Prayer Thread - Ash Wedneday

Knitting a Conundrum

[Knitting A Conundrum]

Meditation on Ash Wednesday

Do I not here the bells tolling,
one for each year of my life,
how few the number seems
when set against
the starry sky,
the count of sand
even the flow of history,
how short this mortal coil,
this gift of God
this time of trial.

If it were not for you, Lord,
this brief short span
could have no focus,
no purpose,
nothing but a brief flare
dying out in pain and fear.

Yet Lord,
If we turn to you,
if we humble ourselves,
and realize who we are,
where we are, and what we are,
we will discover
you are the one who calls us,
you are the one who loves us,
you are the one beckons us home,
home far away
from the endless night.

O Lord,
You suffered so much to call us home.
With humble hearts overwhelmed
with the grieving tears of love and repentence,
may we turn to you
for your healing touch,
and never be separated from you again.

We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who did not know sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him. 2 Corinthians 5: 20, 21

[Knitting A Conundrum]

Dear friends, please join me as we enter this time where we enter the time of reflection and penance and discovery that is Lent. May this Lent be a time where you discover, like the boy Samuel, that God is calling you, and may we all, like him learn to say, "Here I am, Lord."

Amen.

[Knitting A Conundrum]

Prayer and Meditation ping

Please let me know if you would like to be added or removed from this ping list.

[Martin Tell]

Excellent idea.

Here is a small contribution - the beginning of T. S. Eliot's Ash Wednesday

Those wanting the entire text may go to http://www.pmms.cam.ac.uk/~gjm11/poems/ashwed.html

Because I do not hope to turn again

Because I do not hope

Because I do not hope to turn

Desiring this man's gift and that man's scope

I no longer strive to strive towards such things

(Why should the aged eagle stretch its wings?)

Why should I mourn

The vanished power of the usual reign?

[Knitting A Conundrum]

Remember you are dust, and to dust you will return.

Think about that. Humans have no guarantees of length or permanence in our daily lives. We had a recent example of how fast things change with the tsunami, and how nearly 300,000 lives were lost.

Created from dust, we indeed will return to it.

If life, and it's gift is a matter of impermancence, then how should be behave?

For some, the answer has always been the Epicurian way: "Eat, drink, and make merry, for tomorrow we die." Yet for people who walk the hedonistic path, often the happiness dries up, and they are left looking at a vast wasteland of emptiness.

Again I saw that under the sun the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to the men of skill; but time and chance happen to them all. Ecclesiastes 9:11

So what really matters? He with the most toys does NOT win in the long run, because death takes both the rich and the poor, the good and the bad, the greedy and the giving.

This, of course is not all of the story. The Epicurians are wrong. As Father Victor Brown notes, "The Church could just as truly say to us: Remember that you are spirit and you will live forever, either with God or without Him."

In the readings for today there is this verse: For our sake he made him to be sin who did not know sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him. (2 Corinthians 5:21). God himself opened the door to bring us home, and the door that gives us all purpose is the Cross.

It is time, in Lent for us to take up our crosses willingly, and let ourself be drawn to the foot of the cross that gives us meaning, the foolish of God that surpasses the wisdom of men, that God so loved the world he gave his only son to bring us home.

Lord,
let me find refuge
always
at the foot of your cross,
where you bled and died
so that I might live.

Only here,
beneath the cross
where you shed your blood
can I find refuge
from the darkness.

Only here,
beneath the cross,
can I find refuge
from the wages of sin.

Here at the foot of your cross,
I pour out my tears
like the Magdalene,
tears of grief at what my sin has wrought,
tears of sorrow for what you chose to do,
tears of grief at the need.

Here at the foot of your cross,
I stand with your sorrowful mother,
she who I once wanted to comfort
for her pain,
her sorrow,
her loss,
but who sustains me as I collapse in grief.

Here at the foot of your cross,
I confront the reality of my self,
sinful,
weak,
undeserving,
and find not the condemnation or rejection I deserve,
but only love.

Amen.

[Knitting A Conundrum]

Even Elliot, in the depths of grief and sorrow and depression and sadness of the post WWI world that his poem says this at the end:

Blessed sister, holy mother, spirit of the fountain, spirit of the garden,
Suffer us not to mock ourselves with falsehood
Teach us to care and not to care
Teach us to sit still
Even among these rocks,
Our peace in His will
And even among these rocks
Sister, mother
And spirit of the river, spirit of the sea,
Suffer me not to be separated

And let my cry come unto Thee.
--

He knows the truth will not be found in the shallowness of man's answer, but in the unfathomable mystery of the Godhead. The foolishness of God, that he made us, and let his Son die for us, and bids us transcend the darkness to come to his light. And the choice is hard, and the way narrow, and it takes wanting it, hungering and thirsting for it, but those who do will be fed. Amen. For our cry does come unto him.

[Knitting A Conundrum]

Out of the depths,
the darkness of sin,
the darkness of being separated,
the darkness of doubt,
of chosing self over God,
the depths of hubris,
I have cried to thee,
O Lord,
the last anchor I know of,
the first truth that I learned of,
the light I long for,
the truth I hunger for
he who I have slighted,
he who knows my every move,
he who knows,
he.
Lord, hear my voice,
you who hear all,
you who weep in the garden
for the weight of all our sin,
you, who offer your wrists up to the nails,
your back to the scourge,
your face to the mocking,
you hear me,
crying in the darkness,
when I think it is only me,
and it is always two,
you and I.

In the bitterness of my tears,
you awaken my heart,
change me!

In the sorrow of my shortcomings
when you show me my reality,
heal me!

In the darkness of my grieving,
when you let me know that I am but dust,
and you are reality,
hold me,
mold me,
and let me be
as you would have me to be,
transformed
by your love
a love big enough
to transform the whole world,
tear by tear.

Amen.

[Salvation]

Ash Wednesday

 

Catholic Caucus: Daily Mass Readings, 02-09-05, Ash Wednesday

 

Lent 2005, Prayer, Reflection, Action for All

 

Reflections for Lent: February 6 -- March 27, 2005

[Ciexyz]

At the foot of His cross...is a good place to be.

[Knitting A Conundrum]

"Seek the LORD while he may be found,
call upon him while he is near;
let the wicked forsake his way,
and the unrighteous man his thoughts;
let him return to the LORD, that he may have mercy on him,
and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways, says the LORD.

For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Isaiah 55: 6-9

[Ciexyz]

Thanks for posting these beautiful Bible verses for our Lenten reading.

[Knitting A Conundrum]

Prayer for Forgiveness

Light of Heaven,
forgive us for all those times
we choose not to reflect your light
to this poor, dark world around us,
for all those times
we said the angry word,
ignored our neighbor,
failed to forgive our brother,
and spread the darkness instead.

Word made Flesh,
forgive us for all those times
in our arrogance, or fear, or pride or anger,
we chose not to say the healing word,
chose not to speak your name to others,
chose not to spread your message,
chose to hide our truth beneath a bushell basket.

O dear Master,
teach us the way to be more like you,
teach us to love the way that you love,
teach us how to love others more in your name.

Amen.

[Knitting A Conundrum]

O my people, remember what Balak king of Moab devised,
and what Balaam the son of Be'or answered him,
and what happened from Shittim to Gilgal,
that you may know the saving acts of the LORD."
"With what shall I come before the LORD,
and bow myself before God on high?
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,
with calves a year old?
Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams,
with ten thousands of rivers of oil?
Shall I give my first-born for my transgression,
the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?"

He has showed you, O man, what is good;
and what does the LORD require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God?

Micah 6: 5-8

[Ciexyz]

O dear Master,
thank you for this glorious day, the first day of the Lenten season, the start of the countdown to Easter, your blessed Resurrection Day.

[Knitting A Conundrum]

Lord, Forgive us

He was amazed at their lack of faith. - Mark 6, 6

Lord, forgive us -
how easily we are distracted
by the colored lights
and interesting sounds
and empty promises,
and all of our good intentions
get swept out of the way
by our false certainties,
our desires turned into beliefs,
our wants conceived to be needs.

Forgive us Lord,
when we cry out in grief
that the consequences of our sin
effect those about us
in ways we never forsaw,
how a quick moment of satisfaction now
destroys the very things we love later,
and we cry out in our misery and our grief
for you to save us.

O Lord,
we believe - help our lack of faith
when the distractions of the enemy
touch our lives.
Help us to always see the way out
that you leave for us,
Help us to realize
that all of our actions have consequences
for good or for ill,
and that
with you at our side,
you give us a choice to choose
light over darkness,
love over anger,
true peace over temporary satisfaction,
healing over hurt.

Teach us to always choose your way,
now and forever.

[Ciexyz]

Let us choose your way, Lord, with humility and gratitude for all your many blessings.

[Ciexyz]

Recommending this thread for your consideration, since you posted a thread on Ash Wednesday.

[Ciexyz]

Lenten ping.

[Tribune7]

Thank you