Sunday, April 20

Resurrection of Our Lord/Easter Day

Alleluia! Christ is Risen! Christ is Risen Indeed! Alleluia!

Worship: 8 & 10:45 am

Carry in Brunch between liturgies

Rejoice, heavenly choirs! Sing, choirs of angels!

Rejoice, all creation around God's throne!

Jesus Christ our Light is risen!

Sound the trumpet of salvation! 

(Exsultet)

Saturday, April 19

Holy Saturday

Vigil of Easter: 8:30 pm

Rom. 6:3-11; John 20:1-18

From a sermon by St. Epiphanias of Salamis:

Something strange is happening - there is great silence on earth today, a great silence and stillness. The whole earth keeps silence because the King is asleep.

The earth trembled and is still because God has fallen asleep in the flesh, and has raised up all who have slept ever since the world began.

God has died in the flesh and hell trembles with fear. God has gone in search for our first parent, as for a lost sheep.

Greatly desiring to visit those who live in darkness and in the shadow of death, God has gone to free from sorrow the captives Adam and Eve, He who is both God and the son of Eve.

The Lord approached them bearing the cross, the weapon that had won him the victory. At the sight of Him Adam, the first man God had created, struck his breast in terror and cried out to everyone: "My Lord be with you all." Christ answered him: "And with your spirit."

He took him by the hand and raised him up saying: "Awake, O sleeper, and rise from the dead, and Christ will give you light."

• Visit someone. Take them some hot cross buns for their Easter feast.
• Bring a votive candle in a canning jar to church to take home the new fire of Easter.

Friday, April 18

Good Friday

(from “God’s Friday”)

Worship: 12 Noon & 7 pm

 Is. 52:13-53:12; Ps. 22; Heb. 10:16-25; John 18:1-19:42

Sing, my tongue the glorious battle; tell the triumph far and wide;

tell aloud the wondrous story of the cross, the Crucified;

tell how Christ, the world's Redeemer, vanquished death the day he died.

(ELW 355, st. 1: Venantius Fortunatus, tr. John Mason Neale)

• Bake hot cross buns to break the fast (see recipe, p. 40.) Leave the radio and TV off today.

Thursday, April 17

Maundy Thursday (from “Mandare” – to command)

Worship: 7 pm

Ex. 12:1-14; Ps. 116:1-2, 12-19; 1 Cor. 11:23-26; John 13:1-17, 31b-35

Ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est.

Where true charity and love abide, God is dwelling there.

We are gathered by the one love of Christ Jesus;

let us lift our voices to God and be joyful.

In holy wonder let us love the living God,

and may our hearts ever be one in faithful love.

Ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est.

(ELW 653, st. 1: Latin hymn, 9th c.)

• Clean out a closet. Give away what you don’t need.

Wednesday, April 16

Worship: 12 Noon

This is my ending, this my resurrection;

Into your hands, Lord, I commit my spirit.

This have I searched for; now I can possess it.

This ground is holy.

All heav'n is singing, "Thanks to Christ whose passion

Offers in mercy healing strength and pardon.

Peoples and nations, take it, take it freely!"

Amen! My Master!

(as above, sts. 5,6)

• Take a walk. Look for signs of spring.

Tuesday, April 15

Full Moon

Worship: 12 Noon

Thorns not its own are tangled in its foliage;

Our greed has starved it, our despite has choked it.

Yet, look! it lives! its grief has not destroyed it,

Nor fire consumed it.

See how its branches reach to us in welcome;

Hear what the Voice says, "Come to me, ye weary!

Give me your sickness, give me all your sorrow,

I will give blessing."

(as above, sts. 3,4)

• Learn how to say “thank you” in a new language.

Monday, April 14

Worship: 12 Noon

Passover begins at sundown

There in God's garden stands the Tree of Wisdom,

Whose leaves hold forth the healing of the nations;

Tree of all knowledge, Tree of all compassion,

Tree of all beauty.

Its name is Jesus, name that says, "Our Savior!"

There on its branches see the scars of suff'ring;

See how the tendrils of our human selfhood

Feed on its lifeblood.

(ELW 342, sts. 1,2: Kiralyi Imre von Pecselyi, tr. Eric Routley)

·       Place the palms from the Palm Sunday liturgy on your altar.

Sunday, April 13

Passion/ Palm Sunday

Worship: 8 & 10:45 am

Mt. 21:1-11; Is. 50:4-9a; Ps. 31:9-16;Phil. 2:5-11;

Mt. 26:14—27:66

Hosanna to the Son of David;

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

King of Israel:

Hosanna in the highest.        (Palm Sunday antiphon)

Saturday, April 12

Reading: Philippians 2:5-11

Have this mind among your selves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who…emptied himself, taking the form of a servant." Phil. 2:5,7

Out of the womb of wondrous love

came the person Jesus

wondrous love from

wondrous love.

All that came to him

that was hurt,

all that was shame,

all that was cruelty

all that was spite, -

all that came to him

he took into himself.

All the energy

of scorn, of fright

of worthlessness, of envy

all the energy of hate

that came to him

he took into himself

and did not lash out

to return it.

All that came to him

that was unlovely

he took into himself

and transformed it,

transformed

by the wonder of God's love.

Wondrous love from

wondrous love.

So is our beginning.

So is our ending.

Copyright2010 MorningStarMusicPublishers

• Place a candle at the grave of someone you love. (Lazarus Saturday)

Friday, April 11

Reading: Isaiah 50:4-9a

"The Lord God has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious, I turned not backward."  Isaiah 50:5

Martin Luther described sin as a person's being "curved in on itself", incurvatus in se, concerned only with one's own needs, desires, one's own puny little world. As Jesus approaches Jerusalem, where reaction to his world-upturning teachings and life is building to a deathly confrontation, we see clearly how absolutely faithful he is to his identity as the Compassionate One, open and vulnerable to the world. He set his face "like a flint" (Is. 50:7) and turned not backward. How simple it would have been to disappear into the wilderness ravines east of the city. How difficult, to ignore the deep human instinct toward self-preservation and to continue on the road, in spite of risk, in spite of threat.

Merciful God, may we never turn backward from our calling as people of your heart. Amen

·       Eat no meat or oil today.

Thursday, April 10

Reading: Matthew 21:1-11

"Most of the crowd spread their garments on the road."

 Matthew 21:8

The worn, rutted footpaths and roads in Israel were rocky and treacherous, and it was customary for townspeople to "prepare the way" when someone important was approaching, making the ruts level and removing rocks. It was also customary to lay down one's cloak, the outer garment, before a king, as the servants of Ahab did before Jehu in 2 Kings 9:13. What kind of king were the people expecting? What kind of ruler were they hoping for? One who would "smite the world perfect", as Dorothy Sayers wrote? Since we cannot know the thoughts and motivations of the 1st c. Judaeans along the road to Jerusalem, perhaps we should at least return to our own 21st century lives and ask, how do we prepare the way for the coming of Christ into the Jerusalem of our hearts?

            Then cleansed be every life from sin,

            Make straight the way for God within,

            And let us all our hearts prepare

            For Christ to come and enter there. Amen

                                    (Charles Coffin, "On Jordan's Banks")

• Make a drawing, painting, or poem in your journal.

Wednesday, April 9

Commemoration: Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Reading:  Psalm 130

"My soul waits for the Lord more than those who watch for the morning, more than those who watch for the morning." Ps. 130:6

On this day in 1945, German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer was executed by hanging at Plötzensee Prison in Berlin - just two months short of D-Day - for being associated with the plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler. An ardent pacifist, Bonhoeffer struggled greatly with the quandary of how to continue in non-violence against such an oppressive and violent evil as the Nazi machine. (Who knows? Perhaps the Sicarii faced the same quandary in the face of the Roman war machine…) At the previous Christmas, Dietrich had sent his mother a poem from prison - a poem of trust in God for each day, each year. In translation by the great British hymnist F. Pratt Green, the first stanza reads:

            By gracious pow'rs so wonderfully sheltered,

            And confidently waiting come what may,

            We know that God is with us night and morning,

            And never fails to greet us each new day.  (ELW #626)

Loving God, may we always place our hope in you. Amen

• Speak to someone at church you’ve never spoken to before.

Tuesday, April 8

Reading:  John 11:1-45

"Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?"  John 11:37

Like the people mourning with Mary, sister of Lazarus, we often have very specific ways we want to see God at work in the world. Why doesn't God just intervene and stop war? We pray and pray and a friend dies of cancer anyway. Why didn't God just heal her and let her live? A poem by Dorothy Sayers, friend and colleague of J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis:

            "…Hard it is, very hard,

            To travel up the slow and stony road

            To Calvary, to redeem mankind; far better

            To make but one sceptered miracle,

            Lean through the cloud, lift the right hand of power

            And with a sudden lightning smite the world perfect.

            Yet this was not God's way, who had the power,

            But set it by, choosing the cross, the thorn,

            The sorrowful wounds. Something there is, perhaps,

            That power destroys in passing, something supreme,

            To whose great value in the eyes of God

            That cross, that thorn, and those five wounds bear witness."

                                                (The Devil To Pay)

Most loving God, your ways are not our ways; calm our hearts and soothe our questing minds with your wisdom, Amen

• Memorize a scripture verse.

Monday, April 7

Reading: Romans 8:6-11

"To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the spirit is life and peace."  Romans 8:6

Today let Martin Luther speak, from his "Preface to the Epistle of St. Paul to the Romans":

"Flesh and spirit you must not understand as though flesh is only that which has to do with unchastity and spirit is only that which has to do with what is inwardly in the heart. Rather, like Christ in John 3:6, Paul calls everything 'flesh' that is born of the flesh - the whole person, with body and soul, mind and senses - because everything about [that person] longs for the flesh…From the 'works of the flesh' in Galatians 5[:19-21], you can learn that Paul calls heresy and hatred 'works of the flesh'.

On the contrary, you should call [the person] 'spiritual' who is occupied with the most external kind of works as Christ was when he washed the disciples' feet… Thus 'the flesh' is [one] who lives and works, inwardly and outwardly, in the service of the flesh's gain and of this temporal life. 'The spirit' is the [one] who lives and works, inwardly and outwardly, in the service of the Spirit and of the future life."

Put your Spirit in us, O God, to unite all that we are with your will. Amen

• Do something today to nourish your spiritual body and your bodily spirit.

Sunday, April 6

Fifth Sunday in Lent

Worship: 8 & 10:45 am

Our Saviour's Meal

Compline: 8:30 pm

Ez. 37:1-14; Ps. 130; Rom. 8:6-11; John 11:1-45

 O God, with joy I enter in,

Restored and precious in your sight,

For in your grace I live again

In lands of honey and delight.

Saturday, April 5

Reading: John 11:1-45

"Lazarus, come out!"  John 11:43

In the Saint John's Bible illumination for the raising of Lazarus, the viewer stands behind Lazarus in the rocky tomb, looking out through a circular tunnel where the bright gold figure of Christ stands calling Lazarus out of the tomb. It is almost like the pupil  of an eye. Against the inner darkness of the tomb are the gold leaf words of Christ: "I am the resurrection and the life." One vividly senses the loving call to come out of the tomb, and since we, as viewers, are also in the tomb with Lazarus, the call of Christ is also directed at us: "Lazarus, come out!" From all the dark places of  hurt where we have walled ourselves off, Christ calls us to come out. From the dead places of hatred and bitterness, Christ calls us to arise. From the tomb of self-loathing, Christ's loving voice bids us come forth. To golden light. To life.

Out of the depths have we cried to you, O God; O God, hear our voice. Amen

• Take a gratefulness walk. Gather something for your altar.

Friday, April 4

Commemoration of Benedict the African

Reading: Ezekiel 37:1-14

"O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord."  Ezekiel 37:4

Master Calligrapher Donald Jackson designed a two-page illumination for Ezekiel's vision of the Valley of the Dry Bones for the handwritten Saint John's Bible. Whereas Jackson frequently traveled to the British Museum to view examples of Near Eastern ornaments and motifs for the book's illuminations, in this case he went to internet archives of documentary photos, extracting images of piles of bones from massacres in Rwanda, Bosnia, Iraq and other places to create the lower half of the illumination page. These he interposed with piles of glass shards reminiscent of terrorist attacks and piles of eyeglasses from the Holocaust to create a bleak collage of the dry bones of human suffering and spiritual death. Across the top of the page, in contrast, is a collage of rainbow fragments and menorahs, signs of covenant and promise. All across the page, the small gold-leaf squares of divine presence shine even in the darkness of the valley. Even in death and dryness, God is present. Even in the seemingly hopeless, God's promise shines.

Your Word, O God, is life and light; open our hearts that we may hear your word and live. Amen

·       Place on your altar a picture of someone who has wronged you. Pray to forgive.   

Thursday, April 3

Reading:  Ezekiel 37:1-14

"Can these dry bones then live?"  Ezekiel 37:3

After the fall of Jerusalem to the Roman army in 70 CE, a group of extreme Zealots (Sicarii) overtook the  Roman garrison at Masada, a tabletop mountain overlooking the Dead Sea, where Herod the Great had built a fortified palace complex including a synagogue. Besieged by the Roman troops, the Sicarii and families watched as, bucketful by bucketful, stone and dirt were used to build a ramp up the west flank of the mount. (Imagine building a dirt ramp up the side of Devil's Tower in Wyoming…) When the Roman army breached the walls on April 16, 73 CE, they found every one dead, except a few hiding women and children. Among the artifacts excavated from under the synagogue at Masada is a scroll fragment: Ezekiel's vision of the Valley of Dry Bones. Overlooking the wilderness around the Dead Sea, we hear these words again, "Can these bones then live?" The Sicarii responded to the violence of the Romans with violence and died by more violence. One could wonder: was this the new life for Israel the prophet had declared? What is the new life God desires for each one of us?

Breathe your Spirit upon these dry bones, O God, and make us new. Amen

• Start making Ukrainian eggs for your Easter celebration³

Wednesday, April 2

Commemoration of Albrecht Dürer

Reading: John 9:1-41

“[The man who was born blind] answered: “… one thing I know, that though I was blind, now I see.”  John 9:25

In one of her visions, Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1160) saw a golden Christ figure pouring out divinity from himself. The golden stream of the divine flowed down to a figure in white baptismal garments; another veiled figure stood below Christ, the garments covered with open eyes. Hildegard called Christ, “the One Who Gives Eyes” - eyes to see wisdom, eyes to see justice. Perhaps eyes to see Christ in the faces of others? Eyes to see the pain in the world? Eyes to see God at work in the universe?

Oh, Holy Jesus,

most merciful Redeemer,

Friend and Brother,

may we know you more clearly,

love you more dearly,

and follow you more nearly.  Amen

(Prayer of Richard of Chichester)

• Call or write a relative you haven’t spoken to in ages.

Tuesday, April 1

Reading: John 9:1-41

“As he passed by, he saw a man blind from his birth.”  John 9:1

According to many New Testament scholars, the writer of the gospel of John (probably writing about 90-100 CE) originally ended the gospel immediately after the story of Thomas and the Risen Christ in Chapter 20, and concluded with these words, “Now Jesus did many other things in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that you may have life in his name" (John 20:30-31). Seeing and believing. Seeing and believing.  The disciples at the Cana wedding, the woman at the well, the people who were fed by the five loaves, and now the man born blind. St. Augustine writes in one sermon that the world is the blind man. Seeing and believing. What are we not seeing? To what are we blind? Is Christ truly our light? How does the light of Christ change how we see?

O God of light, open our eyes that we may see ourselves, the world, and you, more clearly.  Amen

• Take a walk. Notice shadows, Give thanks.

Monday, March 31

Commemoration of John Donne

Reading: Ephesians 5:8-14

“Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light.”   Ephesians 5:14

Here is one of those lovely, unexpected hymn fragments that are woven into letters and other books in the New Testament. Just a little fragment, possibly of a baptismal hymn, already in existence and being sung by the early Christians by the time Paul wrote this letter to the church at Ephesus. Imagine the song in the night: river water may be rushing nearby, or waves splashing from the sea. The smell of chrism is in the air, and the smoke from fire. The renunciation toward the west, and then the turning toward the east, the direction of the rising sun, where Cyril of Jerusalem says, “God’s Paradise opens before you, that Eden … The place of light, that garden which God planted in the east.” And voices chanting in the dark, “Awake, O sleeper…”

Batter my heart, three-personed God, … to breake, blowe, burn and make me new.*  Amen

(* John Donne, from Holy Sonnet XII)

• Memorize a hymn.

Sunday, March 30

Fourth Sunday in Lent

Worship: 8 & 10:45 am

Food Shelf First Sunday

I Sam. 16:1-13; Ps.23; Eph. 58-14; John 9:1-41

How shall my days your grace proclaim;

How shall my deeds your healing prove?

An open heart will praise your name;

My grateful life will sing your love.

Saturday, March 29

Reading: Psalm 23

“You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.”  Psalm 23:5

If we have eyes to see it, all around us our cup is overflowing. To take that first deep breath in the morning is a blessing. To feel the softness of slippers. To smell coffee. Perhaps to hear a loving voice. Blessing. The Babylonian Talmud instructs the pious Jew to bless God one hundred times each day. Blessed are you, O God, for the light blue snow at sunset. Blessed are you, O God, for the crescent moon. Blessed are you, O God, for the eyes of that child.  Blessed are you, O God, for the song of the wind. For these amazing fingers. For lentils. For wool. Imagine a life lived, steeped in blessing. My cup overflows.

God the Good Shepherd, lead us beside still waters, that we may see your many blessings and bless you.  Amen

• Give thanks 100 times today.

Friday, March 28

Reading: I Samuel 16:1-13

“So Shemu’el (Samuel) took the horn of oil and anointed David amid his brothers. And the spirit of YHWH surged upon David from that day onward."   1 Samuel 16:13 (Everett Fox, tr.)

The books of  First and Second Samuel are books about power, about the corruption of power and about personal responsibility, and in this story beginning the longest continuous narrative in the Bible, we meet the shepherd-boy who will become king, David. Here, the prophet Samuel anoints David, the youngest son of Jesse, for kingship, after rejecting David’s seven older brothers. David was anointed for kingship. Prophets were anointed, high priests were anointed. Anointing was for healing, for hospitality, for burial. We anoint the ears and  eyes of catechumens. The Revised Standard Version (RSV) of the Bible says, then, in John 9:6 that Jesus “anointed” the blind man’s eyes with mud. (The New Revised – NRSV – says “spread.” What a loss.) Christ means the Anointed One. How did David use his power as the anointed king? How did Jesus use his power as the Anointed One?

God of glory, fill us with your spirit and anoint us for your work in the world.  Amen

• Take bit of pure olive oil. Anoint your hands, your eyes, your lips, your ears, your heart.

Thursday, March 27

Reading: I Samuel 16:1-13

“… the LORD does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.”     1 Samuel 16:7

“Create in me a clean heart, O God,” we sing as the season of Lent begins. “Create in me a clean heart, O God,” we sing in the liturgy at the Great Entrance of the Eucharist. A clean heart. The heart is where the whole person comes together – body, spirit, mind. What is intended by the mind takes up residence in the body and spirit. What is done with the body takes residence in the spirit and the mind. All are interwoven. In the teachings of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, heard through this Epiphany season, Jesus spoke over and over again about intention. How crucial are the intentions of the heart! Other people see our actions which may seem just, but God sees the motivations, the intentions, the energy behind our acts. In T.S. Eliot’s play, Murder in the Cathedral, Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket struggles with the possibility of martyrdom, and whether he might actually be desiring the glory that comes with it:

“Now is my way clear, now is the meaning plain:

Temptation shall not come in this kind again.

The last temptation is the greatest treason:

To do the right deed for the wrong reason.”

God of light, awaken us to see the glory of life in you.  Amen

• Place on your altar a picture of someone experiencing hardship. Pray for them.

Wednesday, March 26

Worship: Noon, soup meal follows; 7 pm, soup meal at 6 pm.

Reading: John 4:5-42

“Sir, give me this water so that I may never be thirsty.” John 4:15

If you look at Orthodox icons of Jesus and the woman at the well, you see that the woman is occasionally shown with a nimbus, the gold circle around the head which is a sign of holiness and divine energy. In the Eastern Orthodox church, the Samaritan woman at the well has been given a name, Saint Photini, the “enlightened one,” and is “equal to the apostles,” because she believed and went to tell others about the Christ she had encountered. Her story continues. It is said she was baptized along with her five sisters and two sons, traveled to Carthage to share the story of Jesus Christ, and eventually traveled to Rome, where she was martyred by the emperor Nero. Her feast day is February 26, and a church dedicated to her has stood for centuries at Nablus in the West Bank, traditional site of Jacob’s well.

“By the well of Jacob, O holy one,

Thou didst find the Water of eternal and blessed life;

And having partaken thereof, O wise Photini,

Thou wentest forth proclaiming Christ, the Anointed One.”

(Megalynarion for St. Photini)

Living God, give us the Living Water that we may never thirst.  Amen

• Skip a cup of coffee today. Set aside the money saved for an act of love.

Tuesday, March 25

Reading: John 4:5-42

“Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well.”    John 4:6

Sitting by the well, Jesus speaks to the woman of Samaria about “living water” or “running water” according to the writer of John, who frequently uses double or triple meanings. In one icon of this story the well is shaped like a Greek cross: the living water flows from faith. In an early Christian mosaic, it is shaped like an eight-sided baptismal font: the well of living water is baptism. In one catacomb painting, Jesus himself stands in the well: Christ is the living water. German theologian Oscar Cullman argues that this story was intended to continue Nicodemus’ discussion with Jesus about being born anew (or “from above,” – another double meaning!). Which is it? Perhaps the answer is, “yes.” The power of story is that we can enter it from many different directions, many different levels. Each person can enter and find meaning at different points in life.

So - another story: The disciples asked the master, “Why do you tell us stories and stories and do not tell us what they mean?” The master replied, “How would you like it if I offered you a piece of fruit and chewed it first?”

God of life, lead us always to the flowing water where we will find life. Amen

• Place an icon on your altar and meditate on it.*

* To purchase an icon, see www.light-n-life.com (search under “icons.”) or visit their store (Light and Life Publishing, 5251 W. 73rd St., Suite 1, Edina, MN  55439).  You might also do a Google image search online for icons (you can be specific if you have a favorite saint) – and print it if you have a color printer.

Monday, March 24

Commemoration of Archbishop Oscar Romero

Reading: Psalm 95

“Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, when your ancestors tested me.”    Psalm 95:8

Above the Great West Door at Westminster Abbey, in the gallery of 20^th Century Martyrs, amid tracery stonework, a sculpted figure of a small man stands between Martin Luther King, Jr. and Dietrich Bonhoeffer. He holds a small child. The statue is of Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador, assassinated while lifting the chalice at Mass on this day in 1980. Romero consistently preached that the Christian community should work for the poor and oppressed, and not only in the care and giving of alms, but in the changing of the world systems and structures that create poverty and oppression. This he continued to do, in spite of hate mail and death threats and increasing murders and disappearances around him. He felt deeply that salvation is for this world, that God desires the good of all people in this time. He preached, “We must not seek the child Jesus in the pretty figures of our Christmas cribs, we must seek him among the undernourished children who have gone to bed at night with nothing to eat, among the poor news boys, who will sleep covered with newspapers in doorways.”  (Christmas Eve, 1977)

Compassionate God, give us courage to transform the suffering that comes to us and to work to alleviate the suffering that comes to others. Amen

• Learn about a country with immigrants in the area around Mount Olive: Mexico, Somalia, Laos (Hmong), Tibet…

Sunday, March 23

Third Sunday in Lent

Ex. 17:1-7; Ps.95; Rom. 5:1-11; John 4:5-42

Worship: 8 & 10:45 am

O break the rock, let water flow

And wash the dust and drought from me;

I taste your peace, your presence know,

And drinking deep, am healed and free.

Saturday, March 22

Reading: Exodus 17:1-7

“YHWH said to Moshe: Here I stand before you there on the Rock at Horev, you are to strike the rock and water shall come out of it, and the people shall drink. Moshe did thus, before the eyes of the elders of Israel.”  Exodus 17:6

Lent as a period of preparation for Easter was already common in the church by the year 330 CE. During these days catechumens (candidates for baptism) were being instructed for their baptism at the Vigil of Easter, and the community as a whole used the time as a reminder and renewal of their baptism. The woman at the well, the man born blind, and the raising of Lazarus were all scripture lessons used in this instruction, pointing toward new life, the new sight given by the waters of baptism. Water flows in the desert, thirst is quenched in the wilderness. Hope is offered to those in despair. Water flows from the rock. Let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.

Blessed are you, O God, for you bring water flowing from the rock. Amen

• Light a candle at your altar to give thanks for your baptism.

Friday, March 21

Reading: Exodus 17:1-7

“The people thirsted for water there, and the people grumbled against Moshe and said: ‘For what reason then did you bring us up from Egypt, to bring death … by thirst?”     Exodus 17:3

In April 2010, National Geographic devoted an entire issue to the theme of “Water,” and included in the issue one of those grand National Geographic maps, this one a mapping of every river system of the world.* One need only a quick glance to see that between the Nile in Egypt and the Tigris and Euphrates in Iraq there is Not Much. Not even taking into account the Jordan and its few tributaries. Not much at all. It is brown on the map. No perennial rivers or lakes. And it is through this land that Moses and the Israelites are traveling. Water is life. Water is the life-blood of the green earth, like capillaries and arteries in our own bodies. The Israelites looked around and as far as they could see – only desert. Only wilderness. Only dry rock. But underneath their feet, out of sight, unknown, was blessing – the fossil water of the
Nubian Sandstone Aquifer. They saw only despair, hopelessness. But they were surrounded by blessing: water, life. Unseen, under their very feet, was blessing.

God of life, so dwell in us that our trust in you may never be shaken. Amen

*(http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2010/04/water/water-animation).

• Become aware today of all the ways water comes into our lives. Place a small bowl of water on your altar. Make the sign of the cross with it.

Thursday, March 20

Reading: Romans 5:1-11

Suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us.   Romans 5:4-5

When hardship comes to us, as it always will, we often want to flee, and quickly. But quite often, as years pass, we discover that hardship has taught us important lessons: trust in God, trust in our own mysterious inner strength, compassion toward others, release of fear and anxiety, gratitude, wonder. Help does not always come in the form we momentarily desire. What may come may simply be an increased capacity for endurance. But God pleads with us not to harden our hearts - to remain hopeful, God-trusting, open, and loving. God wills for us abundant life.

Hear our voices when we call, O God, and strengthen us to release all that keeps us from abundant life in you. Amen

• Eat only cooked rice for one meal; set aside the money saved for an act of love.

Wednesday, March 19

Commemoration of Joseph, Guardian of Jesus

Worship: Noon, soup meal follows; 7 pm, soup meal at 6 pm.

Reading: John 3:1-17

God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.   John 3:16

The Ignatian examination of conscience instructs us, after giving thanks, to examine and name our brokenness. What is the old garment we need to remove before we can be renewed in the waters? What attitude, what despair is blocking us off from living a resurrected life? Perhaps we are so angry that we have become hard like stone. Perhaps we are so afraid of being hurt that we have let ourselves become numb. Perhaps we have felt so unloved that we have put ourselves first above everything. Naming our brokenness is not easy. It takes silence, it takes honesty, it takes vulnerability. But Christ already has become vulnerable before us. And God has already loved us, in spite our waywardness. “God so loved the world…”  When we open ourselves up to God, it will not be to storm and wrath, but to loving embrace.

All-loving God, we place in your care our hearts, our wills, our lives. Amen

• Take something on – daily prayer, a new attitude, helping a neighbor…

Tuesday, March 18

Reading: John 3:1-17

 “What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit.”  John 3:6

Life in Christ is a journey into transformation, into newness. It asks for the giving up of things of the flesh, that is, self-centered, self-absorbed, worldly gain, the incurvatus in se, being turned in toward self, that Luther calls sin. We would often rather, like Jonah, sell our donkey, so we don’t have to take this journey, but Christ is whispering in our ear “I am yours” awaiting our “I am yours.” And when the two come together – fire! wind!

Abba Joseph, a desert father, was approached by Abba Lot, who informed him that he had kept his rule of prayer, fasted, purified his thoughts, and lived peaceably – what more could he do? Abba Joseph held out his hands toward heaven, fingers extended, and said, “You can become fire.” Each fingertip blazed like a candle.

May we become fire, O God, and live as your light in the world. Amen

• Give something up – a bad habit, a grudge, despair …

Monday, March 17

Commemoration of Patrick, bishop and missionary to Ireland

Reading: Romans 4:1-5, 13-17

"For the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.”  Romans 4:13

On his last night as a slave to Miliucc, a chieftain “king” near present-day Ballymena, Northern Ireland, Patrick received a message. A voice said to him: “ Your hungers are rewarded: you are going home. Look, your ship is ready.” The hills where Patrick tended sheep and pigs as a slave were nowhere near any port, but Patrick reports that he left and walked two hundred miles to a port, where a ship was indeed loading. He eventually made his way to a monastery in France for his theological education, and returned to Ireland after a second vision.. God said to Abram, not “Poof!,” but “Go-you-forth!” and Abram went. God said to Patrick, not “Whoosh!,” but “Your ship is ready.” And Patrick went. How many summons have we received from God? And when the next one comes, will we take that first step?

I arise today

Through God’s strength to pilot me:

God’s might to uphold me,

God’s wisdom to guide me,

God’s eye to look before me,

God’s ear to hear me,

God’s word to speak for me,

God’s hand to guard me … Amen.  (St. Patrick’s Breastplate)

• Take the first step in doing an act of love you have put off for a long time.

Sunday, March 16

Second Sunday in Lent

Full Moon

Worship: 8 & 10:45 am

Gen. 12:1-4a; Ps.121; Rom. 4:1-5, 13-17; John 3:1-17

But far from Sinai have I roamed

And bear the hidden wounds of strife;

Away and worn, I yearn for home;

Athirst, desire the spring of life.

Saturday, March 15

Purim, festival of Lots, begins at sundown

Reading: Psalm 121

“The LORD is your keeper; the LORD is your shade at your right hand”   Psalm 121:5

The Ignatian examination of conscience that was described in the Ash Wednesday reflection begins and ends with gratitude. Our days begin with “O Lord, open my lips and my mouth shall proclaim your praise,” (Matins) and end with “Let us bless the Lord; thanks be to God.” (Compline)

When life leads us into the wilderness, gratitude helps us recall that we have a shelter from the sun and wind, a refuge from predators. Meister Eckhart, 14^th century Rhineland mystic, wrote “The one most needful prayer is: thank you.” Gratitude cultivates an approach to life that is life-giving and healing. Gratitude provides a deep well to sustain us in dry desert times, days of wandering and uncertainty, days of wilderness.

O Lord, thou hast given so much to me;

Grant one thing more: a grateful heart.”  (George Herbert)

Amen

• Go to www.gratefulness.org and click on the video “A Good Day.”

Friday, March 14

Reading: Genesis 12:1-4a

“Be a blessing!”  Genesis 12:2b

Each person is a unique, never-to-be-repeated event in the universe. No person has the same fingerprint, voice print, or retinal pattern as another. No one’s DNA, cell memory, and life experience are exactly the same as another’s. All of us have different songs, different wounds, different joys vibrating in our bones. God has given each person talents and abilities that are unique, and the universe needs us to develop and use these gifts. God said, “I will give you blessing … be a blessing!” Rabbi Zusya said, “In the world to come, I shall not be asked, “Why were you not Moses?” I shall be asked, “Why were you not Zusya?”

God, rich in blessing, may we be complete, as you are complete. Amen

• Fast secretly for one meal. Set aside the money saved for an act of love.