Lenten Reflection Day 2 (Feb 23): RETURN (from Joel 2:12-17).
SONG: Return to Innocence: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rk_sAHh9s08
POEM: The Return (excerpt) by Ezra Pound. … See, they return, one, and by one, With fear, as half-awakened; As if the snow should hesitate And murmur in the wind, and half turn back; These were the “Wing’d-with-Awe,” inviolable.
QUOTE: JRR Tolkien: I sit beside the fire and think of people long ago, and people who will see a world that I shall never know. But all the while I sit and think of times there were before, I listen for returning feet and voices at the door.
Thurs, Mar 3: OPEN MIND
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed
by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern
what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.
— Romans 12:2
This Lenten season is an invitation to open our minds to God’s light and presence. To be changed in our minds. On Thursdays, we focus on opening our minds.
Let’s begin with language. Author Chris Blachut suggests to change your conversational style from either/or to both/and. Eliminate binaries. Become aware of phrases such as “but” or “however” which are conditional and negate everything that precedes them. Eliminate “but” and “however.” Instead, use “Yes, and…” or “Interesting, and…” This acknowledges whatever has been shared with you, and allows you to further explore the concept or idea.
Ask yourself better questions. Blachut also noted, “Asking and answering the right questions is like getting signal on your phone’s GPS when you’re lost. It changes your mind and your direction.” The Ignatian movement’s discernment and decision-making practice involves asking questions and praying deeply. Learn more at https://www.ignatianspirituality.com/making-good-decisions. Simon Sinek’s work on “finding our why” is another excellent exercise in exploring deep questions about what motivates us and gives us a sense of purpose and worth. He also advises that you ask people who know you well (not family, though) to reflect about your passions, values, gifts, talents, and strengths.
What might God reveal to us, if we allow new perceptions to visit us? — Rev Gail
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Those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.
― George Bernard Shaw
… there are moments when one has to choose between living one’s own life, fully, entirely, completely—or dragging out some false, shallow, degrading existence that the world in its hypocrisy demands. You have that moment now. Choose! ― Oscar Wilde
Wed, Mar 2 (Ash Wednesday): OPEN HEART
Yet even now, says the Lord, return to me with all your hearts,
with fasting, with weeping, and with sorrow; tear your hearts and not your clothing.
Return to the Lord your God, Who is merciful and compassionate,
very patient, full of faithful love, and ready to forgive.
— Joel 2: 12-13
Today we take up the burnt palm leaves from last year’s Palm Sunday celebration. The green leaves have dried and yellowed. They are only the memory of some portion of our lives that we’ve clung to — preserved for a year — now released by flames.
Once verdant green, those palm leaves have changed to black and gray. They are transformed to charcoal, soot and ash. Today we gather up whatever is left, whatever didn’t go up in smoke. Combine ashes with the oil of anointing, and wear them.
Today we bow our heads or fall to our knees, so we can rise again. We Rise: revealed. Rise: beloved.
Today is a confession. It’s a submission. It’s a surrender. It’s a turning and re-turning.
Oh, to be sure, we don’t become suddenly perfect as we confess. We’re as imperfect as ever. We’re as messy and broken as before, and also as beautiful and possible, as before. Yet we are also accepted and forgiven.
Afterward, sooty leftovers grace our skin as thumbprints, crosses, or circles. We wear Christ’s fingerprints. Mark ourselves. Allow ourselves to be marked.
In this moment, we drop our guard. Look into the face of God, or ask God to look upon our faces. Doing so, we invite the experience of being fully seen, fully known.
It makes a difference, when we choose to participate, and to offer ourselves to the Love that sees us. Especially when we then turn toward the world, bearing the mark of being seen and known: beloved just as we are. — Rev Gail
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Blessing the Dust: For Ash Wednesday
—Jan Richardson
All those days / you felt like dust, / like dirt, as if all you had to do
was turn your face / toward the wind
and be scattered / to the four corners
or swept away / by the smallest breath
as insubstantial— did you not know
what the Holy One / can do with dust?
This is the day / we freely say / we are scorched.
This is the hour / we are marked
by what has made it / through the burning.
This is the moment / we ask for the blessing / that lives within
the ancient ashes, that makes its home
inside the soil of / this sacred earth.
So let us be marked / not for sorrow.
And let us be marked / not for shame.
Let us be marked / not for false humility
or for thinking / we are less / than we are
but for claiming / what God can do
within the dust, within the dirt,
within the stuff / of which the world
is made / and the stars that blaze
in our bones / and the galaxies that spiral
inside the smudge / we bear.
—Jan Richardson
Tue, Mar 1 (Fat Tuesday Mardi Gras): OPEN EYES
No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man.
God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability,
but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape,
that you may be able to endure it. — 1 Corinthians 10:13
Sometimes we celebrate this day as the final day of Carnival, the festive time between Epiphany and Lent. It is joyous culmination of a season of feasting and partying, marked by vivid music, masks, costumes, and dancing.
Traditionally, on this day prior to Lent, households would cook to use up extra oils and fats, prior to Christian practices of fasting through Lent. Pancakes werev opften made and served. It’s meaning translates to ‘Fat Tuesday.’
In a liturgical context, this day is called Shrove Tuesday: dedicated to seeking absolution orior to entering Lent’s preparatory journey. On this day, churches burn the palms used in last year’s Passion Week in order to create the ashes which will be shared in Wednesday’s religious observances.
Symbolically, we burn away the vestiges of last year’s pomp and circumstance. Metaphorically we shed any outer layers, veils, uniforms, and armor that guard and hide us.
As we approach Lent, this becomes an invitation to consider the masks we wear. What is our public identity? What face do we present to others? Usually our best selves.
As of tomorrow, Ash Wednesday, the season comes when we’re invited to unmask. Offer ourselves, bare-faced, open-hearted, to God’s presence. Accepting and loving our whole selves, the messy and imperfect parts of ourselves, as well as the wonderful, strong aspects of ourselves.
As we burn the leaves, we let go of something. We also reveal something.
Today, when we put down the fork from the feast, when we slip off the mask after the music fades, may we offer ourselves to holy Love. After all, what’s the benefit of hiding from Godself? We’ve been seen and known all along. The only ones from whom we really hide are ourselves, and maybe other people. God knows us, whether we choose to be known or not.
God’s response is to pursue us, even when we withhold or withdraw. God’s promise is to love us: shadow and light, broken and beautiful, part and whole. — Rev Gail
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Wholehearted living is about engaging in our lives
from a place of worthiness. It means cultivating the courage, compassion, and connection to wake up in the morning and think, ‘No matter what gets done and how much is left undone, I am enough’. — Brene Brown
PRAYER for MARDI GRAS
— excerpted from prayer by Andy Anderson, SJ, Loyola Press
Blessed are you, Lord God of all creation, for it is from your goodness that we have this day to celebrate on the threshold of the Season of Lent.
Today we feast. We thank you especially for one another. As we give you thanks, we are mindful of those who have so much less than we do. As we share these wonderful gifts together, we commit ourselves to greater generosity toward those who need our support.
Prepare us for tomorrow. Tasting the fullness of what we have today, let us experience some hunger tomorrow …As our feasting fills us with gratitude … hollow out in us a place for deeper desires and an attentiveness …
We ask you these graces with our hearts full of delight and stirring with readiness for the journey ahead. We ask them with confidence in the name of Jesus the Lord.