Monday Morning Offering - 37

Image: George Mendoza

For nine months I've been posting a weekly Monday Morning Offering, a feature on my blog which draws many readers. So, with the hope that those who have come here for the daily Lenten prayer series might continue to return on Mondays after Easter, the regular Monday Morning Offering stands today as the Daily Lenten Prayer for Monday of the Second Week of Lent.

Good morning, good God!

Every Sunday, Lord, my parish prays this intercession
in the Prayers of the Faithful:
For a spirit of generosity in the hearts of us
who have more than we need...I have so much more than I need, Lord!

I have too much stuff...
I have too many things...
I collect things I don't need...
I have too many clothes
(too many that fit and too many that don't fit)...
I have too much money...

Well, the money thing helps me define this, Lord:
it's not so much that I have a lot of money -
I don't -
but when I look around the world, I know
I have more than I need...

That's the hard question, Lord:
how much of anything do I really need...?

When I think about that
I realize I have more than I need...

I'm not going to offer you all my stuff, Lord -
you don't need it or want it!

But I want to offer you
my desire for having more...
my desire for having more than I need...
my desire for collecting things
for the sake collecting them...
my desire to have more for more's sake...
my desire to have more than others have...
my desire to buy, to have, to own
the fastest, the newest, the sleekest -
whatever!

I offer you my need to have
full shelves, full closets, full bank accounts,
full boxes of whatever I want a lot of...

I offer you my tendency
to stuff the empty places in my heart
with junk, with filler, with so much less
than those places deserve...

I offer you my complacency
in filling my heart with anything other
than the lasting treasures my heart longs for...

Help me to simplify my life this Lent, Lord...
Help me to give up, give away,
clean out, to cast off, to go without,
to do without, strip away,
to lighten the load,
to empty my heart of anything
that does not truly fill it...

And make me generous, Lord, in giving to others
whatever I have for which they have
a greater need...

For a spirit of generosity in my life
in which I have more than I need,
I pray to the Lord...

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

Amen.
2009
- Heart image by Gwen Mehorg
- Coffee image by George Mendoza

-ConcordPastor