Praying 10 Minutes a Day: Thursday/Week One

Image source

Psalm 51 is the greatest of the seven penitential psalms. One lyricist offers this version of verse 12:

Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and put a new and steadfast spirit in my soul...

Lent is a time for "spring cleaning" in my heart:  a time for airing out, dusting, washing, polishing, straightening up, ordering my heart - and for clearing out anything that doesn't belong there, whatever keeps my heart from its best, purest and healthiest desires.


I need to remember that most of the spring cleaning my heart needs is God's work!  Left to my own devices, that cleaning might never get done.   It's so easy for me to forget that... It's so easy to think that I have to do it all, when what I really need to do is just get out of the way and let God do what God does best...

And what God does best is to create, nurture, heal, refresh and renew the life of his grace within me...

As I go to prayer today, even for just 10 minutes, I'll ask:

Lord, create a new heart, a clean heart within me...

Help me get out of your way
   that you might do in my heart
      what you want to do this Lent...

Restore my heart, refresh my heart,
   renew my heart, replenish my heart,
      recreate my heart and make it again
         as you first made it to be...

Nourish everything that makes my heart strong
    and where my heart's grown weak and shaky,
       make it steadfast and strong...

Lord, heal my heart's brokenness
   and refresh within whatever has gone stale...

Remind me of blessings past, Lord,
   and help me trust in blessings yet to come...

Create in me a clean heart, O God,

   and put a new and steadfast spirit in my soul...

Are you new to "Praying 10 Minutes a Day in Lent" - or are you having trouble getting started?  The first installment offers some thoughts on getting started, as do the subsequent posts in the series.  So take a look and join us!


Tweet  

   
Subscribe to A Concord Pastor Comments 

Words, Words, Words: Our Shabby Equipment

H/T to reader and blogger Fran for reminding me to bring a new blog to your attention.  Click your way over to The Jesuit Post where a number of men from the Society of Jesus are collaborating on page that's certainly deserving of your time.

Fran's email linked to two posts on the new translation of the Roman Missal.  Apart from posts on the same topic at PrayTell and Gotta Sing, Gotta Pray, I've not often read such an informed and informative take on this question.

Check out The Jesuit Post and in particular these two posts here and here: Words, Words, Words: Our Shabby Equipment, Parts 1 and 2.


Tweet  

   
Subscribe to A Concord Pastor Comments 

Word for the Weekend: March 4

Abraham and Isaac: sculpture by George Segal

It's time to begin preparing to hear the readings at Mass this weekend.  There's no better way to prepare for celebrating the Sunday liturgy than by praying ahead of time over the scriptures we'll hear proclaimed that day.  (And it makes for a very good resolution!)

Readings and background material for the Second Sunday of Lent are here and hints for helping children to prepare to hear the Lord's word are here.

The contemporary rendering of Abraham and Isaac in the Segal sculpture above heightens the immediacy of this weekend's startling story. (Click on the image for a larger version)

This Sunday's first lesson offers the Genesis story of Abraham and Isaac which we'll hear again at the Easter Vigil. In either setting - it's not easy to listen to or to understand! The second lesson, from Romans, offers a theological reflection on God's not sparing his own Son - recalling immediately the Genesis text and the meaning we find in the story of Isaac and his loving father. And, as is the case every year, the gospel for the Second Sunday of Lent is an account of the transfiguration of Christ.
20

Tweet  

   
Subscribe to A Concord Pastor Comments 

Survey says!

Catholic News Service

Do a little math and you'll find that there are more voting cardinals in Europe than in the rest of the world combined.

Here's a report on an end of the year (2011) speech by Pope Benedict XVI:

The Church in Europe is facing “a crisis of faith,” Pope Benedict XVI said in a year-end address to the leaders of the Roman Curia.

Citing Europe’s “fatigue” as a main reason for the crisis, the Pope noted that during the past year Europe has suffered through “an economic and financial crisis that is ultimately based on the ethical crisis looming over the Old Continent.”

The problem facing the Church, the Pope said, is well known; all Christians—especially in Europe--should be aware that “regular churchgoers are growing older all the time and that their number is constantly diminishing; that recruitment of priests is stagnating; that skepticism and unbelief are growing.” After laying out the problem, the Pope stated flatly: “If we find no answer to this—if faith does not take on new life, deep conviction, and real strength from an encounter with Jesus Christ—then all other reforms will remain ineffective.”

(read the complete article here at Catholic Culture)

Tweet  

   
Subscribe to A Concord Pastor Comments 

Praying 10 Minutes a Day: First Week/Wednesday

Image from Heartlight

Ash Wednesday was a week ago today.  What's been happening for you?  Have you wandered through any "out-of-the-way places in your heart" these past 7 days?

Before your 10 minutes of prayer today, or as part of that time, spend a few moments with John O'Donohue's poem here.  (I'm grateful to Fr. Paul Wharton at Hearts on Fire for sharing this on his page.)

For A New Beginning

In out-of-the-way places of the heart,
Where your thoughts never think to wander,
This beginning has been quietly forming,
Waiting until you were ready to emerge.

For a long time it has watched your desire,
Feeling the emptiness growing inside you,
Noticing how you willed yourself on,
Still unable to leave what you had outgrown.

It watched you play with the seduction of safety
And the gray promises that sameness whispered,
Heard the waves of turmoil rise and relent,
Wondered would you always live like this.

Then the delight, when your courage kindled,
And out you stepped onto new ground,
Your eyes young again with energy and dream,
A path of plenitude opening before you.

Though your destination is not yet clear
You can trust the promise of this opening;
Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning
That is at one with your life’s desire.

Awaken your spirit to adventure;
Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk;
Soon you will be home in a new rhythm,
For your soul senses the world that awaits you.

- John O’Donohue in To Bless the Space Between Us

Part of the greatness of this poem lies in how its broad vocabulary zeroes in on just about any heart's experience of God.

Has this Lent been a New Beginning in your prayer, in your relationship with God?

Spend some time in prayer with this poem and...
Watch for the ways it charts your own heart's relationship with God...
   with God who moves in your life... 
Look for the places in the poem where you see yourself...
   where you see God in your life...

Take a few moments to read the poem again...

Bring your reflections to your 10 minutes of prayer today...

For 10 minutes today, be still...
   and know that God is with you in the stillness...


Are you new to "Praying 10 Minutes a Day in Lent" - or are you having trouble getting started?  The first installment offers some thoughts on getting started, as do the subsequent posts in the series.  So take a look and join us!


Tweet  

     
Subscribe to A Concord Pastor Comments 

A year with an extra day

So, 2012 is a leap year.

This means there are 366 days in this year - an extra day!

I don't altogether understand how this works but as someone who often feels he doesn't have enough time to do everything he needs and wants to do, I'm not one to turn up his nose at the gift of an extra day.

And you have an extra day, too!

February 29 is the extra day on this year's calendar but I believe we might treat it as a moveable feast or as a "vacation day" we might take at our leisure and convenience.  (And, like some vacation days, this extra day isn't one we can transfer to 2013!)

When you will take advantage of 2012's extra day?

What will you do with it?

How will you spend it?

Will your work or play on your extra day?

With whom will you share it?

Think about it: we've all got an extra day this year...

Have a good day!


Tweet  

   
Subscribe to A Concord Pastor Comments 

Something personal to share with you

Today is my mother's birthday. Were she still with us, this would be her 90th birthday.

My sister has posted a beautiful remembrance on her blog, Keeping Me In Stitches.  I don't post too much family business here but I think my sister's post warrants an exception to the general rule.

If your mother is still with you: give her a call, send her an email, write her a note or send her a card.  She'll be glad you did - and so will you!



Tweet  

     
Subscribe to A Concord Pastor Comments 

Praying 10 Minutes a Day: First Week/Tuesday

Image source

Here are some reflections you might consider when setting apart 10 minutes to pray today...  time to be still and know that God is near...

In my parish, the Intercessions for Sunday Mass during Lent always include this petition:

For fasting that leads us to prayer
and for prayer that leads us to serve the poor,
let us pray to the Lord...

 "For fasting that leads us to prayer..."  What's the connection here?

Fasting from food or drink, or from other realities I consume in any number of ways, is meant to leave me hungry and thirsty, experiencing a certain emptiness within.  I might experience that emptiness physically or in those places where my mind and heart, my imagination and desire, are accustomed to being regularly "fed."

If I'm always feeling "full" then how can I know for what I hunger and thirst?

"Giving something up for Lent" might help me move towards feeling a little less full than usual and in the emptiness, I might discover a thirst, a hunger I don't always experience.

I live in the first world where Lenten fasting might mean going without chocolate or beer for 40 days.  Although such "fasting" won't leave me actually hungry or thirsty, it might indeed put me in touch with my desires and my dependence on things I really don't need, things that aren't good for me, things that keep me from knowing my heart's true desires...

Perhaps that's how "fasting might lead me to prayer..."  Fasting that begins to unmask my dependence on, even my addiction to creature comforts can free me to discover the hunger and thirst I have for realities much more nourishing and satisfying, filling and lasting...

For fasting that leads us to prayer
and for prayer that leads us to serve the poor,
let us pray to the Lord...

Perhaps today I will pray:

Lord, help me look at all the stuff, all the things
     that so often and easily fill me up...
Lord, unmask for me my dependence on things
     that please my tastes in unhelpful, unhealthy ways...
Lord, give me a taste of your presence, a sip of your peace
     to whet my appetite for you and for what will truly nourish and fill me...

Are you new to "Praying 10 Minutes a Day in Lent" - or are you having trouble getting started?  The first installment offers some thoughts on getting started, as do the subsequent posts in the series.  So take a look and join us!


Tweet  

     
Subscribe to A Concord Pastor Comments 

The most dismal Lent of all...

Image source

Deacon Bill Ditewig speaks for many, I believe, in his post today at Dalmatics and Beyond, Wandering in the Lenten Desert:

In my 62 years of life, all of which I have spent as a Catholic, including more than a quarter of a century of Catholic education from elementary, secondary, undergraduate and graduate schools, this Lent feels the most dismal of them all -- at least to me.  There is so much that is absolutely grand and wonderful in our Catholic expression of Judaeo-Christian faith!  All of the efforts of so many good people: lay persons who give of themselves over and over again for the good of their neighbors; religious women and men who are dedicated to the visions of their founders in prayer and outreach; the many dedicated people of all states of life serving on parish, diocesan, national and international staffs doing their best to help.  The bishops, deacons and priests who are good, normal, down-to-earth pastoral and loving men who want only to be the best ministers of the Gospel they can be.

And yet, so many of the human elements of the institutional side of the church have succeeded in tarnishing, trashing, and for so many people of good faith, demolishing the whole experience.

(Read the complete post)

Tweet  

     
Subscribe to A Concord Pastor Comments 

Monday Morning Offering - 182

Coffee in the Morning by George Mendoza

Lent is a penitential season: a time to: remember our sins, ask for God's mercy and change our hearts. As the first full week of Lent begins, make a plan for celebrating the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Check your parish schedule for the times of Confessions and Penance Services. This MMO might help you enter the penitential spirit of the season.

Good morning, good God!

In the spirit of this holy season, Lord,
I offer you a contrite heart...

I don't understand the mystery of your mercy, Lord:
how you love me even in my sins;
how you never fail to see the good in me;
how you always find something in me to love;
how you never cease to reach out, gently,
to rescue me from my selfish ways,
to bring me home to your embrace,
to mend what is broken in me,
to heal what is sick,
to forgive what is sinful...

I don't understand, Lord,
but I'm always grateful for the depth of mercy
you never fail to offer me...

So this morning, Lord,
I offer you my contrite heart...

So great is your love for me,
so exquisite the delight you take in me,
so taken are you with how my soul
that even when I forget, when I tarnish,
when I deny your beauty within me,
you call me back to your grace
and offer me your pardon...

So this morning, Lord,
I offer you my contrite heart...

Help me remember that you meet me
just where I need you:
where I'm rough-edged,
you come to smooth me;
where I'm broken,
you come to mend me;
where I'm weak,
you come to strengthen me;
where I'm sick,
you come to heal me;
where I've sinned,
you come to forgive me...

And so I offer you my contrite heart...

Forgive my sins, Lord,
and nurture what is good within me:
be gentle in receiving the heart I offer you
for it's a broken and contrite heart...

Help me forgive those who have hurt me, Lord,
and to see what is good within them,
to see what you love in them:
let me be gentle in welcoming them
into my contrite heart...

Help me to trust in the mystery of your mercy, Lord,
in the mystery of your merciful and sacred Heart...

I offer you my contrite heart, O God,
this morning, this day, tonight
and through this season of Lent...

I offer you my contrite heart:
a broken and contrite heart, O Lord,
you will not turn away...

Amen.


Tweet       Subscribe to A Concord Pastor Comments 

Praying 10 Minutes a Day: First Week/Monday

Image source

Here are some thoughts you might bring to your "10 Minutes" today.

The relationships we have with others go by many names:

Daughter
Son
Father
Mother
Brother
Sister
Spouse 
Lover
Friend
Teammate 
Neighbor
Acquaintance
Colleague
Boss
Employee
Caretaker
and many others, too!

Do any of these terms, or others, describe my relationship with God?  Does that description tell me something of how close I am to God?  of how close I believe God is to me?

The illustration at the top of the post gives many names for God, each revealing some way in which we relate to him. (Click on the image for a clearer version.)  How do I address God in my prayer?  By what name do I address God?  What does that tell me about my relationship with him?

By what name does God know me?  Do I listen for God to call me by name?

How I understand my relationship with God likely shapes my prayer and my approach to prayer. How I understand God's relationship with me may do the same.

There are no right or wrong answers to these questions - only the answers that are mine.  To better understand my relationship with God, whatever it is at the moment, gives me a starting place from which to grow in that relationship.

How might I grow in my relationship to God this Lent?  How do I want to grow in that relationship?

Perhaps today I'll spend some time in prayer, reflecting on my relationship with the One to whom I pray, the One who listens to my prayer...


To help you settle in to Praying 10 Minutes a Day in Lent, you might want to take another look at this and subsequent posts in this series.  



Tweet  

   
Subscribe to A Concord Pastor Comments 

Homily for the First Sunday of Lent

Image source

Somewhere over the rainbow
(Scriptures for today's liturgy)

(Due to technical difficulties: no audio)

Remember when Dorothy sang, in The Wizard of Oz?

“Somewhere over the rainbow, blue birds fly;
birds fly over the rainbow – why then, oh why, can’t I?”

Well, even if we can’t fly over the rainbow,
there’s a certain comfort in this scene in Genesis
where God's hanging a rainbow in sky
as a sign of his love for us.

The scriptures are all over the place today, taking us
• from the receding waters of a flood
after “40 days and 40 nights” of rain
-- to 40 days in a dry and barren wasteland;
• from an image of birds and animals, two by two, on Noah’s ark
-- to the wilderness, where wild beasts roam freely;
• from God highlighting the heavens’ beauty with a rainbow
-- to the specter of Satan tempting Jesus
under the heat of the desert sun.

Sharp contrasts, these images, but not unknown in our own lives.
We live every day under the same skies,
and though we may hope for rainbows,
it often seems that if the flood waters of worries and illness
aren’t rising all around us
then the heat of problems and difficulties
is beating down on us like a sun that never sets.

So, when a rainbow does come along
it’s hard to miss its beauty or dismiss its mystery.
Who ever shrugs off a rainbow?
Who hasn't the time to look up for a few minutes
and ponder such a gift from God?

But it’s helpful to understand how rainbows come to be.
What we see in a rainbow is the sun’s light refracted
through droplets of moisture.
No rain, no moisture? No rainbow. No sun, no light? No rainbow.
The rainbow is the place, the moment,
where the flood and the sun’s light meet
and without both, there is no meeting.

Noah’s rainbow didn’t appear until after rains had stopped,
the flood had subsided and the sun burned bright again.

But make no mistake about it.
The folks on the ark weren’t alone, abandoned in the flood.
God was with Noah and his family - in the rain -
for 40 days and 40 nights.
God told Noah to build the ark precisely so he might survive the flood.

And make no mistake about it.
Jesus wasn’t alone in the desert,
nor were wild beasts his only companions.
It was the Spirit who drew Jesus into the desert and sustained him
through 40 days of heat, hunger, thirst, danger and temptation.

It’s not unusual for us to wonder, when times are really hard,
“Where is God? Why has God forgotten me?”
Jesus himself, in the most difficult, painful, lonely moment of his life,
cried out from the Cross, “Why have you abandoned me?”

God never forgets us. God never abandons us.
God is always with us, especially in the most difficult times,
in our most painful and lonely times.

The rainbow comes in our hearts
when the light and heat of our burdens
are refracted through the moisture of our lives’ storms,
still freshly dripping, like tears, from our faces.
The rainbow is still the sign of the Lord’s covenant
and his promise to be with us
through the floods and in the deserts of our own days and nights.

Lent is a time to see more clearly how close is the Lord by our side
and to be grateful for times past
when he has guided us through our most difficult days.

The covenant of God’s love shines in a rainbow, yes,
but the beauty and depth and truth of the Lord’s covenant,
sealed in sacrifice of the Cross
is never more beautifully revealed than in Bread and Cup of this table.
In the Eucharist is the meal of new covenant
which nourishes us to be strong in stormy times
and to persevere when the heat of troubles threatens us.

For here in this sacrament the reign of God is at hand
and we are made one in communion with him
whose love for us knows no bounds and has no end.


Tweet  

   
Subscribe to A Concord Pastor Comments

Praying 10 Minutes a Day: 1st Sunday of Lent

Image: StevesDevotions

Here are some thoughts you might bring to your "10 Minutes..." today.

Folks often come to prayer thinking that they must do something or say something.  All one really need do is to make the time and place to sit quietly, even silently, in the presence of God.  That is a prayer in itself, simply to sit, in silence, aware of God's presence.

Be still, and know that I am God...

Of course one may speak when praying but that's not altogether necessary.  Again: it is a prayer in itself, simply to sit, in silence, aware of God's presence.

As we noted yesterday, "showing up" for prayer is the one thing the praying person needs to do.  SO much of everything else is God's work!  God is never surprised by our coming to prayer because drawing us to prayer is something God never ceases to work on.  Consider this poem by the Iranian mystic, Hafiz:

We Should Talk about This Problem

There is a beautiful creature
Living in a hole you have dug.

So at night
I set fruit and grains
And little pots of wine and milk
Beside your soft earthen mounds,

And I often sing.

But still,
You do not come out.

I have fallen in love with someone
Who hides inside you.

We should talk about this problem---

Otherwise,
I will never leave you alone.

It is something like this with God and each of us.  I might have many ways of trying to hide my self (the beautiful creature God made) from others, from God - and even from myself.  But God is a lover, always looking for ways to draw us closer to his heart.  God, who loves me, seeks to draw me out of the holes I've dug and hide in.  God, who loves me, wants very much to be with me.  God, who loves me, wants to lift me up and out of all my hiding and to sit and talk with me.

Be still and know that I am God...

A big problem that keeps many of us from prayer is our doubting that God loves us.  God wants to talk to us about that problem  -- otherwise, he'll never leave us alone.  Prayer is a way to do that, even simply sitting in silence, aware of God's presence. 

Such quiet waiting often leads to words... and God would be pleased to hear you...
 

Are you new to "Praying 10 Minutes a Day in Lent" - or are you having trouble getting started?  The first installment offers some thoughts on getting started, as do the subsequent posts in the series.  So take a look and join us!


Tweet  

     
Subscribe to A Concord Pastor Comments 

Praying 10 Minutes a Day: "Ash Saturday"

Photo by Mark Penta

A friend posted this photo on FaceBook and made the comment there, "I like the three sections; earth, water, air. All I did was show up..."

Prayer is something like that.  The imminence, the power and the spirit of God are always there, waiting for us.  We just have to show up...  

"Praying 10 Minutes a Day" is intended to help all of us "show up" for prayer.

Off line, a reader asked for a suggestion on how to begin his "10 minutes a day" of prayer in Lent.  That's a good question.

Let me suggest a kind of "opening prayer" for our 10 minutes each day:

A prayer to begin my prayer...

Lord Jesus:
you are here now,
always
and only
because you want me
and want to be with me.

Lord Jesus:
I am here now,
again
and only
because I want you
and want to be with you.

Lord Jesus,
help me surrender
to your love,
your mercy
and your Holy Spirit...

To pray is to recognize that I am in God's presence, in the presence of God who wants me, who seeks me, who desires to be with me.

To pray is to be still,  that I might know the Lord's presence and hear the Lord's voice.

His voice might be the silence in which I sit...

His voice might be my heartbeat, the pulse of his love within me...

His voice might be my breath, the spirit of his life sustaining me...

His voice might speak in the scripture I read or the verse I pray by heart...

His voice might be the consolation of knowing he is with me, that he is always with me, that he will never leave my side...

Keep in mind that every time we go to pray, it is at the Spirit's prompting...  Keep in mind that when we go to pray, we need not look for the Lord - he's there ahead of us, waiting for us to join him... Keep in mind that when we pray even our confused, clumsy ramblings are music to God's ears...  Keep in mind that to simply sit in the presence of the Lord in silence is, itself, a beautiful prayer...  If you're not sure what to say, try simply repeating the Lord's name, slowly and prayerfully, "Jesus...   Jesus...   Jesus...   Jesus..."

I hope that by now you have found a good time and place for your daily "10 minutes." If not, look around and find a place apart, where you can be alone, in silence.

Having trouble disciplining yourself to be faithful to even just 10 minutes a day?  Put the 10 minutes on your calendar or your planner.  Set your watch or smart phone to remind you to pray.  Prayer happens when we make time for the Lord!



Tweet  

   
Subscribe to A Concord Pastor Comments

Remembering Mary in Lent

Image: Conception Abbey

In this season of Lent when we contemplate the suffering and death of Jesus, let us to draw close to his Mother, Mary, whose own suffering and witness of her Son's passion was more than we can imagine.

As she stood by her Son in his suffering, so does she stand with us in our own hours of need...

A Marianist Litany to Mary

Holy Mary,  
pray for us!
Mother of God,
Mother of our redemption,
Mother of a lost child,
Mother of comfort and understanding,
Mother who shares our joys,
Mother who endures our sorrows,
Mother whose heart was pierced by a sword,
Mother most merciful,

Woman responsive to God's word,
pray for us!
Woman willing to believe the impossible,
Woman who rejoices in her lowliness,
Woman with an undivided heart,
Woman of perfect freedom,
Woman wrapped in mystery,
Woman moved by the Spirit,
Woman champion of the poor and lowly,
Woman graced by a husband's love,
Woman widowed by a husband's death,
Woman at the cross,
Woman patient and waiting,
Woman clothed with the sun,

Queen of the fullness of times,
pray for us!
Queen of beauty unalloyed,
Queen of integrity,
Queen of painful meetings,
Queen of all our heart's treasure,
Queen of our destiny,
Queen of peace, 

Mary, you are mother and virgin, 
wife and widow, 
peasant and queen,
blessed for all time. 

We need the comfort of your prayers. 
Remember us always to our Father through your Son, Jesus Christ, 
who is our Lord for ever and ever. 
Amen. 

- Rev. Joseph H. Lackner, S.M.



Tweet  

     
Subscribe to A Concord Pastor Comments 

A tale of two translations

For years I've prayed Eucharistic Prayer for Reconciliation I on the Sundays of Lent.  It's a beautiful and poetic text which I've grown to love and have committed to heart.  


Over the years a number of folks have mentioned to me how much they loved to hear a particular line of this prayer: "When we were lost and could not find the way to you, you loved us more than ever..."


EPI for Reconciliation has, of course, been newly translated.  Below is a side by side of the previous translation (italicized) and the new (bolded), from the preface through the portion of the prayer leading up to the Institution Narrative.


Father, all powerful and ever living God,
we do well always and everywhere to give you thanks and praise.
It is truly right and just that we should always give you thanks,
Lord, holy Father, almighty and eternal God.


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.
For you do not cease to spur us on to possess a more abundant life
and, being rich in mercy, you constantly offer pardon
and call on sinners to trust in your forgiveness alone.


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.
Never did you turn away from us,
and, though time and again we have broken your covenant,
you have bound the human family to yourself 
through Jesus your Son, our Redeemer, 
with a new bond of love so tight that it can never be undone.


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 mankind
by opening our hearts to the fullness of your Holy Spirit.
Even now you set before your people 
a time of grace and reconciliation,
and, as they turn back to you in spirit,
you grant them hope in Christ Jesus 
and a desire to be of service to all,
while they entrust themselves more fully to the 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…
And so, filled with wonder, we extol the power of your love,
and, proclaiming our joy at the salvation that comes from you,
we join in the heavenly hymn of countless hosts, 
as without end we acclaim:
Holy, holy, holy…

Father, from the beginning of time

you have always done what is good for man

so that we may be holy as you are holy.

You are indeed Holy, O Lord,

and from the world’s beginning are ceaselessly at work,

so that the human race may become holy, 

just as you yourself 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.

Look, we pray, upon your people’s offerings

and pour out on them the power of your Spirit,

that they may become the Body and + Blood

of your beloved Son, Jesus Christ, in whom we, too,

are 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. 

Indeed, though we once were lost and could not approach you,

you loved us with the greatest love:

for your Son, who alone is just, handed himself over to death,

and did not disdain to be nailed for our sake 

to the wood of the 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...

But before his arms were outstretched between heaven and earth,
to become the lasting sign of your covenant,
he desired to celebrate the Passover with his disciples...

This Lent I'll continue using Eucharistic Prayer II, the prayer I've been using since the new translation was implemented on November 27, 2011.





Tweet  

   
Subscribe to A Concord Pastor Comments 

Somewhere over the rainbow...

The Ark of Noah by Heqi

The first scripture this Sunday picks up the story of Noah's ark, just as the flood subsides and God establishes a covenant of peace with Noah and his family and descendants.  The sign of the covenant is the rainbow!

God said to Noah and to his sons with him:
"See, I am now establishing my covenant with you
and your descendants after you
and with every living creature that was with you:
all the birds, and the various tame and wild animals
that were with you and came out of the ark...

"This is the sign that I am giving for all ages to come,
of the covenant between me and you
and every living creature with you:
I set my bow in the clouds to serve as a signof the covenant between me and the earth...

For the full text of that passage and the other readings (and brief commentary on them), see this earlier post.


Tweet  

   
Subscribe to A Concord Pastor Comments 

Stations of the Cross

The Stations of the Cross is an ancient devotion in the Catholic Church. Here's a brief history of the Stations which includes a comparison of the customary 14 stations (those found on the walls of most churches and chapels) and a newer version which came to us from John Paul II and was used for the first time in Rome on Good Friday 1991.

The video below offers and opportunity to pray the Stations of the Cross at home, online. It's only 6 minutes long but of course one could pause the video at each station and pray for a longer time.





Tweet

   
Subscribe to A Concord Pastor Comments 

Praying 10 Minutes a Day: "Ash Friday"

This is the third day of Lent...  how's it going?

Or did you miss Ash Wednesday altogether and just stumble into Lent yesterday or today?  (If so, welcome aboard!)  

Has the fervor of Ash Wednesday worn off or has it deepened?

Have you got a plan for living Lent - or have you been just too busy to even think about it?

Are you wondering if you've missed the boat, that it sailed without you?

Do you worry that something like Lent must be for other folks and that for some reason,  you just don't know how to "do Lent?"

All of life is like that, isn't it?

I have false and late starts...  I sometimes miss what everyone else seems to be aware of...  I lose track of even the most important things I want to do... I get distracted and even lost and wonder if it's too late to start again... I worry that my own timeline isn't in sync with God's... I fear that I'm not doing things the way they're supposed to be done... I wonder if I'll ever figure out how Lent is supposed to work for me...

Life and Lent can be very much alike and that's because the same person who's living my life is the person who's trying to live Lent.

I don't become a better person just because it's Lent: I pray that because of Lent, I might become a better person.  And the only way for that to happen is for me to acknowledge what's impossible for me to do alone and what I really need God's help for if I'm going to change and grow.

Lent, like life, is best lived one a day at a time.  My Lenten plans will help me grow if they're plans I can live with, modest plans that will help me, a day at a time, to be faithful to the presence of God in my life.

That's why I've invited you to consider committing to praying for just 10 minutes a day.  That's a modest goal but not necessarily an easy goal. We have so many reasons to keep putting off those 10 minutes until our heads are nodding and we're ready to fall asleep at day's end.

Keep it simple!  Keeping things simple so often helps keep me on the right path...

Lent is a lot like life, isn't it?

Be still... and know that God is with you..

The Serenity Prayer seems a good one for this day's 10 minutes.  Here's a longer version, usually attributed to Rienhold Niebuhr:

God, give me grace to accept with serenity

the things that cannot be changed,

Courage to change the things

which should be changed,

and the Wisdom to distinguish

the one from the other.

Living one day at a time,

Enjoying one moment at a time,

Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace,

Taking, as Jesus did,

This sinful world as it is,

Not as I would have it,

Trusting that You will make all things right,

If I surrender to Your will,

So that I may be reasonably happy in this life,

And supremely happy with You forever in the next.

Amen.

To help you settle in to Praying 10 Minutes a Day in Lent, you might want to take another look at this earlier post.


Tweet  

     
Subscribe to A Concord Pastor Comments 

Fridays in Lent

Just a (not too subtle) reminder that on the Fridays of Lent all Catholics over 14 years old should abstain from eating meat.  The US bishops remind us:

The three traditional pillars of Lenten observance are prayer, fasting and almsgiving (outreach to the poor). The Church asks us to surrender ourselves to prayer and to the reading of Scripture, to fasting and to giving alms. The fasting that all do together on Fridays is but a sign of the daily Lenten discipline of individuals and households: fasting for certain periods of time, fasting from certain foods, but also fasting from other things and activities. Likewise, the giving of alms is some effort to share this world equally—not only through the distribution of money, but through the sharing of our time and talents.

Tweet  

   
Subscribe to A Concord Pastor Comments 

Praying 10 Minutes a Day: "Ash Thursday"

Living plants have been generated from the fruit of a little arctic flower, the narrow-leafed campion, that died 32,000 years ago, a team of Russian scientists reports. The fruit was stored by an arctic ground squirrel in its burrow on the tundra of northeastern Siberia and lay permanently frozen until excavated by scientists a few years ago. (New York Times 2/21/12)

The plant in the photo is one generated from the fruit of a flower that died nearly 32,000 years ago: about 30,000 years before Christ!  The NYT piece is a story about natural matter and how scientists have coaxed something abandoned and frozen for 32 millennia to blossom to new and beautiful life.  Of course: the earth, the plant, the squirrel, the tundra and the scientists were all fashioned by the hand of God.  Is Mother Nature not the feminine face of our God?

Imagine... if this is what God can do with a plant frozen 32,000 years ago, what might God do with you and with me - this Lent?

As you spend your 10 Minutes in Prayer today, ask the Lord to help you see what needs to be thawed and coaxed to new life within you.  Ask the Lord to nurture to new life, to a blossom, something within that's lain dormant for too long.

Ask the Holy Spirit to help you see what God wants to do in your life  --  in your heart, in your soul, in your prayer, this Lent.

Here's a scripture you might bring to your prayer today:

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat [or drink], or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds in the sky; they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are not you more important than they?Can any of you by worrying add a single moment to your life-span? Why are you anxious about clothes? Learn from the way the wild flowers grow. They do not work or spin. But I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was clothed like one of them.If God so clothes the grass of the field, which grows today and is thrown into the oven tomorrow, will he not much more provide for you, O you of little faith? So do not worry and say, ‘What are we to eat?’ or ‘What are we to drink?’ or ‘What are we to wear?’ All these things the pagans seek. Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given you besides. Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself. Sufficient for a day is its own evil. (Matthew 6:25-34)

To help you settle in to Praying 10 Minutes a Day in Lent, you might want to take another look at this earlier post.


Tweet  

     
Subscribe to A Concord Pastor Comments 

Jesus is tempted in the desert

Every year on the first Sunday of Lent, the gospel is the story of Jesus' temptation in the desert. We're in the year of Mark who offers us the least amount of detail in this scene. Matthew and Luke are almost identical in their presentation. Here's Matthew's version which will help you understand some of the scenes in the video above.

Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. He fasted for forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was hungry. The tempter approached and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become loaves of bread.” He said in reply, “It is written: ‘One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.’” Then the devil took him to the holy city, and made him stand on the parapet of the temple, and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down. For it is written: ‘He will command his angels concerning you’ and ‘with their hands they will support you, lest you dash your foot against a stone.’" Jesus answered him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test.’” Then the devil took him up to a very high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in their magnificence, and he said to him, “All these I shall give to you, if you will prostrate yourself and worship me.” At this, Jesus said to him, “Get away, Satan! It is written: ‘The Lord, your God, shall you worship and him alone shall you serve.’” Then the devil left him and, behold, angels came and ministered to him.

H/T to Blue Eyed Ennis for the video!

Tweet
  
   
Subscribe to A Concord Pastor Comments

You didn't get ashes?

Not to worry!

Ash Wednesday is only the first day of Lent.

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 top of the sidebar and click on the Cross there.  That will link you to a running collection of all the Lenten posts on my blog, through the whole 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...

So, don't worry about the missing the first day of Lent - you still have 39 days ahead of you!



Tweet  

   
Subscribe to A Concord Pastor Comments