Wednesday, February 10, 2021

Wednesday February 10, 2021  

It may be hard to realize with all the snow that we are only one week away from the beginning of Lent.  Traditionally, the week before Lent has been a time of Mardi Gras, literally Fat Tuesday, carnivals.  This year, however, there will be no parades in New Orleans or in other traditional carnival places due to fear of Covid infections.

The season of Lent to arrive next week also means we can begin to look forward to Easter.  In addition to being the Feast of the Resurrection it is also a celebration of spring, although it sure doesn’t look like spring with all the snow we have.

Lent is also a time of introspection although many of us feel like that’s what we’ve been doing for all of last year.  For many of us in spite of the respite we may have felt last summer, we feel shut in and cut off from the world at large.  For others this last year has become a time when the needs of the communities wherein we live have become very real to us.  As we start to shift emotional and spiritual gears, let us hold the memories of what we have lost – and gained – throughout the past twelve months.

Prayer for the Day

Pausing, we step out the door and see our breath in the cold,

   And struggle to feel your warmth around us, O God;

Looking about on a winter morning we shiver in our coats, 

   And search for signs of life beneath the frozen landscape.

You break into our lives, O Lord, with the sight of a hawk

   Reminding us that even now life is all around us.

In the name of the One who calls us to life,

   Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.

Thoughts for the Day

In the middle of winter I at last discovered that there was in me an invincible summer.

                        - Albert Camus, French philosopher (1913-1960)

If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant: if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.

                        - Ann Bradstreet, first writer to be published in America (1612-1672)

The one who made the Pleiades and Orion, and turns deep darkness into the morning,

   And darkens the day into night, who calls for the waters of the sea,

            And pours them out on the surface of the earth, the Lord is God’s name.

                        Amos 5: 8