Pause for Prayer: ASH WEDNESDAY

 

 

 

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NIGHT PRAYER: Tuesday 2/17

The night before Ash Wednesday, Lord...

What will I give up for Lent this year?

What will I fast from?

What will I sacrifice?

What will I go without?

How will I be more generous? 

How will I pray?

 

I have so much, Lord, 

I have so many things,

I'm filled up so often, so easily -

there's so much I could choose to give up:

    food from my table, drink from my glass,

    candy from the bowl, sugar in my coffee,

    desserts and snacks and munchies

    - and that's just in the kitchen!

 

But I know you call me to a deeper fast,

    you call me to give up what sours me,

    what keeps me down, what holds me back,

    what feeds my rage and resentments,

    what tears me apart from others, 

    what stokes my passions and desires,

    what excuses my bias and prejudice,

    what keeps me from loving you

        and my neighbor

            and even myself...

You call me to fast deep in my soul, Lord:

    to fast in ways that will change my ways,

        will change my mind, will change my heart

    will the change the way I am with you

        and with my neighbor and myself.

 

I pray for the grace let go what I don't need

   and make room for what I'm lacking;

to repent of what accuses me

   and be freed for what will save me;

to lay down all things that burden me

   in return for what uplifts me...

I pray for that grace, Lord,

I pray for that grace this Lent,

    in the forty days ahead of me...

Protect me, Lord, while I'm awake

    and watch over me while I sleep

that awake, I might keep watch with you

    and asleep, rest in your peace...

Amen.

Take, Lord, Receive by John Foley, SJ

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Take, Lord, receive, all my liberty.
My memory, understanding, my entire will!

Give me only your love and your Grace,

that's enough for me!

Your love and your grace are enough for me!

 

Take Lord, receive, All I have and possess.

You have given all to me, Now I return it.

 

Give me only your love and your grace,

that's enough for me!

Your love and your grace are enough for me!

 

Take Lord receive, all is yours now.

Dispose of it, wholly according to your will

 

Give me only your love, and your grace,
that's enough for me!
Your love and your grace, are enough for me!

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When was the last time I got Ashes?

Let's see...

How long's it been since I last went to church

    - to get ashes on Ash Wednesday?

Maybe, for one reason or another,
    it's been a year, or two or 10 - or more!

Maybe I’ve never gone.
Maybe I've never had the opportunity
    to have my forehead smudged with ashes…

Well, two things for sure:
    getting ashes doesn't mean I’m holy
-and-
    getting ashes doesn't make me holy!

As a matter of fact,
    getting ashes means: I’m not holy!

Ashes are for sinners...

Ashes are for people like me,
people who sometimes - even often -
    act without thinking,
    make poor choices,
    tell lies,
    cheat and steal,
    take advantage of others,
    break promises,
    go down the wrong path,
    hurt other people
        (even folks I love),
    forget to pray,
    make selfish decisions
    and do the wrong thing:
        sometimes little wrong things
            and sometimes big wrong things...

Ashes are for people like me:
    people who screw up,
    who forget what's really important,
    who let things slide,
        - even a lot...

Ashes are for imperfect, broken people,
for people like me
    who let things get out of control
        and who sometimes do the wrong thing
    even when they know exactly
        what the right thing is...

Ashes are for people like me, people who
    take too many short cuts,
    lay down on the job,
    check out when they need to show up,
    let other people down - big time -
    and disappoint themselves
        more often than they can count
            and more than they want to admit...

Ashes are for people just like me:
    people who gossip about others
    who fail to defend the underdog,
    who keep silent when they ought to speak up...

Ashes are for sinners
- for people just like me...

Oh, I know getting ashes won't turn my life around
    but it could be a step,
        even just one step
    in a new direction
        on the path I want to follow
            but too often miss or stray from...

Getting ashes tomorrow
    just might be the beginning of mending:
        my relationship with God,
        my relationships with others,
        and even my relationship with myself…

Getting ashes tomorrow might help me 

take an honest look at some things in my life:
    things I really need to think about,
    things I need to pay attention to,
    things I need to let go of,
    things I need to embrace,
    things I need to pray for,
    things I need to change,
    things and relationships I need to
        reconcile, mend and heal...

Getting ashes tomorrow
    might feel kinda strange,
and I might be a little embarrassed
    when others see my smudged forehead:
        what if they make fun of me?
        or ask me what it means?
        or why I did it?

Well, I could just be honest.
I could say I did it because:
    I've been thinking about my life,
    taking a little personal inventory,
    trying to make some changes,
and I thought this might be a time,
    that this might be a way,
        that this might be a place to start...

Me going to church to pray?
Me getting ashes?
Hey! It could happen!
I know it won't hurt
and it just might be good to give it a try,
to give it a chance:
    to give God (and me) a chance,
        a chance for a new beginning...

So, Lord, even if it's been a long time
    since the last time I got ashes,
        even if I’ve never received ashes,
I'll be in church tomorrow
    to get my forehead smudged,
to reconnect with you and take a first step
    on a path I've been wanting and needing, to walk...

And since I know I can come up with a dozen reasons
    not to get ashes tomorrow
give me a nudge, Lord, a shove,
    a kick in the butt or whatever it takes
for me to take this first step,
    on the first day of Lent...

Amen. 

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The DIETARY dimension of Lent

This post is an Intro to Fast and Abstinence 101.

    Part I:   Important background stuff

    Part II: Rules and regs 

What's this all about?

Most religions have designated times for fasting and abstaining from certain foods.  In fact, Christians often admire people of other faiths whose religious dietary laws are much more stringent than our own. (For instance: Ramadan, which begins at the same time as Lent this year.) Like many rules, the Church's rules for Lenten fasting (below) are rather detailed in their wording and that’s at least in part to answer ahead of time the many questions that such rules often occasion. But before we look at those rules, let's study the spirit they're intended to ignite in us. 

So, what's the "spirit" our fasting should lead us to?

Well, here's what the Lord has to say about fasting, through the words of 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 begin the season of Lent...

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

As you can see, the fasting we do and our abstaining from particular foods is meant to be an encouragement of and a sign of what's happening in our hearts - and to lead us to give up more than sweets, coffee, alcohol or some favorite dish. As you can see, the fasting suggested above is much more demanding than the dietary laws for the season of Lent!  While you might personally choose to "fast and abstain" from particular things during Lent, the following is what's expected of all Catholics during this season.

Only TWO days,
 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 through 59
are expected to FAST on these days:
taking only one full meal and two other light meals,
and eating nothing between meals.
(liquids between meals, however, are allowed).

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 always 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.”

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NIGHT PRAYER: Monday 2/16

 Create in me a clean heart, O God,
    and renew a right spirit within me...

Psalm 51:10 

 

 

I need a new heart, Lord:

    not a physical transplant

       but a new heart of faith...

 

So, with Lent just around the corner,
I pray you'll
    sweep
    dust
    cleanse 

    soften 

    tune up

    patch
    mend

    revive 

    heal    
    repair
    forgive 

    strengthen
    and purify     
        this heart of mine...

And while we're here -

    I need some fine tuning of my spirit, Lord...

 

So, I pray you'll:
    renew my listless spirit

    refresh my failing spirit
    lift up my drooping spirit

    tame my wild spirit

    embolden my reluctant spirit
    rekindle my burned-out spirit

    humble my proud spirit
    open wide my selfish spirit

    energize my tired spirit    
    pardon my sinful spirit
and just in general, Lord: 

    put a right spirit within me,
        within this heart of mine...

Create in me a clean heart, O God,
    and renew a right spirit within me...

Protect me, Lord, while I'm awake

    and watch over me while I sleep

that awake, I might keep watch with you

    and asleep rest in your peace...

Amen. 

 

New Heart by Jimmy Aten

 

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In the shadows of my old ways

Carrying a heart of stone
Lost in chains of yesterday's pain
Feeling like I'm all alone.
But a whisper calls me closer
A promise lights the way
Your truth is breaking through me
It's time to seize the day.

I need a new heart a new heart
To feel Your spirit rise in me
Take this stone and make it flesh,Lord
Set my soul forever free.

 
Through the trials I've been searching
For a light to guide my soul
Now Your Spirit's gently stirring
Making broken pieces whole.
Yeah, Your voice is like a fire
Burning deep within my core
I'm ready for Your promise
To live for something more.

(Refrain)

New heart new spirit, oh
Feel it rising, let it flow
New heart, new spirit yeah
God's love makes me whole.

Now Your grace is my foundation
Your Spirit leads me on
I'm stepping into freedom
My past is finally gone.
But a whisper calls me closer
A promise lights the way
Your truth is breaking through me
It's time to seize the day.

(Refrain)

New heart new spirit oh
Feel it rising let it flow
New heart new spirit, yeah
God's love makes me whole.

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Homily for February 15: You choose!

 

Above is a video of my homily for February 15.  I preached on this scripture from the Book of Sirach - and below is the text of my homily. (If a video doesn't appear above, click here!)

Sirach’s advice tonight was, “To whatever you choose - stretch forth your hands… To whatever you choose - stretch forth your hands…” 

This “stretching forth of our hands”, this “reaching out for, is a basic human gesture. We see it in infants, early on, when they begin to reach out for what's in front of them - with their tiny little arms and hands - when they reach out for us to pick them up, to hold and embrace them, to feed and protect them. And once we begin this “stretching forth our hands,” reaching out like infants - we never stop! Even if illness, or old age, or some misguided sense of propriety, keep us from physically stretching out our hands - our hearts and our minds are stretching out all the time: for what we want, what we desire, for what we choose.

So, to what in this past week, did you and I stretch forth our hands? What did we, this past week, reach out for? What did we try to grasp? What did we grab for? What did we try to get a grip on? Get hold of. Glom onto...

 

Sirach raises the stakes here, saying that God sets before us - things to stretch out for - good and evil, life and death - and that we're called to reach for good over evil, and for life over death.

Those are serious categories to contend with. Sometimes we actually do have to choose between good and evil. Sometimes we might have to make life or death decisions. But much more often we face smaller challenges - the kind we meet day in and day out. The kind we met last week: the daily choices we made:

    between telling the truth and lying,

    between breed and generosity,

    between playing fair and cutting corners,

    between good, wholesome thoughts and lusty fantasies,

    between foolishness and wisdom,

    between honesty and fraud,

    between arrogance and humility,

    between what's truly beautiful and what's fake, and tawdry,

    between kindness and meanness,

    between welcoming others in and shutting others out,

    between my being faithful or unfaithful to my spouse, 

        my friend, my word, my responsibilities,

    between healthy entertainment and junk food for the mind,

    between wasting my time and spending it well,

    between building others up, or tearing them down,

    between insulting others and praising others,

    between gossiping and minding my own business,

    between speaking a cruel word or speaking a kind word…

 

And those are just some of the many choices I made this past week that gave me the option of choosing

    between what's good and evil,

    what's wise and foolish,

    what's right and wrong,

    what brings me life and what eats at my soul,

    between what enhances the life

       of the people around me - or tears us apart.

 

No, not every choice I make is a life-or-death option - but everything I think, everything I say, and everything I do - does fall somewhere on the spectrum between what's right and what's wrong, what's good and what's evil.

 

Everything I think, and say, and do leads me ultimately, either closer to a greater life, to a deeper love of God and neighbor -OR- closer to a lesser life that weakens my potential for goodness, for becoming the person God made and called me to be.

 

It's Sunday night. Tomorrow will be Monday, then Tuesday, and then Ash Wednesday. And the beginning of Lent.

 

We might do well, all of us, to spend this Lent studying the kinds of choices we make in our daily lives. Even just becoming aware of the choices we make in our daily lives. Studying with the expressed intention of discovering which choices bring me life - and bring life to those around me – and which choices erode, eat away and tear apart the fabric of the human community in which you and I live.

 

 Just this past week, Pope Leo offered a great suggestion for what we might give up this lent. Something besides, in addition to, meat on Fridays in Lent. Something to give up as part of our daily lives, especially in these tense and contentious times. Let me share with you what he wrote. He said:

 

    I would like to invite you to a very practical 

    and frequently unappreciated form of abstinence: 

        that of refraining from words 

            that offend and hurt our neighbor.

 

    Let's begin by disarming our language, 

        avoiding harsh words and rash judgment, 

    refraining from slander and speaking ill 

        of those who are not present 

            and cannot defend themselves.

 

    Instead, let us strive to measure our words 

        and cultivate kindness and respect 

    in our families, among our friends, at work, on social media, 

        in political debates, in the media, 

            and in Christian communities.

 

    In this way, words of hatred 

        will give way to words of hope and peace.

 

What will we choose this Lent? Will we choose to use words that hurt and offend our neighbor? Or to disarm our language - and cultivate respect and kindness. Will we continue to choose words, to engage in conversations, that tear us apart from one another? Or will we choose words and engage in conversations that cultivate patience, understanding, kindness - and the hope of reconciliation and peace?

 

Jesus, who laid down his life for us on the cross, offers his life again for us tonight, here at this altar, in the bread and the cup of the Eucharist.

 

We are invited here, at his table, to feast on that wisdom that nourishes us, and helps us to make good choices.

 

We choose wisely when we choose good over evil, truth over lies, the genuine over the counterfeit, the selfless over the selfish, the kind word over the cutting word.

Anytime we make less than a wise choice, we make a foolish choice… Anytime we make less than a wise choice, we make a foolish choice…

 

So pray with me, that you and I will “stretch forth our hands” and reach out for that wisdom, that goodness, that serves our God, and our neighbor.

 

Pray that we reach out for anything and everything that deepens our life in God, who is our greatest, our only, our one, true wisdom.

  

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Monday Morning Offering: 2/16

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,
        with your help... 

I want to be renewed

    by meeting you in prayer... 

 

I want to be refreshed
    by making peace with you...

 

I want to be reawakened

    to your presence in my life...  

It's time for me to take a spiritual inventory:
    to count my sins
        and number your countless mercies....

You offer me this season of grace 

    and my heart so dearly needs
        what you so freely give...

And as you know well, Lord,
    I've been here before,
        so many, many times...

Just as my New Year's resolutions

    slip so quickly from my mind,
so my Lenten pledges fade   

    like the ashes on my brow... 

 

So, I offer you 

    my past, broken Lenten vows
and I pray that this year

    your grace will  keep me faithful
        to prayer, fasting and works of mercy...

 

I offer you a lifetime 

    of unkept, pious promises
and pray you keep me modest 

    in what I pledge to do
that this Lent, at long last

    I might be faithful to my word... 

 

And I pray that when I stumble, 

    - and yes, I know I will -

I pray you'll pick me up, Lord, 

    dust me off and once again 

lead me on the path I pledged to walk

    throughout Lent's 40 days... 

 

I offer you this season, Lord
    and pray you help me live it
        - just one day at a time; 

    to pray and fast and sacrifice

        - just one day at a time;

    to make my way to Easter

        - just one day at a time... 

     

Walk with me through this Lent, Lord,

and remind me every day:

    Lent's first an offering made to you, 

         and then a grace for me... 

Amen.

  

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