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Lent Service Topic is The Battered Body of Christ At each Lent Service we will talk about different parts of Jesus body and its importance to us in our daily lives. Lenten Reflections "From Fear to Love" These reflections are by Henri Nouwen and are based on "The Return of the Prodigal Son". These reflections are ideally suited to Lenten prayer and meditation, for Nouwen powerfully presents the core message of the parable: we are children of God, given our freedom by the Father, who freely loves us whether we stay or go, whether we have been unfaithful or resentful or presumptuous. As we become aware of our sinfulness we begin our own movement back to the Father in this Lenten season. . Monday, Feb 22, Love And Relationships You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am Holy. Leviticus 19:2 All our struggles in relationships are connected with what I like to call the relationshp between the "first love" and the "second love". The first love is from God, who loved us before we were born. The second love is from our parents, brothers, sisters, and friends, and it is only a reflection of that first love. Sometimes we expect from the second love what only the first love can give. Then we experience anguish. My personal struggle has always been that I expected a first love from someone who could only give a second love. As soon as we demand a first love, an unconditional, total, self-giving love, from another human being, who is limited in ability to give and receive, we will be disappointed. Quite quickly we feel anguish and may even resort to violence because we demand from a person what that person can not give. The other person has no choice but to back off, pull back, and perhaps feel hurt, angry, or guilty. "Gracious God, give me courage to find the first love in you, and to not demand it from my loved ones." Tuesday, The Son is Allowed To Go I sought the Lord, and he answered me...... Psalm 34:4 The love of the father embraces not just the return of the Son but also the leaving of his child. That is really important: the whole movement of leaving and returning is a movement done under the loving eyes of the father. The father does not say, "dont go." That is not the spirit of the story. The spirit of the story is "Yes, son, go. And you will be hurt and it will be hard and it will be painful. And you might even lose your life, but I cant hold you from taking that risk. And when you come back, I am here for you, just as I am also here for you now." In a very deep way, we are, in our lives, often leaving and returning. This isnt just a one time event: its an ongoing experience. Today get in touch with your own leavings and returnings. I believe that in a very deep sense, one has to be convinced to Gods love in order to take the risk of leaving once in a while. There are moments when you may need to take a step back and go off for a while, and then come back. Its important to understand that Gods love fills you and surrounds you whether you are leaving or returning, and that God waits with longing to welcome you on your return. "Oh Heart of my Heart, thank you for your belessings, especially of my leavings." . Wednesday Just Return - Again Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity....Psalm 51:2 Have a sense of compassion for your own journey, for your own leaving and returning: a sense of "Yes, yes, I'm loved when I take a risk. I'm loved even when I make a mistake because, somehow, its an expression of my desire to claim myself. I did it in a wrong way, but I didnt have any other way to do it at that moment." Otherwise you start hurting yourself and putting yourself down and then the return becomes guilt-ridden and the One who awaits you becomes a dark God who says, :Hey, heh, I always knew you would need me again." Thats not what God is saying. God is not sitting there laughing that you couldnt do it on your own and you finally had to confess you needed a parents love. That is not the God we are talking about. Our Loving Creator is so much more caring. Our God awaits us with compassion and tenderness. "Draw me into your boundless embrace, O Loving Creator. Thank you for such overwhelming acceptance." Thursday Everything I have Is Yours Your steadfast Love, O Lord, endures forever. Do not forsake the work of your hands. Psalms 138:8 Sometimes we grow resentful as we grow older. When our image of an ideal life evaporates and painful historical, personal, family, or financial realities break through to the surface, it can be most disturbing. Let us try to see the pain of our human and spiritual journey "from above." The great art is to gradually trust that lifes interruptions are the places where God is molding you into the person you are called to be. Interruptions are not disruptions of your way to holiness, but rather are places where you are being formed into the unique person God calls you to be. You know you are living a grateful life when whatever happens is received as an invitation to deepen your heart, to strengthen your love, and to beroaden your hope. You are living a grateful life when something is taken away from you that you thought was so important and you find yourself willing to say "maybe I'm being invited to a deeper way of living." O Love Divine, give me new eyes to see the pain of my life as your molding of me into your beloved child. Friday, In a Distant Country Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord. Psalms 130:1 It is important to learn to move from a first loneliness to a second loneliness. The first loneliness is a kind of emotional loneliness; needing friends, family, and home. But when all those needs are more or less met, you learn there is a second loneliness. God is calling you to deep, personal intimacy, an intimacy that is wonderful and very demanding. God asks you to let go of many things that are emotionally, intellectually and affectively very satisfying. You must grow into the trust that this deeper loneliness is not to be overcome, but lived. You must live it with trust, standing tall. you must try to say, "Yes, I am lonely, but this particular loneliness sets me on the road to intimacy with God. It does not pull me away from God or my deepest self, but brings me closer to the soure of love in the depths of my being." It is very important for us to dare to welcome the fullness of our second loneliness because it relates to the oldest mystical traditions about the spiritual journey. The dark night of the soul is another expression of the second loneliness. In a way, this loneliness opens us to personally know the true God. When we touch the darkness we know that God cannot be owned or grasped within the affections of the human heart. God is greater than our hearts, greater than our minds, always alive, always longing for a response. O Everlasting God, lead me from fear to love and from loneliness to communion with you. Saturday, Our Father Loves All Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. Matthew 5:44 One of the core messages of the Gospel is "Love your enemies." When we're dealing with our own needs, anxieties and fears, we tend to divide the world into enemies and friends. But God showers the rain over the bad as well as over the good. God doesnt need to divide the world into those for God and those against God because God loves everyone uniquely and unconditionally. Our God wants us to do the same, but we can only do that if we believe in God's unconditional love for us, and if we are not overly dependent on human affirmation or rejection. We will be able to love our enemies precisely when we no longer need to divide the world into friends and enemies anymore. To love our enemies is the core message of the Gospel because it is a reflection of the way God Loves us. Loving God, fill my heart with the love I need for those sharing my life journey with me. Second Sunday
of Lent, Feb 28th, Really Listen To The Father . This is my Son, The Beloved, listen to Him! Mark 9:7 . The question is how to go from an
absurd life to an obedient life, from a deaf life to a listening life. If you are anxious and nervous and tense and upset,
you dont listen because your anxiety allows you no space to listen. you cant receive the voice of God that assures us, "You
are with me always, and all I have is yours." Let us try to give time and space to that amazing voice, speaking in our
hearts. Listening
is creating the space in which you can hear the voice that says, "You are my beloved son, you are my beloved daughter,
you are special to me. All that is mine is yours." The whole Gospel, the whole message of jesus, is precisely that "All
that is mine is yours. All that I say is for you to hear, all that I know is for you to know, all that I do is for you to
do." Jesus is saying, "Nothing that the Father gave me do I hold back from you." Really try to listen
to that so as to gradually become like Jesus. That is the journey of our adult life. Loving God, help me to hear you and to become free and loving like you. . Monday, March 1st Returning Home Be Merciful, just as your Father is merciful. Luke 6:36 . When you look at the world from the heart of God you can see anew the enormous love that God has for
us. We are Gods people. You can also see the enormous suffering of people who dont know who they are. Looking from the
heart of God inspires deep solidarity in us. We recognize and feel and sympathize; our hearts are filled with immense compassion.
We suffer to see the suffering but are n ot shattered because we suffer in union with God and in the heart of God. This
is an important mystery for us because the return to God, the return to the womb of Love, to the God of compassion, is a return
to other sisters and brothers in the human family, especially the poorest and the weakest. It is the right way to return to
the world. . Merciful God, fill me with acceptance and welcome
for those in my life who are hardest to love. . Tuesday,
Disciplines and Returning Come
now, let us argue it out, says the Lord. Isaiah 1:18 . Discipline
follows from being a disciple. It is our effort to do as our Master does. Jesus gave space for the Father to give him what
he needed. When you and I are fearful and anxious, we want to take control of our lies. We want to do things our own way,
whether its like the younger son or like the older son. When we follow Jesus we practice a discipline that gives space to
let the Father touch us, forgie us, and receie us. Like Jesus, we need to be aailable, we must be home. We must have an address
if we want to be addressed. We must be home in order to receivve a guest, or to receive God. So disciplines are ways of creating
space, a home within, where God can come into our lies to forgie, to heal, and to bring important gifts. The first discipline is listening. The word listening
in Latin is audire. If we listen with great attention the words are ob audire. That is the word for "obedience."
The word obedience means listening. If we are not listening, we are deaf. The Latin word for deaf is surdus and if we
are actually deaf, we are ab surdus. The "absurd" life is a life in which we are not listening. an obedient
life is a life in which we are listening. . Jesus,
Loving Friend, give me inner space to listen to you showing me how to love those around me. . Wednesday, no Fear of the
Father But
I trust in you, O Lord. Psalm 31:14 . Perfect
Love is the Love of a God who is not needy, who doesnt cling to us, who leaves us free to love as we decide, and who gives
love freely. This love of God for who will gradually--sometimes even suddenly--just dissipate your fears. Because the
love of our Maker embraces all the loves you have ever known: of your father, your mother, your brothers and sisters, your
teachers, your lovers, your friends. Theyre all present with you before God . But Gods love for you is even more than that; it transcends
everything you know or experience. When you make space for God and begin to listen to Gods loving voice, you suddenly start to realize perfect love.
As you claim Gods awesome embrace, you can gradually let go of your fear. Then the fear may come back and you will realize
that the whole struggle of our lives is to return again and again, from fear to love. Every time you feel afraid again and
you open yourself to hear Gods voice, you will be brought back to your true self and have greater freedom to love and be loved. . In you, O Lord, I trust. In you, I let go of my fears. . Thursday, A Resentful Elder
Brother Cursed
are those who trust in mere mortals and make mere flesh their strength...Jeremiah 17:5 . The elder son in the parable did the objectively good thing and might have been praised
for being the "good one" because he faithfully stayed home to support his old father. But he ends up being just
as lost spiritually as the younger brother who ran off and squandered his fortune. The elder son is lost in a very different
way than his brother. The elder is not free in his relationship with the father because he is bound by resentment. Resentment is probably one of the most pervasive
evils in our time. It is something that is very real, very pernicious, and very, very destructive. You and I are not free
from it. Resentment is something that settles itself in our hearts and does a lot of damage. Resentment is precisely the pitfall
of faithful, obedient, hardworking people who do the right thing. That is why it is so important to talk about it. We may
be good people, trying to live the right way on our particular life journey, perhaps even giving our lives for others. Objectively
we may have reasons to be praised. But each of us might examine how our lives and relationships are wounded because of
unresolved resentments buried in our hearts. Blessed Lord, help me to really let those who have wounded me go free. . Friday, aware of "lostness" When the chief priests and Pharisees
heard his parables, they realized that he was speaking about them. Matthew 21:45 . When we are resentful we are lost in a significant way. The younger son gets lost
in a far more spectacular way than his elder brother--giving into his lust and his greed, using women, gambling, and losing
his money. His wrongdoing is very clear-cut. He knows it and everybody else does too. Because of that he is able to come back
and be forgiven. The
problem with resentment is that it is not so clear-cut. Its not spectacular and is not overt, and it can be concealed by the
appearance of a holy life. Resentment is so pernicious because it sits very deep within us in our hearts, in our flesh,
in our bones. Often, we are not even aware that it is there. We may think we are so good, when in fact we are lost in
a very profound way. Loving God, point the way for me to move in my life from resentment to gratitude. . Saturday, You are In the
Parable This
brother of yours was dead and has come to life, he was lost and has been found. Luke 15:32 . I want you to know that you are the younger child,
you are the older child, and you are called to become the parent who loves unconditionally. There is a younger child
in you that needs conversion, and there is an older child in you that needs conversion. There is also a parent in you that
needs to emerge so that you can welcome all those who "return" to you day after day. Somewhere at the end of it all God wants each of
us to be present at the banquet. The banquet is not only because the youngest returned, it is for the eldest too, and for
the parents--together. We are called to be united in the Father and as the Father . "Be perfect as your Father is perfect.
Be compassionate as your Father is compassionate." So, let us humbly, claim the "younger child" living within, and claim the "older
child" living within. And let us strive to receive the Love within that forgives those inner, straying children, and
welcomes others home. Compassionate God, I believe I am received. Please fill me with joy to welcome those you've given to me. Third Sunday of Lent, March
7th, Forgiving the Prodigal The Ordinances of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. Psalm 19:9 . One
way for me to work with my resentments is to acknowledge the sufering of the other person. Whenever I am hurt, I perceive
the other person as strong, and myself as weak. But when I am willing to consider the other persons individual history with
struggle and agony, I am prevented from judging too harshly or feeling such anger. I may still totally disagree with their
actions and decisions, but in this frame of mind I can say. "I am able to give people permission to make their own unique
decisions out of their own life and history, decisions that are different from the ones I would have made. I make an effort
to understand them because of my willingness to listen from their side of their story. Indeed, my conversion or return is
precisely my openness to bring these very people into my heart by saying in truth, "You are my brother, you are my sister." O Breath of my life, give me a generous heart
to show forgiveness to others as you have shown it to me. . Monday, Living as God's Child When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. Luke 4:28 . As a beloved child of God, you
are unlike any other person. You are a unique daughter of God, a unique son of God. By living your life as a child of God
you have a unique statement to make and I encourage you to make it. If you let your life go by without having said anything,
you allow the world to define you as ordinary. But the world does not need any more ordinary people, the world needs witnesses,
prophets, teachers, lovers. The human family needs people who claim God within them, and speak out by living lives of hope
and compassion. If you claim this identity, and live it,
you must be prepared, because the world may laugh at you. But if you know who you are as a son or daughter of God, linked
into a community of believers, you will grow and give hope to brothers and sisters everywhere. Dearest God, Eternal Flame of Love, burn within me. Fill me with courage
to let my life speak your word in the world. . Tuesday,
The Love of the Father Be
mindful of your mercy, O Lord, and of your steadfast love, for they have been from old. Psalm 25:6 . Somehow original sin, that inner anguish and brokenness that is beyond our own doing, becomes the place
where we touch our original blessing. Somehow our broken fathers, our limited mothers, our neurotic brothers, our confused
sisters, and our own inner struggles work to create in us a hunger to move beyond our pain. "My soul is restless,"
as Augustine says, "until it rests in you, O Lord." Once we approach intimacy with God dwelling within, and once we accept others and ourselves as we are,
we may begin to speak about 'happy guilt" or "happy brokenness." The inner struggle is no longer such a burden,
but a way to truth, to light, and to life. How is it possible to be children of God, embraced by Divine Love and allowed into
intimacy with the Creator of the Universe, if God had not already welcomed us with compassion, just as we are? Through Jesus'
life on earth we come to know about the inner life of God. It is in our fragile and mortal flesh that God's original blessing,God's
immense love, is revealed to us. O
Promise of the Ages, help me experience my original blessing and my happy brokeness and guild. Wednesday, Heading for Home Take care and watch yourselves closely, as neither to forget the things that your eyes,
have seen nor let them slip from your mind...Deuteronomy 4:9 . The
prodigal sons return begins at the moment he realizes that he has lost everything but the most important thing.
What finally allows him to return is his awareness of the one thing that remains. "I'm still the child of my father.
I still belong to someone." In our lives, too, there
are moments when we realize that, even if we may have done everything to destroy ourselves, we have never lost our true identity
as beloved daughters or sons. That identity is never taken away. And that moment of realization is a very, very important
moment. Remember that when Judas and Peter had to decide
and act, Peter shakily claimed his true identity as Jesus' friend, but Judas didnt. Peter went back, but Judas hanged himself.
They had both acted badly by denying and betraying Jesus. Judas, however, was unable to hold onto the truth of his identity
as the friend of Jesus. We, too, in our lives sometimes make choices beyond our physical, mental, and emotional capacity to
claim an authentic identity as a beloved son or daughter of God. May we always try for a shaky return! May I always remember, Lord, that I am your child. Thursday, A Safe Home For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture...Psalm 95:7 All that I want to do with the whole story of the prodigal son is to give you an image
of safety and of return to the place where it is always safe. Probably the most beautiful word for that is "womb",
the womb of God. What could be safer than that? Some of us did not feel safe even in the womb, perhaps because our mothers may have suffered anxiety or fear. There
is no human being who hasnt experienced from an early age the fears of those around him or her. Fear and insecurity have touched
our lives. But the spiritual life is to discover that there is safety for us. The womb of God is our safe and sacred dwelling
place. This is where we can return again and again. This is where we can let our body, mind, and heart rest without fear.
We can be strong, take risks, do new things, when we know we can always return to the womb of the one who calls us "son"
and "daughter". O
Womb of God, embrace me in your safety and send me forth to love my family. . Friday, Be a Child of the Father Return, O Israel, to the Lord, your God....Hosea 14:1 . The
world seduces us to claim false identities. The world says 'You are what other people say you are. You are what you accomplish.
You are what you own." So, if we do not do well in the yes of the world, if we dont have admirers, money, and success,
it is as if we dont exist. This is the illusion that powers our world, and this illusion creates movies, nad a lot of art,
and a lot of minipulation. It also divides the world into rich and poor. Jesus speaks often about it to his disciples. You and I are part of this world and we also are seduced to believe
the illusion: we are what we do, we are what we have, we are what we control. The great conversion is to return from a dissipated
life into a contained life. The contained life is the life from which we learn the courage to say "I dont have to ask
permission from the world to live. I am not what other people say I am. I am not what I produce. I am not what I own. What
I truly am is the chosen, beloved child of Divine God." And it is from this conviction that we make our return. Breathe your divine breath in me, O Giver of
Life, and teach me to be true to my primal identity. . Saturday, The Joy of the Father All who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.
Luke 18:14 . God does not unravel for us the mystery of human suffering. But
I believe that God does not want us to suffer. The heart of God, revealed in the life of Jesus, is compassionate. However,
if we separate ourselves from the truth of who we are, we leave "home" and we feel adrift. Away from our truth,
we tend of get lost, and we search for "home". The deepest suffering of the prodigal son was being adrift and separated
from te source of his life. From home the father, always watching, and waiting, continued to offer love and life, but he would
never force his son to receive his love.
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