We normally think of Fridays as coming clos\e to the end of the week but it’s only three days now into Lent and, actually, Sunday will be the First Sunday in Lent, scrambling our sense of time. How do we think about time during Lent? How does Lent prepare us for the Easter to come?
We usually think of Advent as a time of expectant hope, but we should be thinking of Lent in the same way. Each of us views time in a different way. For some, time is measured by the events of our day, for others by the hours on a clock – or watch. How we view time affects how we experience Lent.
Some of us only consider Lent on Sundays when we go to church, others each day of the week. This is especially true for those of us who consider ourselves people of faith, for we are faced with the continuing usurpation and abuse of power as our rights are diminished by actions directed by Washington. In some sense, this Lent is not dissimilar from the forces faced by Jesus as he turned his face toward Jerusalem.
Prayer for the Day
From our ways of self-deception and self-indulgence,
We come before you, O God, searching our hearts;
Move us beyond our preoccupation with our own lives and desires
And awaken us to the actions that destroy our society.
Turn our hearts and deeds towards the world we live in,
So we turn our lives around and truly care for each other.
In the name of the One who accompanies us,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
Being religious means asking passionately the question of the meaning of our existence and being willing to receive answers even if the answers hurt.
Paul Tillich, German-American theologian (1886-1965)
At the end of the day we must go forward with hope and not backward with fear and division.
Jesse Jackson (1941-2026)
Is this not the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice,
To undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free,
And to break every yoke?
Isaiah 57: 6