In the midst of all our concerns over the war in Ukraine it has been difficult to focus on other issues we face as a people, as a society. Considering those other issues does not minimize our concern for Ukraine. Sometimes it just seems so overwhelming between Ukraine, the climate crisis, increasing costs of food, not to mention gasoline. We hold our breaths and wonder what will happen next.
It’s Lent and we want to focus on ourselves, our own spiritual growth, the importance of the season. But the world won’t let us pull into a cocoon as much as we want to. The emails pile up and there are times we just want to forget what we see, what we hear.
Scripture tells us that Jesus set his face to Jerusalem. He was fully aware of what he had to face – he did not shirk. Well, we say, we’re not Jesus. True. Very true. But we can draw on the same strength that sustained him – his faith that no matter what, God was with him. It is the same. God is with us.
Prayer for the Day
We come to you, O Holy One, asking that you forgive our weakness,
For the Lenten road is difficult and we walk with dragging feet;
We do not want to think about the death and suffering we see,
But just want to focus on Easter with flowers and butterflies.
Redeeming God, show us the path and make clear the way,
So we are able to be your peacemakers in the world today.
In the name of him who came to bring us a new kind of peace,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
Have patience with all things, but first of all with yourself.
- St. Francis de Sales, Bishop of Geneva, peacemaker (1567-1622)
Like a great waterwheel, the liturgical year goes on relentlessly irrigating our souls, softening the ground of our hearts, nourishing the soil of our lives until the seed of the Word of God itself begins to grow in us, comes to fruit in us, ripens in us the spiritual journey of a lifetime.
- Joan D. Chittister, OSB, writer
Hear my prayer, O Lord; let my cry come to you.
Do not hide your face from me in the day of my distress.
Incline your ear to me; answer me speedily in the day when I call.
For my days pass away like smoke, and my bones burn like a furnace.
Psalm 102: 1-3