A Concord Pastor Comments: Monday Morning Offering

Good morning, good God!

It has begun, Lord:

the week we call Holy...

I've read how theologians debate
whether time itself, or any unit of time,
can actually be or become holy...

I'll leave that to the scholars, Lord,

and simply wonder about my growing in holiness
in the week ahead...

I know that I can be holy

and certainly,

I know that I can be holier than I am right now…

I want to be holy enough

to stand before you, Lord,

without shame or embarrassment…

I want to be holy enough

to know that I have helped the poor,

and generously so…

I want to be holy enough

to love you with a heart cleansed

of selfishness and pride…

I want to be holy enough

to recognize my lack of holiness

and to ask the help of your grace where I need it...

Just shy of four days are left* in this Lent, Lord,
so I have four more chances

to pray, to fast and to serve the poor…

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 find the hunger self-denial leaves in me,

the empty space in which to wonder
how I might better 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 one such as I,
who have more than I need,
to be grateful for my abundance
and think on how I might share it...

Four days left in Lent
and then three days of prayer so holy
they are but one-day-in-three:
the Triduum...

Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter…

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
than I could ever hope to promise in return...

So, I offer you this week, Lord, and ask you to make me

at least 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 out of my self-contentment
and to serve the needs of any

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 made 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.