When we open our eyes and our feet hit the floor in the morning, we never know how the day is going to end up at the vesper bell – only that it is our day to take and use… our day to run and grow … our day to hold on and survive. In the middle of those holding-on days it’s difficult for us to remember (or to believe) the words of the Psalmist, “This is the day the LORD has made; rejoice and be glad in it.”
The season of Lent begins easily enough for us, a bit like making New Years resolutions: we fill our fancies of the things that we are going to “give up for Lent” (most times not knowing why we are supposed to “give up,” and even more times not knowing that while we “give up,” we must also “take on.”)
For those of us who are still keeping track of such things by Monday of next week, we realize that the giving-up and the taking-on isn’t nearly so simple as we thought it would be. The fewer-still who are still with it the following week begin to wonder how they ever managed to do this in the past.
By the third week, we start pondering to God just how long 40 days can actually be!
Believe it or not: that’s the way it should be. Those who follow the practice step into 40 days of serious contemplation, days of contrition and forgiveness, and strive for some sort of spiritual renewal, be it great or small. Lent is a time for change, it is a time for “polishing the silver” of our spirit and our hearts before we venture into the long season that some folks call
Ordinary time.
We must become extra-ordinary people in very short order, so that we may see our way through that long summer season of practicing what we have read, learned, and felt while we were putting a spit-shine on our souls during Lent.
I have two different sentences of a call to prayer today, one for the good days and one for the bad days. I keep in mind when I’m in my meditation time that I rarely have a full day that is either one or the other. They are a glad mix of the two. Use them separately or together, as your meditations and prayers lead you.
- Keep the faith!
Oh Lord,
Take heed to my words.
Listen as I cry.
(- Alleluia)
There is joy, Lord,
for all you defend:
They will rejoice evermore!
(- Alleluia)
(inspired by Psalm 5)
Tags: Call to Prayer, Discernment, Lent
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