Friday the Third Week of Lent

"There is not enough time in the day." This expression we say and hear almost every day. We want to pray and contemplate, but we are just too busy. We do not have time to smell the roses or the honeysuckle. Our world has become so familiar we simply pass it by, missing its mystery.

Karen Armstrong suggests that, " Prayers of praise and thanksgiving help to correct this." When we list the wonders of creation they serve to remind us of the marvels that surround us. We remove the "veil of familiarity" that hides the mystery and wonderment of all the gifts that God bestows on us. Prayers of thanksgiving help us become little children again, where everything is full of wonder and excitement.

Thursday in the Third Week of Lent

Karen Armstrong writes that it is only recent in history people believed that to have a religous life we must have faith before we take a spiritual journey. But Karen points out that the history of religion makes clear that this is not how it works. To have faith before embarking on a spiritual journey was putting the cart before the horse.

Am I engaging in a "which came first the chicken or the egg" dialogue. I hope not. During Lent, even those who do not believe or have serious doubts practice meditation, prayer and fasting and thus begin a journey that leads them to a the virtue of faith rather than the prerequisite. Karen says that faith is the fruit of spirituality not something you have to have at the start.

How does this happen? Karen points to prayer. She says, "Prayer is thus not born of belief and intellectual conviction; it is the practice that creates faith." I am not sure I agree with her because I have a sense that merely by praying I am committing an act of faith. I sense that by praying and acknowledging my vulnerability and weaknesses that I am breaking through a protective ego shield I have constructed. I am committing an act of faith by simply believing God is listening.

All of this is difficult to get a handle on, but I do think that by trying we are searching for the right answer, and in the search we are pleasing God.

Tuesday in the Third Week of Lent

In Native American languages there is no word for "art." It is simply assumed that if you are going to make something, you will make it as beautiful as possible. In the Navajo language the word for "balance" and the word for "beauty" are the same. -- Leslie Gray

In this Lenten season we search for balance. We pause from our never-ending spiral of hurry and cramming more and more into each day; to fast, pray, worship and meditate. When we do we sense a calm -- a balance. We begin to examine our values, our lifestyles, and our relationship with God. Just this forty-day pause brings us peace and it is truly beautiful.

Why do we leave this peace the day after Easter? The forces of "duty calls," and " got to get back to work, and " that was nice but," are siren's calls that draw us back to our previous lives. Lent is much like an extended vacation at my beloved beach. When the vacation is over we soon forget the refreshment we had just experienced.

This Lent add a little prayer that balance you are beginning to feel this Lent remain with you after Easter. You are making something beautiful this Lenten season. Pray that the tides of worldliness don't wash it away.

Monday in the Third Sunday of Lent

I thought I could change the world. It took me a hundred years to figure out I can't change the world. I can only change Bessie. And, honey, that ain't easy either. -- Annie Elizabeth "Bessie" Delany, at 104

Out of the mouths of babes. Bessie reminds us that changing the world may not be our destiny, but changing ourselves is possible, but not easy. I never met Bessie, but I bet those who did may not think she needed to change, she was special just the way she was. During Lent we talk a lot about change a great deal, but we should not pay blind obedience to change. Change is not a virtue of its own. We are all special children of God. Phrases like "change or die," or "change or stagnate" may sound good, but my grandmother used to say, "change for change's sake is foolish."

We heard a lot in the last couple of years about change, and I for one advocate many changes from the past. However, there are many things I never want to change. I bet you do as well. Remember "evergreens do not stagnate, they grow."

Third Sunday of Lent

I believe the old cliche' "God helps those who help themselves" is not only misleading but often dead wrong. My most spectacular answers to prayers have come when I was so helpless, so out of control as to be able to do nothing at all for myself. -- Catherine Marshall

Do you ever feel like your world is spinning out of control? You want to get off the merry-go-round, and you can't even get off the horse? I know I have. I think I can be in control of my own destiny only to discover that external forces have rendered my "best laid plans" meaningless. Catherine Marshall tells her own story, but it rings true to most all of us. I am not saying we shouldn't try to help ourselves, and I don't think Catherine is either. I just believe that there are times we have to find that quiet room and say, "God I am trying, but I can't pull this one off."

We might just find that God is waiting for that very moment.

Thursday in the Second Week of Lent

Finally you understand the real motorcycle you are working on is yourself -- Robert M. Pirsig, Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance.

At some time and place in our lives we realize we can't change others or events beyond our control. We realize the repairing that is needed is within ourselves. We take in our car for regular maintenance. We schedule once or twice a year the heating and air person to service the main unit. We, ( sorry Suzy I know I am not the one who does this ), add preemergence to the grass so to have it come out in spring weed free and thicker. There are so many maintenance items we schedule like clock work, but we forget to go in for a regular maintenance on ourselves. Lent can be that time.

Lent is a time to work on ourselves just as Pirsig reminds. We fast, pray, mediate, and serve to retune our lives. It is a time to petition God to bring us comfort, inner peace, and lead us to the calling he has for each of us and to bask in God’s presence. As we approach the Second Sunday in Lent we are tempted to go back to our old habits, to fix someone else's motorcycle. "My life is running just fine," we say; eventhough, it really isn't. It takes 40 days to clean and fix every screw and bolt of our makeup, if we are patient in our work on ourself. The Lenten season is one of God's many gifts to us. Use everyday of it to honor God by honoring yourself.

Friday in the Second Week of Lent

Author’s note: Today’s meditation is a contribution of Beth Frank, one of my EFM mentors and good friend.

Have you ever caught a glimpse of ABC’s TV show "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition"? A deserving family is sent away and its cramped, substandard housing is dramatically changed according to what designers think the family and its members want and need. Lent can be approached as an annual opportunity for an extreme makeover of the spiritual kind. My designs are always grand. Yet after 15-20 days of attempted execution and often massive failure, the results often reveal only a subtle transformation of "light housekeeping" rather than a radical redesign or knocking down of walls.

Let’s step back today and take stock of how we are doing this Lent. This isn’t a pass/fail test, but rather an honest assessment of our daily routines. Are we thriving during this time of discipline or resentful of the commitments we have made (or broken)? How are we receiving and responding to God’s unconditional love and grace? How are we living the Gospel as members of the Body of Christ?

God of the here and now, help us to self-correct if our Lenten disciplines are not bringing us closer to you. While we may seek an extreme makeover this Lent, sustain us with the subtle transformations of light housekeeping so that we may draw ever closer to Thee. Amen.

Saturday in the Second Week of Lent

In the south of my younger days, it was commonplace that when a friend was in the hospital, a group of friends would assemble in the waiting room. They didn't necessarily visit with the patient, visits were for family. They were just present.

In high school, I had a best friend. When we would get together there were times we wouldn't even be talking and then one of us would start laughing. We both knew what was funny or what the other was thinking without a word passing between us. We don't see each other often now since we live in two different parts of the country; but when we do, we still have our boyhood experience. Tom Ward calls this 'communion rather than conversation." He discusses this communion with God as part of the experience one has with God during "Centering Prayer." Tom says this type of relationship is much like being in love and occasionally reaching out to just touch someone's hand without saying a word. There is no conversation, just a presence that says it all.

During this Lenten season is there some one who needs your presence? Sometimes it might require at first -- words, but the message is communion not the conversation. Is there someone you need? Sometimes we may have to initiate that call for communion by perhaps a note, a phone call or an act of forgiveness. Much like we call for God to be present during centering prayer, call that friend, child, spouse by reaching out your hand and placing it on another as an act of unconditional love.