Countering "Enlightened" Disinterest

Monday of the Second Week of Lent

Daniel 9:4b-10 / Psalm 79:8, 9, 11 and 13 / Luke 6:36-38

Countering “Enlightened” Disinterest

The popular expression, “Live and let live” is not Christian. It is not the fulfillment of Jesus’ saying, “Do not judge, and you will not be judged.”

“Live and let live,” can lead to a “look the other way” mentality. Don’t complain about someone else, or correct someone else and they will let you alone too. The focus of Jesus’ teaching is not about our neighbors’ judgment being withheld; it is about God’s judgment being withheld. Here Jesus is not teaching us to act as we’d have others act toward us, but as we’d have God act toward us. 

The teaching is not “Live and let live.” It is treat others with God’s compassion. “Live and let live” is “enlightened” disinterest in one’s neighbors. “Be merciful as your heavenly Father is merciful” is enlightened interest in them. The first says, “Good fences make good neighbors.” The second says, “If you want to be blessed, be a blessing.”

·        Toward whom are you judgmental? Why? Try to look at that person through God’s merciful eyes. What is the difference in the view? What gets in your way? Speak to God about it. Pray for the good of the person you have judged.

Staring Out at 75

Sunday of the Second Week of Lent – Year A

Genesis 12:1-4 / Psalm 33:4-5, 18-19, 20, 22 / 2 Timothy 1:8-10 / Matthew 17:1-9

Starting Out at 75

At what age will you have arrived? At 75 most people believe that what was going to happen in their lifetime has pretty much happened. Some of us believe that the time to set out for our goals and accomplishments is twenty-five or so. Some of us believe by thirty or forty we have "arrived" at the person we are to become.

Abram was seventy-five when the Lord came to him. At seventy-five we figure we have seen the landscape, and there is not much more is to be expected. But for Abram 75 was the beginning. 75 is when he heard the call: "Go forth from the land of your kinsfolk and from your father’s house to a land that I will show you.” In other words, “Leave the heritage your father Terah left to you and go to… well, you’ll know the place when you get there. I'll make a great nation of you out of nothing."

When most people are making sure their wills are all in order, and hoping Social Security and their 401k are enough, Abram and Sarai were packing up all the earthly belongings that could fit onto their camels, and heading out into the desert to become wandering Arameans. What’s more, they were an elderly, childless couple, and probably resigned to it by then. What great nation could come from them? What blessing could be found in their barrenness? But at 75 things were just beginning for Abram and Sarai.

Yet it would take twenty-five more years for the promise to even begin to take shape. By that time, Abram had reached the century mark, and Sarai his wife was probably not much younger than he, 99 perhaps. When she heard a visitor telling her husband he’d be back next year and Sarai would be “with child,” she laughed. Wouldn’t we all? Pregnant at 99! It’s the stuff you read about only in the National Inquirer and the Bible.

Perhaps Sarai’s laughter was nervous laughter. Perhaps she laughed rather than just tearing through the tent flap and shouting at the man for taunting her and reminding her of her enduring barrenness. How dare he bring that up! She and her husband had put all that behind them now. They had addressed the issue with the surrogate mother, Hagar, who had made the most of her fertility by lording it over Sarai. Perhaps Sarai was afraid of pregnancy at this point, afraid of becoming a mother, afraid of being blessed.

If we received our first promise or calling at 75, would we be willing to begin a journey then? Would we be willing to wait 25 years for the first sign of the promise being for real? Today God calls us to a journey, but are we afraid of the risk it requires? Abram’s was a journey of faith and trust. Usually when we prepare for a journey, be it a vacation or a business trip, we are in control of the destination, the route and the means to get there. On the Christian journey of discipleship we don't have this kind of control. We must surrender to God in trust: we must "listen to him," as the gospel of the Transfiguration tells us.

·         In your relationship with the Lord, do you feel you have arrived, or that you are just setting out?

·         Is God calling you to leave what is familiar to you (responsibilities, ministries, patterns of behavior) to do something new in accordance with his will?

·         Do you have the faith of Abram, the faith to wait a long time to see God’s promise come to fruition?

Peculiar Meaning

Saturday of the First Week of Lent

Deuteronomy 26:16-19 / Psalm 119:1-2, 4-5, 7-8 / Matthew 5:43-48

Peculiar Meaning

Peculiar is a peculiar word. It is rarely used, so it sounds peculiar when we hear it. Its modern usage normally denotes something odd or unusual. Sometimes a family, a group or a culture has an expression that is peculiar or unique to it, i.e. others don’t use the word that way. Sometimes a person’s habits are said to be peculiar, i.e. most people don’t do it that way.

The word peculiar as used in today’s reading from Deuteronomy is very faithful to its Latin root, peculiaris, which means “as one’s own.” Hence the English translation renders this verse, “peculiarly his own” thus avoiding implications of oddity.

The Jewish people are uniquely God’s people. God’s election of the Jews does not void his unconditional and universal love for all nations and all creation, but is a sign singling out the Jews as God’s covenanted people, so as to draw others to God through them.

In verse 26:19 Moses says to this people, “You will be a people sacred to the Lord, your God…”  When people today say something is sacred to them, they usually mean that they hold it in high esteem. They would not stand for it to be mistreated, or spoken ill of. Because they are a people sacred to the Lord, God demonstrated by his mighty deeds in the Exodus event that he would not stand for the Jews to be mistreated. What’s more, when God took action as the redeemer who chose them, they responded by choosing God in return, and dedicated themselves to him. And in that dedication, that covenantal relationship, the Lord promises to raise them “high in praise and renown and glory above all other nations he has made…” Not for the glory of Israel, but for the glory of God, and to draw all people to the Lord. Truly the Jews are to this day peculiarly God’s own.

·        Our Catholic tradition has a long history of prayers of consecration in many devotional forms. Write your own prayer of consecration to God. 

·        Reflect for a moment on the words of today’s reading: “sacred to the Lord.” Apply that expression to yourself. Are you thinking, feeling, acting, and viewing your circumstances in life through the lens of being “sacred to the Lord?” Does that lens change your view of life?

·        Consider the tensions between religious traditions today: Ask God to give you an understanding of and a love for your neighbors of different faiths, and think about how you might be able to reach out to understand more deeply what your neighbor’s faith means to them. Share the importance of your faith in Christ with them respectfully.

Why Settle Out of Court?

Friday of the First Week of Lent

Ezekiel 18:21-28 / Psalm 130:1-2, 3-4, 5-7a, 7bc-8 / Matthew 5:20-26

Why Settle Out of Court?

Laws aim at protecting rights. Holiness aims higher.

When Jesus says, “Settle with your opponent quickly while on the way to court,” he is not telling us to avoid legal procedures. He is returning to the themes of forgiveness, repentance and reparation. Christians should not need to be forced to be just by a law, we should be fair instinctively.

Jesus’ teaching here is not about getting away cheaply because we fear that the sentence of the court would be harsher than a plea bargain. It’s not about avoiding costly litigation. It’s about doing what is right, not because we are told to, but because we know it’s the right thing to do. 

Jesus is saying when you have not done the right thing in the first instance, do the right thing at the next opportunity, even if you have to create that opportunity. 

In Jesus’ eyes, an initial wrong is compounded by the need to force one of his followers to do what’s right. Doing the right thing should be part and parcel of our modus operandi – preferably sooner, but later if need be. We should be characterized by doing what is right as well as by righting the wrongs we have done. 

·        Steps eight and nine of the Twelve Steps of Recovery read as follows:

o   Step 8: Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.

o Step 9: Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

·        Pick one or two people you have wronged and consider how you might make amends to them. Decide if it would be helpful to make direct amends in word or deed. Be careful that you will not do more harm than good in making amends.

·        Consider how our society is structured: Who is disadvantaged? Is there a way you can work to right that wrong and correct that injustice?

Pray Because God Wants to Answer

Thursday of the First Week of Lent

Esther C:12, 14-16, 23-25 / Psalm 138:1-2ab, 2cde-3, 7c-8 / Matt. 7:7-12

Pray Because God Wants to Answer

We know that prayer is part of our Lenten discipline, but do we stop to think why it is part of that discipline? The gospel today says: “Ask… Seek… Knock...” Why?  Usually we ask, seek or knock because we want to receive, find or enter. But there is another reason to ask, seek and knock in the case of prayer.

It’s not only because we are in need, but also because God wants us to receive from him. God wants us to be found by him. God wants us to enter into his home – our hearts. Know when you ask, seek or knock that you have a willing response, and do it often this Lent and always.

·        Reflect on the disposition you bring to prayer when you are asking God for something.

            Do you ask like a beggar happy to get whatever scraps fall from the table?

           Do you ask like a child who is tugging relentlessly at her mother’s skirt:

                      “Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy…?”

          Do you ask like you deserve or have paid for what you desire?

          Do you feel like you have to manipulate God to give to you?

         Would you rather steal it than ask for it?

         Is there a better description than these possibilities?

        How does the disposition that you take in “asking prayer” compare to the disposition Jesus advocates?

The Sign of Jonah Reinterpreted

Wednesday of the First Week of Lent

Jonah 3:1-10 / Psalm 51:3-4, 12-13, 18-19 / Luke 11:29-32

                                                                             

The Sign of Jonah Reinterpreted

What was the “sign of Jonah” Jesus was referring to? So often we think of the connection between the three days Jonah spent in the belly of the great fish and the three days Jesus spent in the tomb. But is there another way to look at it?

At the preaching of Jonah the people of Nineveh repented. They were a people who were thought to be beyond hope, under the condemnation of the Lord. Yet when they heard their sentence, they held on to hope. They did not despair. With all their heart they turned back to the Lord. They covered themselves in ashes and sackcloth, and turned to the Lord. Mission accomplished. Not destruction, but repentance; sinners reconciled with God.

The sign of Jonah might be that the hearts of those thought to be condemned were turned back to God. This was the sign that Jesus gave. He came as a shepherd in search of lost sheep. He came as a doctor for the sick. And those who were at the brink of destruction came back to God. And certainly he rose from the dead, like Jonah from the belly of the whale, but what for? So that we might rise from these ashes and return to God.

The sign of hearts converted is what Lent is all about: a season in which we cover ourselves with ashes and sackcloth, in order to express our sorrow for sin and return to the way God has traced out for us. It is a time to renew our first love, a time to turn away from sin, a time to admit our need for the doctor, the healer, the shepherd.

Be part of the sign given to this generation. Turn back to God. Show this generation how merciful the Lord our God is by turning to his mercy and imploring others to do the same. 

·        Picture two scenes:

(1) Picture yourself sitting near the seashore not far from Nineveh. All of the sudden a big fish comes up and spews forth a man from its belly onto the shore. Use your imagination to interact with Jonah: What do you say to each other? How will this affect your life? Your Lent?

(2) Now picture yourself in the streets of Nineveh as Jonah (cleaned up a little from the trip in the fish) walks by and shouts: “Forty days more, and Nineveh will be destroyed.” How will this affect your life? Your Lent?

The Lord's Prayer: A Lens for the Day

Tuesday of the First Week of Lent

Isaiah 55:10-11 / Psalm 34:4-5, 6-7, 16-17, 18-19 / Matthew 6:7-15

The Lord’s Prayer: A Lens for the Day

When Jesus says, “This is how you are to pray,” he also means, this is how you are to live. To receive the prayer of Jesus is to make it one’s own and to relate to the Father as Jesus does. Evelyn Underhill suggested that each day of the week we might take one of the seven petitions as the focus of our prayer and activity. The loving repetition of each day’s phrase can be a lens through which one’s daily activity is viewed. Another approach would be to use the Lord’s Prayer as an examination of conscience or an invitation to give thanks at the end of each day – either the entire prayer, or a line each day. Here is an example:

Our Father who art in heaven: Is God at the center of my life, or just one among other influences and concerns? I give thanks for being a child of God, the apple of his eye.

…hallowed be thy name: Do I hallow God’s name and every other person’s name I speak? Do I gossip about others or am I unfair in my criticism? I offer thanks that I bear the name “Christian.”

…thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven: Am I open to God’s influence at every moment in my life today? Do I try to discern God’s will for me? Do I choose selfishly or act responsibly? Do I set my heart on material things, forgetting to weigh all things in light of my eternal destiny? Do I neglect my legitimate responsibilities toward family, friends, neighbors, strangers, creation? I give thanks for God’s design for my life. I give thanks for the “beauty of the earth” and for the glory of my call to share eternal life with the saints.

Give us this day our daily bread… Do I trust God to provide everything I need and then act accordingly? Do I earn my living honestly? Do I share my possessions for the good of all? Do I think and act in the best interests of the hungry and the poor? Do I make healthy choices in my eating? I give thanks for what God has provided.

…and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us: Do I hold grudges? Do I ask God to forgive me when I am not willing to forgive others? Do I apply the same standards of mercy and justice to myself and others? Do I judge my behavior by the gospel, or by another standard? Am I humble enough to admit my own wrongdoing and make amends when I am able? I give thanks for the forgiveness God offers me in Jesus, and for the forgiveness others have offered me.

…and lead us not into temptation: Do I place myself in situations that might lead me to sin (the near occasion of sin), or do I make sure that I avoid situations that might lead me to act contrary to Christ’s love? I give thanks for the ways God helps me to choose well, to choose life.

…but deliver us from evil: Do I trust the Lord to work all things to my good, even hardship and struggles? Do I take unnecessary risks that endanger my safety or that of others? Do I lack the courage to stand up for what is right? I give thanks for the ways God protects me.

Fortunate without Photos

Monday of the First Week of Lent

Leviticus 19:1-2, 11-18 / Psalm 19:8, 9, 10, 15 / Matthew 25:31-46

Fortunate Without Photos

The body of Christ is the whole of humanity.

- St. Basil of Nyssa (335-386)

Fortunately for us photography had not yet been invented during the ministry of Jesus. If it had been, we would have pictures to look at and an accurate appearance to search for in a sea of human faces. We’d be distracted from the many ways we encounter Christ in need of our help.

Stories of people who visited Mother Teresa of Calcutta and her Missionaries of Charity abound. Most have a familiar thread. The visitor at some point is transformed by the humble and valiant work done by Mother Teresa’s community. The visitor asks Mother Teresa how he or she can be involved in the work of the Missionaries of Charity. Mother Teresa replies: “Go home and love those closest to you. Find the people in your own community who have been forgotten and overlooked and love them.” Mother Teresa was a living example of today’s gospel being fulfilled. You and I can be too.

·         Today be on the lookout for strangers. Pay attention to their faces, as well as everyday acquaintances, family and friends. Take a quiet moment at some time to contemplate the faces you have seen and how you responded to each one. Have you treated them like Christ in need of your kindness? If not, correct the situation in the next person you meet.

·         The next time you watch the news, try to find the face of Christ in each story. Then think of how you might be able to help the people in the stories or someone like them.

·         Meditate on the quote from St. Basil of Nyssa. How does it affect the way you look at today’s gospel passage? How does it affect the way you look at the people you meet every day?

Ready Answers for Temptation

First Sunday of Lent – A

Genesis 2:7-9, 3:1-7 / Psalm 51:3-4, 5-6, 12-13, 17 / Romans 5:12-19 / Matthew 4:1-11

Ready Answers for Temptation

We have two stories of temptation in today's readings: Adam and Eve's failure and Jesus' faithfulness. Why did Adam and Eve fail to resist temptation? Why did Jesus succeed? Jesus rejects temptation each time with words he had memorized from scripture. Adam and Eve enter into dialogue with temptation. When we enter into dialogue with temptation we typically lose.

Every time Jesus is tempted by the devil he responds with a quote from Scripture that had formed his relationship with the Father, words that reminded him of what was important in his life:

"One does not live on bread alone, but on every utterance that comes from the mouth of God."

"You shall not put the Lord your God to the test."

"You shall do homage to the Lord your God; him alone shall you adore."

Too often when temptation enters our lives, we listen to a voice different from God’s. We leave too much room for sin to enter in. We fail to “reject Satan, and all his works and all his empty promises” as our Baptismal vows require us to do.

Is there a better time than Lent to begin to implant in our hearts ready answers for temptation? 

·        Think of a recent occasion of sin. Rather than lecturing yourself about how you should have avoided this sin pay attention to the steps that led you to this choice. How did you fail to resist temptation? Be specific. At what point did you give in to temptation? What were the thoughts that led to your choice? How would you refute each thought, each rationalization, each argument in favor of this sinful choice? If you can, follow Jesus’ lead and choose passages from scripture that argue against this sin.

A Visit to the Divine Physician

Saturday after Ash Wednesday

Isaiah 58:9b-14 / Psalm 86:1-2, 3-4, 5-6 / Luke 5:27-32

A Visit to the Divine Physician

I have an aunt who for several decades did not visit a doctor. Defying the odds, she appeared to be the picture of health with only an occasional cold bothering her. After an accident in her home she was taken to the hospital. Since then she seems to be visiting one doctor after another. 

Most of us can’t seem to avoid visiting the doctor for quite as long as my aunt did and still stay healthy. Many people try to avoid annual physicals if they can, going to the doctor only when they sense something is wrong. Others willingly seek preventive care; they go before they get sick in order to stay healthy or to spot a small problem and correct it before it becomes a major concern. But for most people doctors’ visits are reactive rather than proactive. 

In today’s Gospel Jesus says the sick need a doctor, not the healthy; sinners need a savior, not the righteous. Maybe the ideal is to be spiritually proactive in seeking Jesus. But the reality is that there has not been a moment of our existence when we didn’t need God. Every moment I depend on God holding me in life. It’s hard to imagine turning to God proactively. We react to our sin by “turning back” to God. We react to blessings by thanking God. He is either the doctor who heals our ills, or the source of the health we already have. 

Because you are reading this, it is unlikely that you have the type of relationship with God that my aunt once had with doctors. Either through an awareness of your sins or an awareness of his blessings he has turned you to himself. In either case, rejoice that Jesus has come for you.

·        Imagine yourself in a hospital or a doctor’s examination room. As the door opens, Jesus enters. Speak with him about your “symptoms” for a while. Are you there because you are ill? Or is this a routine or proactive visit? Listen to him as he prescribes a remedy for what ails you.

The Fasting God Wants

Friday after Ash Wednesday

Isaiah 58:1-9a / Psalm 51:3-4, 5-6ab, 18-19 / Matthew 9:14-15

The Fasting God Wants

Why do we fast? If fasting is only about increasing our own suffering and deprivation, it isn’t Christian; it isn’t Good News.

Perhaps we fast to empty ourselves of something – even something good – so that we can be filled with something better. Perhaps we fast to symbolically empty ourselves of something we think we need, things we have come to mistakenly think of as essential, things we have come to take for granted, which we’d be better off with less of, or just plain without. I’ve known people who have given up meat for every day of Lent, not just Fridays. I’ve known people who have given up eating between meals. I’ve known people who have given up television. Sometimes they forget what the sacrifice was about. Other times, they became more aware of just what they could and couldn’t live without.

According to Isaiah the fasting God has in mind has to do with ending injustice not reducing one’s waistline. The latter would be nice – maybe even needed – but the former is undoubtedly essential. Lent ought to be a time when the whole Church (the Pilgrim People of God and the institution) looks at its own practice of justice and calls society to do the same. How is our stewardship of the earth? How are Church employees treated? Are they justly compensated? Do our parishes combine works of personal charity (i.e. reaching individuals in need) with works of institutional justice (i.e. challenging and transforming the social structures that create the inequities)? Do we both feed the hungry and fight the causes of hunger in our world today?

The fasting God wants isn’t merely about paring down to reduce excess and arrive at bare necessities. It is about forsaking sin and embracing justice. It is about facing our fallen human nature and insisting we live up to our high calling to live in the image and likeness of God.

Why do we fast? We fast for the sake of the Kingdom of God.

·        Make a point to research the causes of hunger, and, over a modest Lenten meal, discuss with friends and family what you learn, focusing on what can be done to change the situation.

Two Ways, One Choice

Thursday after Ash Wednesday

Deuteronomy 30:15-20 / Psalm 1:1-2, 3, 4 and 6 / Luke   9:22-25

Two Ways, One Choice

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, and I…

— Robert Frost

Lent summons us to a fork in the road and prompts us to ponder: Are we headed to life and prosperity or to death and despair? As in the reading from Deuteronomy, God sets before us a choice and urges us: Choose life!

The choice of Lent is more significant than the one that lies before the poet standing in a yellow wood, contemplating two seemingly equally valid paths where one might regret not being able to travel both. In Lent we wrestle with our very own selves and seek to be true to the way God made us, trying to avoid the dead ends and detours.

It’s not as if we’d be happy taking either way. While there are two ways here, there is really only one viable choice. Lent brings us face to face with that choice: the way of the cross or the way of death; the way of light or the way of darkness; the way of service or selfishness; good or evil; heaven or hell; faith or faithlessness. You choose. You must choose.

·         What does choosing life look like for you? What are the end results? What are the steps that take you there? What does choosing death look like for you? What are the end results? What are the steps that take you there? Ask God to help you choose life.

Trading Places

Ash Wednesday Lent 2009

Joel 2:12-18 / Psalm 51:3-4,5-6ab,12-13, 14, 17 / 2Corinthians 5:20–6:2 / Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18

Trading Places

Have you ever wanted to trade places with someone? What was it about that other person that made you want to be in their shoes? Did he have the money, the car, the house, the job, the marriage or family you wanted? Had she earned the esteem and respect of others you desired? Did he have the intelligence or opportunity you longed for? Did she have the talent or health you felt you lacked? Perhaps that person’s life was less complicated than your own, while you felt overwhelmed by everything going on in yours. Surely envy is a bad thing, but the desire to trade places with someone else, the desire for something new, something more, something different can help us steer our way through Lent. 

As a season of repentance, Lent aims at change — even changing places. The reading from 2 Corinthians says, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him.” At times it may feel like the goal of Lent is receiving a seal of approval for fasting on the right days, making enough sacrifices, or doing something extra. But the true goal of Lent is to become more like Christ who became like us in all things but sin.

With a false sense of humility we might ask, “Who am I to presume I could be like Christ?” But our becoming like him is the very reason he became like us and shared in our suffering. So ask yourself instead: In what ways do I most need and most desire to become like Christ? If the list is long, you may want to narrow it down to just a couple and make those things the focus of your Lenten penance.

Having narrowed down your list to these few, ask yourself, “What can I do each day or each week to allow Christ to change me in this area?” Don’t look for the most difficult thing. Keeping it simple may help sustain the practice throughout the season.

This Lent let Christ live in you!

·        Describe your relationship with God as it is now. Describe your relationship with God as you would like it to be. Does your description match the relationship Jesus had with his Father?

·        What attribute of Christ do you most want to imitate in your life? Ask Christ to help you grow in this quality.

Lent: A Season to Deepen Our Relationship with Christ

Introduction

Lent: A Season to Deepen Our Relationship with Christ

Good news! Lent is not really about sin – at least not primarily. It’s not about beating ourselves up for continuing Adam and Eve’s fallen ways. It’s about returning to the font of life. It’s about cleaning out the clutter that has compromised our relationships. It’s about purifying our seeing, tasting, touching, smelling, hearing, and the desires of our souls, so we can better strive for the cross and resurrection of this season and everyday life.

During Lent we are called to turn away from sin and live the gospel. To do so we need to examine what tempts us. In the process we can get lost in self-pity or self-condemnation. We might take on penances without any connection to our relationship with Christ and neighbor. We can sometimes forget why we’re giving things up, or doing something extra.

As we begin Lent we would do well to consider what penances we will choose and how they are connected to our relationships with Christ and others. If our penances are not connected to the state of our relationships we may find that Lent bears little fruit, and after these 40 days our relationships are in need of the same renovation as before the ashes were imposed.

This Lent I invite you to ask, “What is my relationship with Christ is meant to be like? What is it like now? Don’t focus primarily on your failure, but on learning what kind of response the grace of Christ requires, and how we can build the strong relationship with Christ that he wills us to have. To bear fruit we must focus our first glance not on ourselves – which might become a pity party or a dance of self-deception – but on Christ. What does it take to reach him? What impedes our progress toward him? What is in the way rather than on the way?

Our souls get stuffed with many things that become distractions and deterrents to our progress. The fasting of Lent is meant to empty us of the clutter that has accrued; perhaps the excess has been gathered because of inattention, or disordered priorities. Lenten repentance is a call to attention and prioritizing. Fasting, prayer and almsgiving might mean taking a break from the ordinary consumer and entertainment culture that drives our society to madness. Lent is a time to step away from those dynamics and observe the frenzied tugs and attractions they generate in us, and the effect they have on our spiritual life. Lent is a time to step closer to Christ and immerse ourselves in his culture.

Lent is not primarily about sin; it’s about our relationship with Christ. It’s about getting ready for resurrection and glory. The reason for us to go into the desert of Lent is not to deprive ourselves for deprivation’s sake, but in order to meet Christ. Anything else misses the point. I hope these Lenten Meditations help you deepen your relationship with Christ. Before you begin, take a moment to consider the following questions:

·        Do you want a deeper relationship with Christ?

·        What will be most helpful to you in developing a deeper relationship with Christ?

·        Are you willing to cultivate this during the days of Lent?

·        What special preparations do you need to make in order to bear fruit?

God bless your desire to return to him and be saved in Christ!