23/02/07
[Please remember this is a sort of "menu" from which to select. No one has to pray it all]
If you would like these meditations to come directly to your in box, please click here:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/KnitternunMeditation/
Collect
Almighty and everlasting God, you hate nothing you have made and forgive the sins of all who are penitent: Create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we, worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness, may obtain of you, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
++++++++++
Today's Scripture http://www.satucket.com/lectionary/
Psalm 95* & 31; Psalm 35; Deut. 7:12-16; Titus 2:1-15; John 1:35-42
++++++++++
From Forward Day by Day: http://www.forwardmovement.org/todaysreading.cfm
Titus 2:1-15. Likewise, urge the younger men to be self-controlled.
Well, boys will be boys, people always say--as if it were a given that young men won't be able to control themselves. But they can. Lots of them do. Boys are as capable as anyone else of making wise choices--maybe they don't always do it, but neither do girls. That self-control is difficult doesn't mean it's impossible.
Of course, they all need help, and the culture in which we're raising them isn't very helpful. It shows them too much sex and too little love, and it often doesn't even connect the two. It should surprise no one that self-control is hard for young people in a climate like this one.
In part, we produce the people we deserve. Nobody is a more effective teacher of values than a parent, and the kids will absorb what we value. If we line up at the television meat market of loveless-ness and violence, we can't very well protest when our children do the same. We must confront our own emptiness, whatever it is that causes us to tolerate the crassness of our culture, and begin to fill it in a good way. If we do not, we will continue to fill it in a bad one. And our children will see.
The good news is that it's never too late for a fresh start.
++++++++++
Today we remember: http://satucket.com/lectionary/Calendar.htm
Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna who sat at the feet of John, the beloved discple
Psalm 116:10-17 or 121; Revelation 2:8-11; Matthew 20:20-23
O God, the maker of heaven and earth, who gave to your venerable servant, the holy and gentle Polycarp, boldness to confess Jesus Christ as King and Saviour, and steadfastness to die for his faith: Give us grace, following his example, to share the cup of Christ and rise to eternal life; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
++++++++++
Today in the Anglican Cycle of Prayer we pray for the Diocese of Melbourne (Victoria, Australia)
http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acp/index.cfm
++++++++++
40 Ideas for Lent: A Lenten calendar http://ship-of-fools.com/lent/index.html
3. RECYCLE, FREECYCLE
Give away some of your possessions that you don't really need to a charity shop, or freecycle them.
http://www.freecycle.org/
Idea by: frin
Lent quote: "What can I give to the Lord for all he has given me?" – Dom Helder Camara
++++++++++
A Celtic lenten Calendar
http://www.oursanctuary.net/celticlent.html
The Image of God
3. Salvation is the restoration of goodness. "For the Celts salvation was the restoration of original goodness. What had been covered needed to be uncovered. What had been lost needed to be found. This finding and uncovering was the work of Jesus, who came to banish evil and restore creation's goodness. God's Spirit was fully present in Jesus, and the gracefulness of his life, makes our restoration possible. As Jesus healed the sick and forgave sinners, he restored the divine image in us. Once again we can all live as God's sons and daughters. Knowing that they were God's sons and daughters and were given the grace to live that way, the Celts understood their goal was to become more and more like Jesus in their own life and work.
For a Celtic Lent: "Think of yourself as being created in the image of God. How does it feel to know that you too are God's beloved child, that God's spirit is within you? What is covering up that image, choking that Spirit in your life. What needs to happen to uncover, to revive it, in you this Lent?
++++++++++
Carmelite.com: Reflections http://www.carmelite.com/spirituality/reflection.php
Those who are able to shut themselves up within this little heaven of the soul, wherein dwells the Maker of heaven and earth, may be sure that they will come without fail to drink of the water of the fountain.
St Teresa of Jesus
Way 20.5
++++++++++
Reading from the Desert Christians http://www.cin.org/dsrtftin.html
On Intercession
It is clear to all who dwell in Egypt that it is through the monks that the world is kept in being and that through them also human life is preserved and honoured by God... There is no town or village in Egypt that is not surrounded by hermitages as if by walls, and all the people depend on the prayers of the monks as if on God himself.
Palladius said, "One day when I was suffering from boredom I went to abba Macarius and said, "What shall I do? My thoughts afflict me, saying, you are not making any progress, go away from here." He said to me, "Tell them, for Christ's sake, I am guarding the walls."
++++++++++
Daily Meditation (Henri Nouwen) http://www.henrinouwen.org/home/free_eletters/
What Is Most Personal Is Most Universal
We like to make a distinction between our private and public lives and say, "Whatever I do in my private life is nobody else's business." But anyone trying to live a spiritual life will soon discover that the most personal is the most universal, the most hidden is the most public, and the most solitary is the most communal. What we live in the most intimate places of our beings is not just for us but for all people. That is why our inner lives are lives for others. That is why our solitude is a gift to our community, and that is why our most secret thoughts affect our common life.
Jesus says, "No one lights a lamp to put it under a tub; they put it on the lamp-stand where it shines for everyone in the house" (Matthew 5:14-15). The most inner light is a light for the world. Let's not have "double lives"; let us allow what we live in private to be known in public.
++++++++++
From the Principles of the Third Society of St. Francis:
Day Twenty-Three - The First Note (cont.)
Humility confesses that we have nothing that we have not received and admits
the fact of our insufficiency and our dependence upon God. It is the basis
of all Christian virtues. Saint Bernard of Clairvaux said. "No spiritual
house can stand for a moment except on the foundation of humility'. It is
the first condition of a joyful life within any community.
Lord Jesus, in your servant Francis you displayed the wonderful power of the
cross: help us always to follow you in the way of the cross, and give us
strength to resist all temptation, and to you, Lord, with the Father and the
Holy Spirit be all glory for ever. Amen
++++++++++
Upper Room Daily Reflection http://www.upperroom.org/reflections/
THE ONE who sets the course of this road, and whose entry into it defines the way forward, is the same who walks beside us, flesh of our flesh, God with us. Therefore, we can trust without reservation a journey whose future turns we cannot see.
- John S. Mogabgab
Weavings Journal
From “Editor’s Introduction” of Weavings Journal, November/December 2001. Copyright © 2001 by The Upper Room.
+++++++++++
Richard Rohr's Daily Reflection
http://cacradicalgrace.org/getconnected/getconnected_index.html
"Being Alive"
What we lack in an addictive society and an addictive family is a sense of being truly alive. So we look for pseudo-ways to feel alive. They never work, as you know, but for some reason they seem better than doing nothing. We use nicotine, caffeine, or just stick food in our mouths to have some kind of sensation. Some of us pour liquor down our throats, or over stimulate ourselves through gambling or destructive sexual activity. These behaviors are a testimony to a lack of spirituality. One who is spiritually alive has an excess of strength, an honest sense of interior creativity and interior imagination. They can say, "I have more than enough. There's enough of me that I can give some of it away." When we find the spirit of Jesus inside of us, more than we asked for, expected or earned, then we understand grace. And grace is the perennial threat to addiction.
from Breathing Under Water: Spirituality and the 12 Steps
++++++++++
From John E. Rotelle, O.S.A., Tradition Day by Day: Readings from Church Writers. Augustinian Press. Villanova, PA, 1994.
http://www.artsci.villanova.edu/dsteelman/tradition/sources.htm
Prayer, fasting, and mercy
Perseverance in faith, devotion, and virtue is assured by three things: prayer, fasting, and mercy. Prayer knocks at the door, fasting gains entrance, mercy receives. These three things, prayer, fasting, and mercy, are all one and they give life to each other.
Fasting is the soul of prayer, mercy is the lifeblood of fasting. Let no one try to separate them, for this is impossible. If we have only one of them, if we have not all three together, we have nothing. Whoever prays, then, must also fast; whoever fasts must also show mercy. If we want our own petitions heard we must hear the petitions of others. God's ear will be open to us if we do not turn a deaf ear to other people.
When we fast we should understand what it means to be really hungry. If we want God to take account of our hunger we must feel for the hunger of others. If we hope for mercy we must show mercy. If we look for kindness we must show kindness. If we want to receive we must give. Only a shameless person would ask for himself what he refused to give to others. In showing mercy this should be the rule: show it in the same way, with the same generosity, with the same promptness as you would wish it to be shown to you.
Peter Chrysologus, (400 - 450), bishop of Ravenna, was above all a pastor and preached many sermons to his people.
++++++++++
Daily Readings From "My Utmost for His Highest", Oswald Chambers
http://www.myutmost.org/
THE DETERMINATION TO SERVE
"The Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister." Matthew 20:28
Paul's idea of service is the same as Our Lord's: "I am among you as He that serveth;" "ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake." We have the idea that a man called to the ministry is called to be a different kind of being from other men. According to Jesus Christ, he is called to be the "door-mat" of other men; their spiritual leader, but never their superior. "I know how to be abased," says Paul. This is Paul's idea of service - "I will spend myself to the last ebb for you; you may give me praise or give me blame, it will make no difference." So long as there is a human being who does not know Jesus Christ, I am his debtor to serve him until he does. The mainspring of Paul's service is not love for men, but love for Jesus Christ. If we are devoted to the cause of humanity, we shall soon be crushed and broken-hearted, for we shall often meet with more ingratitude from men than we would from a dog; but if our motive is love to God, no ingratitude can hinder us from serving our fellow men.
Paul's realization of how Jesus Christ had dealt with him is the secret of his determination to serve others. "I was before a perjurer, a blasphemer, an injurious person" - no matter how men may treat me, they will never treat me with the spite and hatred with which I treated Jesus Christ. When we realize that Jesus Christ has served us to the end of our meanness, our selfishness, and sin, nothing that we meet with from others can exhaust our determination to serve men for His sake.
++++++++++
Today's reading from the Rule of St. Benedict http://www.osb.org/rb/
Chapter 18: In What Order the Psalms Are to Be Said
Vespers are to be sung with four Psalms every day.
These shall begin with Psalm 109 and go on to Psalm 147,
omitting those which are set apart for other Hours;
that is to say that
with the exception of Psalms 117 to 127 and Psalms 133 and 142,
all the rest of these are to be said at Vespers.
And since there are three Psalms too few,
let the longer ones of the above number be divided,
namely Psalms 138, 143 and 144.
But let Psalm 116 because of its brevity be joined to Psalm 115.
The order of the Vesper Psalms being thus settled,
let the rest of the Hour --
lesson, responsory, hymn, verse and canticle --
be carried out as we prescribed above.
At Compline the same Psalms are to be repeated every day,
namely Psalms 4, 90 and 133.
++++++++++
Church Fathers Lenten Reading Plan
Read Excerpts from the Church Fathers during Lent
http://www.churchyear.net/lentfathers.html
Epistle to Diognetus: 7-12
++++++++++
Simplicity: A Lenten Path
by Ann Hagmann
No Church season is closer to my heart than Lent. Lent is derived from the Anglo Saxon word lenctem, meaning spring. The word reflects the lengthening of days as we move from winter towards summer. Lent is the 40 days (excluding Sundays) between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday. Traditionally it has been a time of fasting commemorative of Jesus' 40 days of fasting in the wilderness following his baptism. Lent also recalls the 40 days that Elijah and Moses both spent with God, as well as the 40 years that Israel spent wandering in the desert. Lent prepares the way for the greatest observance of the year, the death and resurrection of Jesus. Following Easter comes Pentecost or the coming of the Holy Spirit, and Kingdom tide, the post-Pentecost season that stretches across the summer until the celebration of Christ the King around Thanksgiving time.
Lent is the perfect season of the year for solitude and self-reflection. As we spiritually journey into the desert, Lent is a time to reexamine our boundary lines and get realigned, set in right relationship with God and the world around us. This year I would like to suggest a Lenten path to travel as the days grow longer and Easter approaches. That path is one of simplicity.
Simplicity, contrary to the suggestion of its name, is not a particularly simple or easy way. Life is very complex and the walk of simplicity is complicated and demanding, but the rewards are a hundredfold. Simplicity is not about poverty, or a renunciation of possessions, or a set of dos or don'ts. Rather simplicity is a spiritual discipline that reorients one's life by deliberately organizing it for a purpose. It is spiritual because simplicity deals intimately with the beliefs and views that lend shape and order to our lives. Simplicity is a discipline because we have to work at it and practice it in order to apply it in our lives. Adhering our life to a focused center reduces the fracturedness of our lives. Our priorities are aligned to the focus of our lives, and the way we live out our simplicity in terms of our time, energy, and money becomes a reflection of our inner beliefs. Each of our paths will be unique to our situations.
On the most basic level, simplicity means being honest and sincere with ourselves about our faith and what really matters most to us. Simplicity requires at least two things: being willing to be vulnerable by embracing openness to God and to life, and believing it is God's path to abundant life for us.
If you think simplicity might be a path that you would benefit from traveling, you can pursue it in any number of different directions. For instance, your outward expression of simplicity can be material, relational, financial, or spiritual. By material I mean dealing with the physical stuff in your life. Is your home full of things that add beauty or function or that simply take up space and require energy and money to maintain them? Relational simplicity applies to our relationships with people and time. Do we truly listen? Do the people who matter most in our lives receive the time and energy from us that properly reflects their priority to us? How do we use our time? Do we expend significant amounts of time on unnecessary matters?
Financial simplicity encompasses the way we spend our money and use credit. Are our financial investments wise? Pleasing to Christ? Helpful to others? Spiritual simplicity involves our relationship with God and our understanding of life. It includes honesty and integrity.
Simplicity touches every area of our lives as we open more facets of ourselves to God and the central value that directs our lives. Pick the area that draws you the most and begin your journey there, trusting in God's grace and guidance. Often times it is helpful to use a resource to focus our devotional efforts. My book Climbing the Sycamore Tree: A Study in Choice and Simplicity is a useful resource for the faith focus of simplicity, especially as it affects our economic choices. There are also many other good books to help guide you.
May the 40 days of Lent enlighten you as you allow Christ's light to shine more brightly in your lives and lead you into a path of simplicity and abundant life.
Ann Hagmann is a chaplain for Hospice Austin (Texas) and the founder of Whispering Hope Ministries for Healing and Wholeness. She worked for more than 14 years as a manager for AT&T and Southwestern Bell before ordination. Hagmann served 10 years as a United Methodist Church pastor. She holds a B.A. in psychology from the University of Arkansas and a D.Min. from Perkins School of Theology of Southern Methodist University. This article first appeared in Alive Now online, March/April, 2002.
If you would like these meditations to come directly to your in box, please click here:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/KnitternunMeditation/
Collect
Almighty and everlasting God, you hate nothing you have made and forgive the sins of all who are penitent: Create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we, worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness, may obtain of you, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
++++++++++
Today's Scripture http://www.satucket.com/lectionary/
Psalm 95* & 31; Psalm 35; Deut. 7:12-16; Titus 2:1-15; John 1:35-42
++++++++++
From Forward Day by Day: http://www.forwardmovement.org/todaysreading.cfm
Titus 2:1-15. Likewise, urge the younger men to be self-controlled.
Well, boys will be boys, people always say--as if it were a given that young men won't be able to control themselves. But they can. Lots of them do. Boys are as capable as anyone else of making wise choices--maybe they don't always do it, but neither do girls. That self-control is difficult doesn't mean it's impossible.
Of course, they all need help, and the culture in which we're raising them isn't very helpful. It shows them too much sex and too little love, and it often doesn't even connect the two. It should surprise no one that self-control is hard for young people in a climate like this one.
In part, we produce the people we deserve. Nobody is a more effective teacher of values than a parent, and the kids will absorb what we value. If we line up at the television meat market of loveless-ness and violence, we can't very well protest when our children do the same. We must confront our own emptiness, whatever it is that causes us to tolerate the crassness of our culture, and begin to fill it in a good way. If we do not, we will continue to fill it in a bad one. And our children will see.
The good news is that it's never too late for a fresh start.
++++++++++
Today we remember: http://satucket.com/lectionary/Calendar.htm
Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna who sat at the feet of John, the beloved discple
Psalm 116:10-17 or 121; Revelation 2:8-11; Matthew 20:20-23
O God, the maker of heaven and earth, who gave to your venerable servant, the holy and gentle Polycarp, boldness to confess Jesus Christ as King and Saviour, and steadfastness to die for his faith: Give us grace, following his example, to share the cup of Christ and rise to eternal life; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
++++++++++
Today in the Anglican Cycle of Prayer we pray for the Diocese of Melbourne (Victoria, Australia)
http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acp/index.cfm
++++++++++
40 Ideas for Lent: A Lenten calendar http://ship-of-fools.com/lent/index.html
3. RECYCLE, FREECYCLE
Give away some of your possessions that you don't really need to a charity shop, or freecycle them.
http://www.freecycle.org/
Idea by: frin
Lent quote: "What can I give to the Lord for all he has given me?" – Dom Helder Camara
++++++++++
A Celtic lenten Calendar
http://www.oursanctuary.net/celticlent.html
The Image of God
3. Salvation is the restoration of goodness. "For the Celts salvation was the restoration of original goodness. What had been covered needed to be uncovered. What had been lost needed to be found. This finding and uncovering was the work of Jesus, who came to banish evil and restore creation's goodness. God's Spirit was fully present in Jesus, and the gracefulness of his life, makes our restoration possible. As Jesus healed the sick and forgave sinners, he restored the divine image in us. Once again we can all live as God's sons and daughters. Knowing that they were God's sons and daughters and were given the grace to live that way, the Celts understood their goal was to become more and more like Jesus in their own life and work.
For a Celtic Lent: "Think of yourself as being created in the image of God. How does it feel to know that you too are God's beloved child, that God's spirit is within you? What is covering up that image, choking that Spirit in your life. What needs to happen to uncover, to revive it, in you this Lent?
++++++++++
Carmelite.com: Reflections http://www.carmelite.com/spirituality/reflection.php
Those who are able to shut themselves up within this little heaven of the soul, wherein dwells the Maker of heaven and earth, may be sure that they will come without fail to drink of the water of the fountain.
St Teresa of Jesus
Way 20.5
++++++++++
Reading from the Desert Christians http://www.cin.org/dsrtftin.html
On Intercession
It is clear to all who dwell in Egypt that it is through the monks that the world is kept in being and that through them also human life is preserved and honoured by God... There is no town or village in Egypt that is not surrounded by hermitages as if by walls, and all the people depend on the prayers of the monks as if on God himself.
Palladius said, "One day when I was suffering from boredom I went to abba Macarius and said, "What shall I do? My thoughts afflict me, saying, you are not making any progress, go away from here." He said to me, "Tell them, for Christ's sake, I am guarding the walls."
++++++++++
Daily Meditation (Henri Nouwen) http://www.henrinouwen.org/home/free_eletters/
What Is Most Personal Is Most Universal
We like to make a distinction between our private and public lives and say, "Whatever I do in my private life is nobody else's business." But anyone trying to live a spiritual life will soon discover that the most personal is the most universal, the most hidden is the most public, and the most solitary is the most communal. What we live in the most intimate places of our beings is not just for us but for all people. That is why our inner lives are lives for others. That is why our solitude is a gift to our community, and that is why our most secret thoughts affect our common life.
Jesus says, "No one lights a lamp to put it under a tub; they put it on the lamp-stand where it shines for everyone in the house" (Matthew 5:14-15). The most inner light is a light for the world. Let's not have "double lives"; let us allow what we live in private to be known in public.
++++++++++
From the Principles of the Third Society of St. Francis:
Day Twenty-Three - The First Note (cont.)
Humility confesses that we have nothing that we have not received and admits
the fact of our insufficiency and our dependence upon God. It is the basis
of all Christian virtues. Saint Bernard of Clairvaux said. "No spiritual
house can stand for a moment except on the foundation of humility'. It is
the first condition of a joyful life within any community.
Lord Jesus, in your servant Francis you displayed the wonderful power of the
cross: help us always to follow you in the way of the cross, and give us
strength to resist all temptation, and to you, Lord, with the Father and the
Holy Spirit be all glory for ever. Amen
++++++++++
Upper Room Daily Reflection http://www.upperroom.org/reflections/
THE ONE who sets the course of this road, and whose entry into it defines the way forward, is the same who walks beside us, flesh of our flesh, God with us. Therefore, we can trust without reservation a journey whose future turns we cannot see.
- John S. Mogabgab
Weavings Journal
From “Editor’s Introduction” of Weavings Journal, November/December 2001. Copyright © 2001 by The Upper Room.
+++++++++++
Richard Rohr's Daily Reflection
http://cacradicalgrace.org/getconnected/getconnected_index.html
"Being Alive"
What we lack in an addictive society and an addictive family is a sense of being truly alive. So we look for pseudo-ways to feel alive. They never work, as you know, but for some reason they seem better than doing nothing. We use nicotine, caffeine, or just stick food in our mouths to have some kind of sensation. Some of us pour liquor down our throats, or over stimulate ourselves through gambling or destructive sexual activity. These behaviors are a testimony to a lack of spirituality. One who is spiritually alive has an excess of strength, an honest sense of interior creativity and interior imagination. They can say, "I have more than enough. There's enough of me that I can give some of it away." When we find the spirit of Jesus inside of us, more than we asked for, expected or earned, then we understand grace. And grace is the perennial threat to addiction.
from Breathing Under Water: Spirituality and the 12 Steps
++++++++++
From John E. Rotelle, O.S.A., Tradition Day by Day: Readings from Church Writers. Augustinian Press. Villanova, PA, 1994.
http://www.artsci.villanova.edu/dsteelman/tradition/sources.htm
Prayer, fasting, and mercy
Perseverance in faith, devotion, and virtue is assured by three things: prayer, fasting, and mercy. Prayer knocks at the door, fasting gains entrance, mercy receives. These three things, prayer, fasting, and mercy, are all one and they give life to each other.
Fasting is the soul of prayer, mercy is the lifeblood of fasting. Let no one try to separate them, for this is impossible. If we have only one of them, if we have not all three together, we have nothing. Whoever prays, then, must also fast; whoever fasts must also show mercy. If we want our own petitions heard we must hear the petitions of others. God's ear will be open to us if we do not turn a deaf ear to other people.
When we fast we should understand what it means to be really hungry. If we want God to take account of our hunger we must feel for the hunger of others. If we hope for mercy we must show mercy. If we look for kindness we must show kindness. If we want to receive we must give. Only a shameless person would ask for himself what he refused to give to others. In showing mercy this should be the rule: show it in the same way, with the same generosity, with the same promptness as you would wish it to be shown to you.
Peter Chrysologus, (400 - 450), bishop of Ravenna, was above all a pastor and preached many sermons to his people.
++++++++++
Daily Readings From "My Utmost for His Highest", Oswald Chambers
http://www.myutmost.org/
THE DETERMINATION TO SERVE
"The Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister." Matthew 20:28
Paul's idea of service is the same as Our Lord's: "I am among you as He that serveth;" "ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake." We have the idea that a man called to the ministry is called to be a different kind of being from other men. According to Jesus Christ, he is called to be the "door-mat" of other men; their spiritual leader, but never their superior. "I know how to be abased," says Paul. This is Paul's idea of service - "I will spend myself to the last ebb for you; you may give me praise or give me blame, it will make no difference." So long as there is a human being who does not know Jesus Christ, I am his debtor to serve him until he does. The mainspring of Paul's service is not love for men, but love for Jesus Christ. If we are devoted to the cause of humanity, we shall soon be crushed and broken-hearted, for we shall often meet with more ingratitude from men than we would from a dog; but if our motive is love to God, no ingratitude can hinder us from serving our fellow men.
Paul's realization of how Jesus Christ had dealt with him is the secret of his determination to serve others. "I was before a perjurer, a blasphemer, an injurious person" - no matter how men may treat me, they will never treat me with the spite and hatred with which I treated Jesus Christ. When we realize that Jesus Christ has served us to the end of our meanness, our selfishness, and sin, nothing that we meet with from others can exhaust our determination to serve men for His sake.
++++++++++
Today's reading from the Rule of St. Benedict http://www.osb.org/rb/
Chapter 18: In What Order the Psalms Are to Be Said
Vespers are to be sung with four Psalms every day.
These shall begin with Psalm 109 and go on to Psalm 147,
omitting those which are set apart for other Hours;
that is to say that
with the exception of Psalms 117 to 127 and Psalms 133 and 142,
all the rest of these are to be said at Vespers.
And since there are three Psalms too few,
let the longer ones of the above number be divided,
namely Psalms 138, 143 and 144.
But let Psalm 116 because of its brevity be joined to Psalm 115.
The order of the Vesper Psalms being thus settled,
let the rest of the Hour --
lesson, responsory, hymn, verse and canticle --
be carried out as we prescribed above.
At Compline the same Psalms are to be repeated every day,
namely Psalms 4, 90 and 133.
++++++++++
Church Fathers Lenten Reading Plan
Read Excerpts from the Church Fathers during Lent
http://www.churchyear.net/lentfathers.html
Epistle to Diognetus: 7-12
++++++++++
Simplicity: A Lenten Path
by Ann Hagmann
No Church season is closer to my heart than Lent. Lent is derived from the Anglo Saxon word lenctem, meaning spring. The word reflects the lengthening of days as we move from winter towards summer. Lent is the 40 days (excluding Sundays) between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday. Traditionally it has been a time of fasting commemorative of Jesus' 40 days of fasting in the wilderness following his baptism. Lent also recalls the 40 days that Elijah and Moses both spent with God, as well as the 40 years that Israel spent wandering in the desert. Lent prepares the way for the greatest observance of the year, the death and resurrection of Jesus. Following Easter comes Pentecost or the coming of the Holy Spirit, and Kingdom tide, the post-Pentecost season that stretches across the summer until the celebration of Christ the King around Thanksgiving time.
Lent is the perfect season of the year for solitude and self-reflection. As we spiritually journey into the desert, Lent is a time to reexamine our boundary lines and get realigned, set in right relationship with God and the world around us. This year I would like to suggest a Lenten path to travel as the days grow longer and Easter approaches. That path is one of simplicity.
Simplicity, contrary to the suggestion of its name, is not a particularly simple or easy way. Life is very complex and the walk of simplicity is complicated and demanding, but the rewards are a hundredfold. Simplicity is not about poverty, or a renunciation of possessions, or a set of dos or don'ts. Rather simplicity is a spiritual discipline that reorients one's life by deliberately organizing it for a purpose. It is spiritual because simplicity deals intimately with the beliefs and views that lend shape and order to our lives. Simplicity is a discipline because we have to work at it and practice it in order to apply it in our lives. Adhering our life to a focused center reduces the fracturedness of our lives. Our priorities are aligned to the focus of our lives, and the way we live out our simplicity in terms of our time, energy, and money becomes a reflection of our inner beliefs. Each of our paths will be unique to our situations.
On the most basic level, simplicity means being honest and sincere with ourselves about our faith and what really matters most to us. Simplicity requires at least two things: being willing to be vulnerable by embracing openness to God and to life, and believing it is God's path to abundant life for us.
If you think simplicity might be a path that you would benefit from traveling, you can pursue it in any number of different directions. For instance, your outward expression of simplicity can be material, relational, financial, or spiritual. By material I mean dealing with the physical stuff in your life. Is your home full of things that add beauty or function or that simply take up space and require energy and money to maintain them? Relational simplicity applies to our relationships with people and time. Do we truly listen? Do the people who matter most in our lives receive the time and energy from us that properly reflects their priority to us? How do we use our time? Do we expend significant amounts of time on unnecessary matters?
Financial simplicity encompasses the way we spend our money and use credit. Are our financial investments wise? Pleasing to Christ? Helpful to others? Spiritual simplicity involves our relationship with God and our understanding of life. It includes honesty and integrity.
Simplicity touches every area of our lives as we open more facets of ourselves to God and the central value that directs our lives. Pick the area that draws you the most and begin your journey there, trusting in God's grace and guidance. Often times it is helpful to use a resource to focus our devotional efforts. My book Climbing the Sycamore Tree: A Study in Choice and Simplicity is a useful resource for the faith focus of simplicity, especially as it affects our economic choices. There are also many other good books to help guide you.
May the 40 days of Lent enlighten you as you allow Christ's light to shine more brightly in your lives and lead you into a path of simplicity and abundant life.
Ann Hagmann is a chaplain for Hospice Austin (Texas) and the founder of Whispering Hope Ministries for Healing and Wholeness. She worked for more than 14 years as a manager for AT&T and Southwestern Bell before ordination. Hagmann served 10 years as a United Methodist Church pastor. She holds a B.A. in psychology from the University of Arkansas and a D.Min. from Perkins School of Theology of Southern Methodist University. This article first appeared in Alive Now online, March/April, 2002.
posted by Gloriamarie Amalfitano @ 9:31 AM
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