Jesus sought me when a stranger,
Wandering from the fold of God;
He, to rescue me from danger,
Interposed His precious blood;
How His kindness yet pursues me
Mortal tongue can never tell,
Clothed in flesh, till death shall loose me
I cannot proclaim it well.
-Robert Robinson, Hymn: Come Thou Fount
It is an irrefutable law: one needs to be dispossessed of the possessions that possess — before one can be possessed of God.
Let the things of this world fall away so the soul can fall in love with God. God only comes to fill the empty places and kenosis is necessary – to empty the soul to know the filling of God.
-Ann Voskamp
“It is helpful, I think, to be reminded that we are dust.
It seems crucial to take this reminder with us as we move through life–through successes, disappointments, surprises, distractions, tragedy.
For Christians, it is also a truth to help us with the vast and terrible events of Holy Week. The season begins with ashes of Ash Wednesday. On this day, foreheads are marked with a bold and ashen cross of dust, recalling both our history and our future, invoking repentance, inciting stares. Marked with the Cross, we are Christ’s own: pilgrims on a journey that proclaims death and resurrection all at once.
The journey through Lent into the light and darkness of Holy Week is for those made in dust who will return to dust, those willing to trace the breath that began all of life to the place where Christ breathed his last. It is a journey that expends everything within us.”
“I can think about Advent, about expectancy. It holds some concerns, but to be impregnated with new life is a rather hopeful subject. During Advent we rejoice as we open ourselves to the mysteries of the marriage of heaven to earth.
But in Lent we come to know that the only way to our own healing and wholeness comes paradoxically through dismembering–an appallingly painful process which life offers us, ready or not, and which Lent gives us the form and meaning for. “They have pierced my hands and my feet, they have numbered all my bones,” We engage dismemberment and atonement so that we maybe transformed through the Easter mysteries and arrive at “at-one-ment.”
-Gertrud Mueller Nelson, “To Dance with God”
Lord our God,
on this eve of Ash Wednesday,
we ask that You bless our celebration
of the feast of Mardi Gras.
Bless our table, our food and wine,
as well as all of us
who sit about this feast day table.
Come, Gracious Lord,
and join us at this feast
as we prepare to join Your Son, Jesus,
be prayerfully entering into
these forty days of Lent.
As the food and wine of this feast
give nourishment and strength
to our bodies and spirits,
so may we, during this coming season of Lent,
give strength and support to each other
and to all who accompany us
on this pilgrimage of prayer
from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday.
As this Lenten roadway causes us to reflect
upon the death of our Lord,
may we also remember His victory
in His resurrection from the dead.
May this dinner
on the eve of day of ashes
be a joyful foretaste
of the rebirth and new life that is the promise
of the feast of the Resurrection.
Together, for the final time before these forty days,
let us sing the ancient song of joyful victory: Alleluia!
Amen.
-Edward Hays, Prayers for the Domestic Church
“Do you see how the devil is defeated by the very weapons of his prior victory? The devil had vanquished Adam by means of a tree. Christ vanquished the evil by means of the tree of the Cross. The tree sent Adam to hell. The tree of the Cross brought him back from there. The tree revealed Adam in his weakness, laying prostrate, naked and low. The tree of the Cross manifested to all the world the victorious Christ, naked and nailed on high.
Adam’s death sentence passed on to all who came after him.
Christ’s death gave life to all his children.”
-John Chrysostom
“Why do you look for the living among the dead?”
-Luke 24:5b
“A certain man from Cyrene, Simon, the father of Alexander and Rufus, was passing by on his way in from the country, and they forced him to carry the cross.”
-like Simon, can we carry some of the burden with our suffering Lord?
-is He asking us to help carry the burden of another’s suffering?
-can we look over and see the face of our radiant Lord and journey beside him?
-Mark 15:21
peacocks for pilgrims 