A Daily Lent

From Resistance to Compassion Wednesday of the Fifth Week of Lent – April 1, 2020 We naturally respond to difficult days by resisting them . . . we push against them, run from them, or distract ourselves in the midst of them. But the desert does not budge against our resistance. It is one thing to resist a highly contagious virus, a needed thing. But to resist the days within the desert means that we don’t take time or energy to live fully the days. I try to regularly check in with myself when I’m in the desert – and these days, we’re all in the desert. • What does it feel like to be me today? • What or who has God brought into my life? And how shall I love them? • What opportunities are arising in the desert that would not ordinarily present themselves? • How can I support or care for others from my physical distance from them? • How is God inviting me to offer my life for the healing and good of the world? I find that when I check in with myself regularly when I’m in...

Saturday of the Third Week of Lent Daily Reading : Mark 8:1 – 10 Focus Passage : During those days another large crowd gathered. Since they had nothing to eat, Jesus called his disciples to him and said, "I have compassion for these people; they have already been with me three days and have nothing to eat. If I send them home hungry, they will collapse on the way, because some of them have come a long distance." His disciples answered, "But where in this remote place can anyone get enough bread to feed them?" (Mk. 8:1 – 4) This Jesus-story holds significant meaning beneath the surface of the narrative. As a Gospel (Good News) story, it speaks of persons who are hungry and have nothing to eat. At the level of spiritual truth, it describes a soul-hunger. In spiritual stories, physical hunger is often a symbol for spiritual yearning; therefore, we are offered a different kind of food by Jesus in this story. Our human condition is characterized by ...

Holy Saturday – April 4, 2015 A brother at Scetis committed a fault. A council was called to which Abba Moses was invited, but he refused to go to it. Then the priest sent someone to say to him, “Come, for everyone is waiting for you.” So he got up and went. He took a leaking jug, filled it with water and carried it with him. The others came out to meet him and said to him, “What is this, Father?” The old man said to them, “My sins run out behind me, and I do not see them, and today I am coming to judge the errors of another.” When they heard that, they said no more to the brother but forgave him. [Benedicta Ward, The Sayings of the Desert Fathers , pp. 138 – 139.] Abba Moses was a former robber, who gave up his life of marauding and thievery to live as a monk dedicated to God in the desert. A formerly vicious man, late in life Moses became known for his compassion. To others, he seemed to embody God’s generosity and mercy. Scetis was one of the large monastic communitie...

Monday of the Second Week of Lent Luke 6:36 – 38 “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. “Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” Be merciful . . . Do not judge . . . Do not condemn . . . Forgive . . . Give . . . Before these five qualities are actions, they are ways of being, or stances toward life. Of course, it is possible to engage in an act of mercy or to forgive, for example, or to do any of these things once in a while . . . or even once or twice or several times. In other words, you can give without being a generous person . . . you can forgive someone without being a forgiving person . . . . At one level, Jesus is encouraging this behavior. It truly makes a difference. But even mo...

Monday of the First Week of Lent Matthew 25:37 – 40 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’" The passage is part of the larger “sheep and goats” story Jesus tells. It resists simplistic interpretations. I am struck by the repetition of the phrase, “Lord, when did we see you . . .?” Those who were commended for feeding the hungry, giving drink, caring for the stranger, clothing the naked, and visiting those in distress did not know they were doing so. They weren’t expecting the hidden presence of the Lord. They were surprised at the revelation of Jesus present in ordinary people. In verse 44, those who did ...

Luke 16:19 - 21 “There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores." These are the set-up lines of a story Jesus told in Luke 16:19 - 31. This week we've explored some great themes related to the spiritual life: mercy, humility, prayer. Today the passage points us toward compassion. The rich man in Jesus' story had a beggar named Lazarus at his gate every day. As the story goes on, he didn't even recognize Lazarus during life. Only when both entered the afterlife did the rich man recognize Lazarus, and then only because he wanted to maintain a master-servant relationship with the beggar. I hear an invitation in the passage to bring to mind the people who are at my "gate." I pass by scores of them every day. Some I notice, some I ignore, and some I b...

John 8:1 – 11 Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?" They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him. But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, "Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her." Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened ...