Saturday after Ash Wednesday
​
True giving is a rare achievement. Usually, we give with “invisible strings” attached. We may expect something in return – another gift, recognition, reward, gratitude – or we want to simply enjoy the feeling that we are generous and nice people. Sometimes we don’t get the reward we expect in return, we feel hurt or become resentful.  Jesus teaches that when we give, we should not let our left hand know what our right hand is doing. That’s a tall order - to act so simply and without self-consciousness. But it is essentially the same as coming to prayer while letting go of our demands and expectations of God. The ancient desert teachers put it this way: the one who knows that he is praying is not truly praying; the one who does not know that he is praying truly does so.

In our culture which can be so self-conscious and self-evaluating, it can be hard to know what this means and even harder to trust it as true wisdom. Having this kind of attitude about giving often seems to conflict with the virtues of our society. Too often, we can stay locked in self-fixation as self-conscious givers who give but can’t actually let go of the gift they are giving. Every true act of giving becomes a vehicle for giving of ourselves. When we have received this kind of gift from others, we have a immediate experience of how the nature of the gift is not measured by the object given. Rather, the giving of the gift transforms us by awakening the desire and the capacity to give ourselves. This giving is at the heart of the mystery of God’s lovingkindness – God’s grace – into which we prepare to enter more deeply in Lent.

It has been said that the best preparation for prayer is the habit of making small acts of kindness. Giving to others, unsolicited, and not expecting anything in return is the heart of such behavior. It can be as small as a smile and a thank you to a tired bus driver or restroom cleaner. Such giving – which prayer seeks to train us for – brings a warm light into a drab and dreary world.

'If you offer your food to the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the afflicted,
then your light shall rise in the darkness
and your gloom be like the noonday."
​(Isaiah 58:10)

God So Loved the World -- Nottingham Cathedral Choir

​The cure for some forms of depression is not medication. The prophet teaches us that turning our focus from ourselves and onto others allows God's power to lift us out of our gloom. As we journey through the dark days of COVID isolation, our giving can bring light to others. 
God provides.

Friday after Ash Wednesday​

Religion without practice is hypocrisy. In Greek this word praxis means that which is done by someone who is free (not a slave). In more contemporary understanding, it means making theory and good intentions real. Spiritually, it can mean living our faith on the level of experience. In praxis we enter a process not just shoot for a goal. Part of this process includes accepting and working with our imperfections – because, however good our praxis may be, we are not meant to aim at own perfection. Doing so excludes the power of God and does little more than enhance our ego – it inflates our sense of self.
Putting our religion into practice in this way involves purifying our motives. As we walk the talk spiritually, the power of self-centeredness is diminished. We slowly find ourselves doing good simply because we are getting better – going good for its own sake rather than for our satisfaction. Some have said it this way: “Virtue is its own reward.” As we grow in the practice of our religion, we learn to love God for God’s sake, not for what we can squeeze out of a special relationship with God. If this sounds a bit too abstract, apply it to your motivation for meditating and for prayer, over a period of time, and will soon become clearer.

Christian spirituality identifies three forms of praxis which are of importance for those who want to make something of Lent: fasting, almsgiving and prayer. Some people fast or abstain from meat on Fridays in Lent. Fasting generally means having only one substantial meal and not snacking throughout the day. But fasting can apply to more than food. We can cut down on other things that we consume or refrain from habits that too easily become compulsive - like watching TV, texting, surfing the web, flicking through magazines, or shopping for more than we really need.

By raising our minds to God throughout the day each time we get an urge to partake of that from which we fast, we get to the root-cause of the many imbalances in our lives by becoming other-centered. That is why it makes us feel better -- it allows us to experience what goodness really means.

Scripture Lessons appointed for the day
(Click on the lesson for the text)
Isaiah 58:1–9a
Matthew 9:10–17
Psalm 51:1–10

Neither is new wine put into old wineskins; otherwise, the skins burst, and the wine is spilled, and the skins are destroyed; but new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved. (Matthew 9:24)
Take a moment and contemplate this image. 

New wine - new wineskins . . .

• What is “new wine” in our circumstances?
• What would “new wineskins” be for you? for us as a community?
• Are you someone who says, “the old is good enough”?
• How do our attitudes keep us from beginning again?

'Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions and my sin is always before me' - by Hannah Martin

Physical food never fully satisfies; in a few hours, you’ll need to eat again. But when you are fed from doing the work of the Lord, you will find a new satisfaction like you’ve never experienced. 
Giving up can be receiving.

Thursday after Ash Wednesday
​Realizing you have really lost something sends a shock through your whole system. Often you feel a pang of grief and then anger and possibly confusion. Perhaps it was something so small as your car keys, or maybe your cell phone. It might be as significant as someone whom you love. The intensity and duration of the shock will differ but the immediate resistance you feel to losing what you (think) you possess is built into the human psyche.  But then, finding what we lost fills us with a degree of joy and gratitude comparable to the degree of loss. That which we thought we had lost returns - this time as a gift.  Interestingly, whenever we experience giving (from or to ourselves) we become more alive, more generous and more our real selves. Life teaches us this truth about finding and losing anyway. But we can also apply the truth and to some degree pre-empt the pain and shock of losing. The more It’s called letting go. The more attached and possessive, the worse the pain of loss. Letting go is a kind of voluntary losing – a paradox that transform loss into finding.
Lent - and whatever simple discipline of self-control we undertake during the next 40 days - can teach us how to let go at every moment, with every breath, every meeting, in every relationship. It can empower us to live with freedom and spontaneity and ultimately lead us into a fearlessness that permits our full humanity to flower. We just have to trust and leap. “Anyone who wants to save his life will lose it.” We do this by degrees – the gentle shift of direction that our daily disciplines can make actually make this happen. 

Scripture Lessons appointed for the day
(Click on the lesson for the text)
Deuteronomy 30:15–20
Luke 9:18–25
Psalm 1

For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it. (Luke 9:24)

"Take, Lord, Receive" · St. Louis Jesuits Earthen Vessels ℗ 2015 OCP. All rights reserved. All selections BMI. Released on: 1988-01-01 Music Publisher: OCP

Lose your life. . .

• Do you carry your cross?
• Have you given up your possessions in your heart?
• What about your respect and honor?

Use this sentence to help you go through each area of your life to fully commit yourself to the Lord: “Even if I lose …., I will follow You Jesus. You have the words of life.
Losing can be finding.

Ash Wednesday 
​I would rather wear the smudge on my forehead than to admit its residence upon my soul. I prefer a crude cross above my eyes to any questions about runny mascara or razor burn. In a place where self-confidence is rewarded and any sign of weakness or emotional predisposition is held suspect, it is difficult to consider actually following the advice of the prophet to return to the Lord with fasting, with weeping and with mourning. It is, however, acceptable — maybe even fashionable to appear in public with a dirty forehead as a sign that I have religion. It is amazing how symbols of piety, like sackcloth ashes, have been transformed into mask that hides me from myself and circumvents the intent of Ash Wednesday.

Scripture Lessons appointed for the day
(Click on a lesson for the text)
Joel 2:1-2,12-17
II Corinthians 5:20b-6:10
Matthew 6:1-6,16-21
Psalm 103 

Rend Your Hearts . . .

1. Spend some time in prayer and ask God if there are there things in your life from which you need to repent.
2. Have you started chasing after sin and stopped chasing after God?
3. Do you need to return back to God with all of your heart?

Listen quietly and calmly to the song "Turn to Me" by John Foley.

​Today, keep your eyes open to things in your life that have caused you to turn away from God and look for ways to turn your heart back to God.
Repent!
God is gracious!!