that does us the most harm.

When we cling to our brokenness, and decline the free gift of healing, forgiving love we are cut off from the source of all goodness and continue to throw our life, our family and even our health into utter chaos.

This coming week we will open the doors to Easter as we enter the Lenten Season. Through reflection, prayer and the Sacrament of Reconciliation we can cleanse ourselves in a newness of life that springs from Christ himself.

The Sacrament of Reconciliation offers us a startling claim to newness. A fresh start, once and for all.

God offers to love your brokenness back in to wholeness.

The first step to forgiveness is to express sorrow for your thoughts and actions and the first conviction is that the Sacrament of Reconciliation is the primary way of obtaining forgiveness and a new beginning.

In this precious sacrament we receive, as a gracious gift of the Father, by the power of the Holy Spirit and through the ministry of the church, that reconciliation which is Christ: an inexhaustible source of compassion and healing love

Jesus bids us to rise, pick up our mat and go home. He heals the brokenness of our ways and, as we shed the paralysis of sin through Reconciliation, we may walk anew with a strength that bears witnesses to his glory.

He calls us home. Home to this sacrificial table, the focus of our faith. Home to this family of believers. Home to where we are forgiven as we forgive one another. So rise. Pick-up your mat, Jesus is calling you home.

-Deacon Gregory Burch

What are you doing on Ash Wednesday?

If Fat Tuesday finds you feasting on pancakes or jelly donuts or chocolate or beer - I presume you don't need much encouragement from me!

So, I'll direct your attention to tomorrow: Ash Wednesday.

There was a time, and it is still the case in many places, when Ash Wednesday would see hordes of people streaming into churches to be signed with an ashen cross on their foreheads. My experience in suburbia, however, tells me that the Ash Wednesday numbers are often smaller than the regular weekend crowds. Granted, some folks will go to Ash Wednesday services near their work sites but my guess is that a number of Catholics no longer count this the important day their parents and grandparets did.

Ash Wednesday is not a day of obligation but it is nonetheless a unique day on the church calendar and a powerful way to begin the Lenten season.

I encourage you, then, wherever you may be tomorrow, to make an effort to join a community for prayer and to be marked with the sign of the Cross by which we are saved.

-ConcordPastor 2009LentPostCollection

Word for Ash Wednesday

The image above is of a work in textiles, titled Spring. Fiber artist Margaret Gregg based the piece on the beginning of today's first reading from the prophet Joel: Rend your hearts, not your garments, and return to the LORD, your God. It's particularly appropriate that Gregg should title this piece Spring since the word Lent derives from the Anglo Saxon word lencten which means spring. (Click on image for larger version, greater detail)

The scriptures for Ash Wednesday are rich and thick with nourishment - almost too much so for a day of fasting!

Savor these words at home before hearing them proclaimed in the liturgy. Perhaps part of your Lenten resolve will be to read and study the scriptures each week in Lent to prepare to celebrate the Eucharist. And of course you can always find reminders and links to the Sunday scriptures here at A Concord Pastor Comments!

A reading from the book of the prophet Joel

Even now, says the LORD,
return to me with your whole heart,
with fasting, and weeping, and mourning;
Rend your hearts, not your garments,
and return to the LORD, your God.
For gracious and merciful is he,
slow to anger, rich in kindness,
and relenting in punishment.
Perhaps he will again relent
and leave behind him a blessing,
Offerings and libations
for the LORD, your God.

Blow the trumpet in Zion!
proclaim a fast,
call an assembly;
Gather the people,
notify the congregation;
Assemble the elders,
gather the children
and the infants at the breast;
Let the bridegroom quit his room
and the bride her chamber.
Between the porch and the altar
let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep,
And say, “Spare, O LORD, your people,
and make not your heritage a reproach,
with the nations ruling over them!
Why should they say among the peoples,
‘Where is their God?’”

Then the LORD was stirred to concern for his land
and took pity on his people.

Psalm 51

R. Be merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned.

Have mercy on me, O God, in your goodness;
in the greatness of your compassion wipe out my offense.
Thoroughly wash me from my guilt
and of my sin cleanse me.

R. Be merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned.

For I acknowledge my offense,
and my sin is before me always:
“Against you only have I sinned,
and done what is evil in your sight.”

R. Be merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned.

A clean heart create for me, O God,
and a steadfast spirit renew within me.
Cast me not out from your presence,
and your Holy Spirit take not from me.

R. Be merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned.

Give me back the joy of your salvation,
and a willing spirit sustain in me.
O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth shall proclaim your praise.

R. Be merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned.

A reading from the second letter of Paul
to the Corinthians

Brothers and sisters:
We are ambassadors for Christ,
as if God were appealing through us.
We implore you on behalf of Christ,
be reconciled to God.
For our sake he made him to be sin who did not know sin,
so that we might become the righteousness of God in him.

Working together, then,
we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain.
For he says:
In an acceptable time I heard you,
and on the day of salvation I helped you.

Behold, now is a very acceptable time;
behold, now is the day of salvation.

A reading from the holy gospel
according to Matthew

Jesus said to his disciples:

“Take care not to perform righteous deeds
in order that people may see them;
otherwise, you will have no recompense
from your heavenly Father.
When you give alms,
do not blow a trumpet before you,
as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets
to win the praise of others.
Amen, I say to you,
they have received their reward.
But when you give alms,
do not let your left hand know what your right is doing,
so that your almsgiving may be secret.
And your Father who sees in secret will repay you.

“When you pray,
do not be like the hypocrites,
who love to stand and pray in the synagogues
and on street corners
so that others may see them.
Amen, I say to you,
they have received their reward.
But when you pray, go to your inner room,
close the door, and pray to your Father in secret.
And your Father who sees in secret will repay you.

“When you fast,
do not look gloomy like the hypocrites.
They neglect their appearance,
so that they may appear to others to be fasting.
Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward.
But when you fast,
anoint your head and wash your face,
so that you may not appear to be fasting,
except to your Father who is hidden.
And your Father who sees what is hidden will repay you.”
2009LentPostCollection

Intro to Fast and Abstinence 101

There are particular days of fast and abstinence in Lent when the whole Church participates in this Lenten practice as a community of believers. But individual Christians are invited to fast in ways that each determines from his/her own experience and circumstances. The following reflections might be helpful to all of us as we consider fasting in the season ahead of us.

Here's what the Lord says of fasting through the prophet Isaiah, Chapter 58:

Is this the manner of fasting I wish,
of keeping a day of penance:
That a man bow his head like a reed,
and lie in sackcloth and ashes?
Do you call this a fast,
a day acceptable to the LORD?
This, rather, is the fasting that I wish:
releasing those bound unjustly,
untying the thongs of the yoke;
setting free the oppressed,
breaking every yoke;
sharing your bread with the hungry,
sheltering the oppressed and the homeless;
clothing the naked when you see them,
and not turning your back on your own...
If you remove from your midst oppression,
false accusation and malicious speech;
If you bestow your bread on the hungry
and satisfy the afflicted...

Then light shall rise for you in the darkness,
and the gloom shall become for you like midday;
Then the LORD will guide you always
and give you plenty even on the parched land.
He will renew your strength,
and you shall be like a watered garden,
like a spring whose water never fails.

+ + +

In the same spirit, the following advice is convincing and compelling as we face a Lenten fast:

Lent is a season that calls us:

to fast from discontent and to feast on gratitude;
to fast from anger and to feast on patience;
to fast from bitterness and to feast on forgiveness;
to fast from self-concern and to feast on compassion;
to fast from discouragement and to feast on hope;
to fast from laziness and to feast on commitment;
to fast from complaining and to feast on acceptance;
to fast from lust and to feast on respect;
to fast from prejudice and to feast on understanding;
to fast from resentment and to feast on reconciliation;
to fast from lies and to feast on the truth;
to fast from wasted time and to feast on honest work;
to fast from grimness and to feast on joy;
to fast from suspicion and to feast on trust;
to fast from idle talk and to feast on prayer and silence;
to fast from guilt and to feast on the mercy of God.

(Based on a version often attributed to William Arthur Ward)

+ + +

Still not convinced? Spiritual writer Thomas Merton fillets some of our standard Lenten practices with a very sharp blade:

Such exercises as fasting cannot have their proper effect unless our motives for practicing them spring from personal meditation. We have to think of what we are doing, and the reasons for our actions must spring from the depths of our freedom and be enlivened by the transforming power of Christian love. Otherwise, our self-imposed sacrifices are likely to be pretenses, symbolic gestures without real interior meaning. Sacrifices made in this formalistic spirit tend to be mere acts of external routine performed in order to exorcise interior anxiety and not for the sake of love. In that case, however, our attention will tend to fix itself upon the insignificant suffering which we have piously elected to undergo, and to exaggerate it in one way or another, either to make it seem unbearable or else to make it seem more heroic than it actually is. Sacrifices made in this fashion would be better left unmade. It would be more sincere as well as more religious to eat a full dinner in a spirit of gratitude than to make some minor sacrifice a part of it, with the feeling that one is suffering martyrdom.

-Thomas Merton in The Climate of Monastic Prayer

+ + +

The reflections above speak to our individual choices regarding fasting in Lent. Here are the laws regarding our communal fasting as a Church:

ASH WEDNESDAY and GOOD FRIDAY*
are days of FAST and ABSTINENCE

What does that mean?

On Ash Wednesday and Good Friday,
Catholics over 14 years of age
are expected to abstain from eating meat on this day.
Catholics 18 years of age
and up to the beginning of their 60th year
are expected to fast on these days:
taking only one full meal and two other light meals,
eating nothing between meals.
(liquids between meals, however, are allowed).

*Holy Saturday is a day of fast for the elect,
those who are to be baptized at the Easter Vigil.
While fasting is not required of all the faithful,
this is an ancient tradition on this day and a great way
to support those who are to be baptized.

All the FRIDAYS of Lent are days of ABSTINENCE

What does that mean?

Catholics over 14 years of age
Are expected to abstain from eating meat
on the Fridays of Lent.

+ + +

Health concerns and “doctor’s orders”
should take precedence over the practices of fast and abstinence.
Fast and abstinence should never jeopardize one’s physical health.

DISPENSATIONS?

Pastors often receive requests from parishioners asking to be “dispensed” from fast and abstinence for particular social occasions. Of course, it is precisely on such occasions that the self-denial of fast and abstinence might be most meaningful. Such a “dispensation” is not a pastor’s to give. The Church tells us that in this matter individuals have freedom to excuse themselves but that, “no Catholic will lightly hold himself/herself excused from so hallowed an obligation as this penitential practice.”

-ConcordPastor 2009LentPostCollection

Monday Morning Offering - 35

Image: George Mendoza

Good morning, good God!

Well, in 48 hours it will be Ash Wednesday.

I want, Lord -actually I need-
for this to be a good Lent.

I need to start again, with you.
I want to be refreshed.
It's time for me to take a spiritual inventory:
to count my sins and number your countless mercies....

You offer me a season of grace, Lord,
and my heart needs what you so freely give...

I've been here before, Lord,
so many times...

Like New Year's resolutions
my Lenten promises often fade away
before the ashes are brushed from my brow...

So, I offer you my past broken Lenten vows
and pray for your strong arm to keep me faithful this year
to my prayer, my fasting and my outreach to the poor...

I offer you all the false starts of my past, Lord,
and pray you'll walk this Lenten path with me
from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday...

I offer you a lifetime of unkept pious promises
and pray you keep me modest in my pledges
that this Lent I might, at last, be faithful
if only in a few small things...

I offer you, in advance,
whatever my Lenten failures might be, Lord,
and pray that when I stumble
your Spirit will pick me up, dust me off,
and set me back on the path marked out for me,
the path I pledged...

I offer you my ego, Lord,
and pray I take no pride in being faithful this Lent:
humble me with the strength of your grace
to sustain in me what I cannot do alone...

I offer you the 40 days ahead, Lord,
and pray you help me live and walk this season
just one day at a time...

Walk with me this Lent, Lord,
and remind me each day
that this season is first for you
and only for me that I might grow in my faith in you...

And as I walk this Lenten journey with your Church, Lord,
open me to the needs of my brothers and sisters
who walk beside me, behind me and before me...

One day at a time this Lent, Lord:
you and me, with the Church,
in the grace of your Holy Spirit...

Amen.

Monday Morning Offering Archive

-ConcordPastor 2009LentPostCollection

Homily for Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

Which is easier to say?
Isaiah 43:18-19, 21-22, 24b-25
2 Corinthians 1:18-22
Mark 2:1-12

So, which is easier:
to say to the paralytic,
“Your sins are forgiven,”
- or -
“Rise, pick up your mat and walk”?

I suspect there’s a gap between our answer to that question
and the answer in the minds of Jesus and the scribes in this story.
Just to be clear:
the scribes believed that only God could forgive sin
so for Jesus to claim such power was blasphemous in their eyes.
What do we think would be easier to say:
“Your sins are forgiven”
- or -
“Get up and walk!”
I'll bet many of us might say, “Forgiving sins would be easier.”
After all, we know how to forgive someone who offends us
– we’ve done that -
but we don’t know how to heal a paralyzed person, with just a word.

But forgiving sin is something that runs much deeper
than pardoning someone who sins against me.
Forgiving sin is what Isaiah writes about in the first lesson today.
Don’t remember what’s long gone!
Look – I’m doing something new – for you!
You burdened and wearied me with your sins but I wipe them out.
I have forgiven and I have forgotten your sins.

Understanding all of this may depend on what our priorities are.

If I were I a paralyzed person, estranged from God by my sins,
which would be more important to me:
being healed of my sins and reconciled with God -
or being healed of my paralysis?

And how many of you want to tell me that’s not a fair question?

Well, you’re right - it’s not.
And it’s not a fair question
because the chance of being miraculously healed of illness is slight
but the possibility of being healed of my sins is 110%.

We’ll never get to the heart of figuring out which is easier to do
- forgive sins or heal bodies -
if we don't grapple with the question of which is more important to us.
And that struggle is at the heart of so many debates
whose terms boil down to:
spiritual wholeness and integrity on the one side
and personal physical relief and comfort on the other.

This struggle is at the heart of our debates about so many issues:
war, stem cell research, abortion, torture, sexual morality,
capital punishment, immigration and the economy.

Very often the God we want to believe in
is the God who, in our imagination,
will heal and cure and fix things for us, take away the pain
and make things more comfortable and happy for us
- and preferably as soon as possible.

But the God who invites our belief is God whose deepest desire
is for our hearts to be one with his
and to take away, to heal whatever in our hearts
might estrange us from his love.

In the gospel today Jesus is teaching us
that he didn’t come to be the next miracle worker
but that he came to reconcile our hearts with his Father's heart.
And the heart of this reconciling love is the Cross
- the pain of which Jesus was not spared.

We find ourselves on the eve of Lent:
the middle of the week ahead is Ash Wednesday.
Lent is a season for reconciling with the heart of God, in Christ.
Lent promises neither the cure of our aches and pains
nor the fixing of our problems
but it does guarantee - 110% -
the reconciliation of our hearts with God through the love of Jesus.

Which is easier, then, to say:
“Your sins are forgiven,” or, “Rise, pick up your mat and walk?”

To answer that question, look to the Cross.
And if it’s too much to look to the Cross
then look to the altar, the table of the Cross
where the sacrifice of the greatest Lover of all
heals and nourishes the brokenness of hearts and souls like our own.

-ConcordPastor

Need a Tom Tom GPS for your Lenten journey?

Not sure where you're going?

Having trouble figuring out how to get there?

Wondering which way to turn?

Need directions?

Stuck?

All these questions about directions are also questions for our spiritual lives.

Think of Lent as a spiritual GPS device designed to help you find out where you are - where you need to go - and how to get there.

(My homily from the Third Sunday of Advent explores the spiritual analogy of a GPS in fuller fashion.)
Where's God in my life? Which path is God asking me to walk? Is God on the journey with me? Am I on the journey with God? Do God and I have the same destination? If I'm lost, will God find me? Will God show me the way to peace?

Lent is a season for pondering some of the questions we keep putting on the back burner...

Wednesday, February 25 is Ash Wednesday but today isn't too early to begin wondering about this holy season and what it might hold for you...

-ConcordPastor 2009LentPostCollection

Another take on turning...

Image: Donald Knuth

In my last post I included the audio of the Byrds' recording of Pete Seeger's song, Turn, Turn, Turn, in relationship to the turning of the seasons of the liturgical year. In a column in this week's edition of The Pilot, Fr. Richard Erikson also refers to the same tune but from a particularly Lenten perspective which I find helpful. He writes:

I suspect Seeger was not thinking of Lent when he set Ecclesiastes to music, but the beauty of art is that it only becomes complete when experienced by the viewer or listener. My experience of Turn! Turn! Turn! is that it is a beautiful Lenten song that sings to me of three profound spiritual movements of Lent:

* Turn! toward God through fasting, which heightens our sensitivity to our own need for the Lord and to the needs of those who have less;

* Turn! away from sin in penitential prayer;

* Turn! to each other by giving to those in need, shifting our attention from the material to the spiritual, and from ourselves to others.
...

(Read Erikson's complete article)

After reading Fr. Erikson's column, have another listen...
2009LentPostCollection