A Concord Pastor Comments: Monday Morning Offering

Image: George Mendoza

Good morning, good God!

It has begun, Lord: the week we call Holy...

I've read that theologians argue
over whether or not time, or some unit of time,
can actually be holy...

I'll leave that to the scholars this morning
and simply wonder about my growing in holiness
in the week ahead...

Just shy of four days left* in Lent, Lord,
and those are my last four chances in 2011
to live as a Lenten Christian...

Four days to be more faithful to prayer,
morning or night or in between,
or whenever you and I can sit down
and just have a chat, one-on-one,
just the two of us, Lord...

Four days to deny myself
some taste or sip, some pleasure or toy,
and experience the emptiness denial creates,
the hunger it leaves to be fed
and the chance to wonder
how I might fill and feed the void...

Four days to care for the poor,
to give to the poor, to be with the poor,
to work for the poor...
Four days for such as I
who have more than I need
to be grateful for my abundance
and think on how I might share it...

Then three days of prayer so holy
they are but one-day-in-three:
Triduum...

Three days inviting me to enter
the mystery of all mysteries,
the paschal mystery of Jesus...

Three days to remember with the whole Church
how Jesus suffered, died, was buried and rose
that we might have life and have it to the full..

Three days that will not come 'round again
until a year from now,
three days that promise me more, so much more
than I could ever hope to promise in return...

So, I offer you this week, Lord,
and ask you to make me a little more holy this week
than ever I have been before...

I offer you this week and ask you to come to me in prayer,
to fill my emptiness with your presence,
to draw me from my self-contentment
to serve the needs of those who wait for my assistance...

I offer you this holy week
and pray you keep me faithful to the promise it offers,
the promise of a life, a depth, a gift of peace
greater than all my hurts and fears...

I offer you this week, Lord,
make me holy, day by day...

And open my heart to all those
whose paths cross mine on these holy days:
together, help us come into your presence
and be one in your peace...

Amen.

*Lent ends at sundown on Thursday of Holy Week. With the Evening Mass of the Lord's Supper, the Triduum begins. The Triduum ends with Evening Prayer on Easter Sunday night.
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