Lent is.
Lent is everything that proceeds the blooming and bursting forth of Easter.
Lent is fasting as it is feasting.
And we are Lent as we are Easter.
We want to shove aside the stone, and bask in the glory of the Resurrection.
But blooming unfolds in its own time, as winter passes, and earth excites at the stirring of God in our midst.
Let our fasting of Lent pave the way for the feasting of the Last Supper and of Easter.
Let fasting and feasting be interwoven into the unfolding of God's Reign in our world.
Let us linger along the way, as we await in hope the coming of our brother, Jesus Christ.

You have read this article lent with the title lent. You can bookmark this page URL https://blogarttattoo.blogspot.com/2010/03/lent-is.html. Thanks!

lenten reflection, though its already holy week

Jesus is baptized by John the Baptist in the River Jordan, and at that moment the heavens literally break open and a voice from heaven proclaims “You are my beloved Son”.

And then…..

The Spirit drives Jesus into the desert for 40 days where he is tempted. It seems like as soon as Jesus’ identity as the Son of God is declared, his identity is challenged.

How is my baptismal identity challenged, or tempted? How is it challenged as an individual Christian, and how is my faith community challenged corporately, as a Christian community?

Are the hungry fed? Are the naked clothed? Are the oppressed free?

Jesus spent 40 days in the desert: lonely, hungry, thirsty, and vulnerable. I see Jesus in the desert today, in children and others who are starving, whose only meal today will be bread made of grass. Children who are lonely, hungry, thirsty, and vulnerable. These children know of things that I have never had to know. Has my time come to spend 40 days in the desert? Can my 40 days in the desert be the birth of true compassion, and reconnect me with Jesus and all the children of Jesus, especially those who know loneliness, hunger, thirst, or vulnerability? Does my identity as a Christian demand such radical transformation?

Maybe, for these 40 days, I don't have to give up anything at all, maybe I just have to give of myself. Maybe I am called to be an angel ministering to a child of Jesus in the desert.

Prayer
Holy and vulnerable God,
I’ve gone to the desert. The Spirit called my name, and I answered.
In Isaiah 55:13, you promise, O my Beloved, joy and strength, even in the desert.

If this is an invitation to grace, am I ready to RSVP?
Am I committed to ministering to Jesus, and living the Gospel?
Will I let Spirit lead me through Her Wisdom?

Oh God, of parched waters………
Help me say, “YES!”
Help me live, “YES!”
Abide in me, as I abide in you,
And guide me through the desert ministering in the promise of Resurrection.

Amen.

You have read this article desert / lent with the title lent. You can bookmark this page URL https://blogarttattoo.blogspot.com/2009/04/lenten-reflection-though-its-already.html. Thanks!

Needs

Now its March.

And Lent.

I have about 10 days left in this quarter: 6 papers and 2 presentations to complete. I feel orderly, not in disarray.....but there are still double-digit number of days.

I have been wondering about God. Does God need us? I listened to this Roman Catholic podcast that emphatically said that God doesn't need us. God does not need us to exist.

It frightens me to think that God needs us.

It saddens me to think that God doesn't need us to exist.

Hello....this is God....I love you, unconditionally....but remember, I don't need you to exist.

But then, I came upon this poem by Dietrich Bonhoeffer that he wrote to Eberhard Bethge from Tegel prison on July 18, 1944. I'm going to use this is my daily prayer and reflection for Lent.


People go to God in their need,
for help, happiness and bread they plead
for deliverance from sickness, guilt and death.
Thus do they all, Christians and pagans

People go to God in God's need,
find God poor, reviled, with neither shelter nor bread,
see God entangled in sin, weakness, and death.
Christians stand by God in God's suffering.

God comes to all human beings in need,
sates them body and soul with His bread,
dies the death of the cross for Christians and pagans,
and forgives them both.


Artwork found on the web, I think on an aboriginal website. I'm sorry I don't remember. I use this sometimes as a screen saver.

You have read this article bonhoeffer / lent with the title lent. You can bookmark this page URL https://blogarttattoo.blogspot.com/2009/03/needs.html. Thanks!