A Concord Pastor Comments: Keeping a Holy Lent

Morning Coffee by George Mendoza

Morning Offering - 90

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, even be called 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 these are my last four chances
to live as a Lenten Christian in 2010...

Four days to be more faithful to prayer,
morning and night
or any time in between,
when you and I might 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 shapes,
the hunger it leaves to be fed
and the chance to wonder
in what healthy and holy ways
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 Passover 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 my week, Lord,
and ask you to make me a little more holy this week
than I was last week,
holier than I was at the beginning of Lent,
holier than I was yesterday...

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 grateful contentment
to serve the needs of those who wait for my assistance...

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

May those who cross my path this week
find in me the spirit of holiness
you offer me in these holy days....

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

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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