A Daily Lent

Centered in Love Tuesday of Holy Week – April 7, 2020 It seems as if no one has been unaffected by the coronavirus, as well as by the many advisories and precautions under which we live. Information changes daily. Our lives are consumed with numbers, bar graphs, and maps color-coded by hotspot areas. Some of us want to gather all the information we can possible take in . . . while others of us just want to keep our heads down and wait for the virus to go away. For six weeks or so, I’ve felt the need to drop anchor daily and to stay intentionally centered in love. There is so much that is uncertain, so much that tempts toward fear, so much that isolates . . . to stay centered in love seems essential to me. I rehearse how I have noticed God’s love alive in the world. I celebrate the creative expressions of love I notice amidst the difficulties of physical distancing. I meditate on love as an active force in the world, not merely as a word, an idea, or a feeling. Brother L...

Grounded Life Monday of Holy Week – April 6, 2020 The heart of spirituality is attentiveness and awareness. These are the attributes most of us need to develop in order to live more deeply, in a more grounded way. Those qualities are needed more today than ever. The entire world is in a panic. Fear is common. Love is emerging slowly. The world needs persons who not only follow local, state, and national mandates, but even more, persons who are attentive and aware, persons who are alert to the underground movements of God in the midst of the threats that surround us. The world needs persons who are tethered to God with a bond that cannot be broken. The world needs persons who are centered and anchored. Read this excerpt from Brother Lawrence for our reading today. In the beginning, Brother Lawrence declared that a little effort was needed to form the habit of continuously conversing with God, telling Him everything that was happening. But after a little careful practice, ...

Practice God’s Presence during Holy Week Palm Sunday – April 5, 2020 On Palm Sunday we remember that Jesus rode into Jerusalem to begin the last week of his life. He must have looked triumphant as people hailed him “King!” It was a reception that could have led to a coronation; yet, the reality did not match the appearance. He was moving not toward an earthly throne, but toward a cross. Progress in the spiritual life is difficult to measure. The usual tracks and markers don’t work. Appearance doesn’t always match reality. Movement takes place slowly, over time, as we give greater attentiveness to the presence of God within us, to those around us, and to the created world in which we live. For some people, that attentiveness comes naturally in the created world. Brilliant sunsets, vast sandy beaches, and mountain vistas consistently make it onto our lists of ways we sense our connection to God. They bring us to awe and wonder. Others find their connection to God through other ...

Understanding and Awareness Friday of the Third Week of Lent – March 20, 2020 I remember sitting in front of Sr Adeline O’Donoghue at Ruah Center in Houston in the late 1990’s as she helped me unpack my convoluted interior life. Slowly I was seeing more and more of my interior . . . some of my first glimpses of the person I had become over the years. And I didn’t like what was popping up to the surface. So one day, exasperated by the mess that once again had arisen from my dark depths, I spilled out my story to Sr Adeline, told her what I was seeing about myself, and reiterated how disgusting I found the darkness within me to be. She quietly looked at me – she had a way of looking straight to the interior of a person – and said, “Jerry, what would you like to do about that?” I thought about it for a moment, before saying, “I want to get rid of it! Obliterate it!” She replied, “And if you could obliterate it, what would be left of you then?” I had no response. Nothing. I b...