The Seven Last Words, Day 5: Today, we see Jesus experiencing a common and most human need. He is thirsty.
“I thirst.” John 19:28-29
The Seven Last Words: I Thirst
Prayer
The Seven Last Words: Why have you forsaken me?
The Seven Last Words, Day 4: Today, we hear Jesus cry out from the cross in pain and anguish and bewilderment.
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Mark 15:33-34
Treasure in Jars of Clay: New Family Lenten Devotional
My wife, Sue, and I are pleased to announce the “birth” of a new co-creation. ‘Treasure in Jars of Clay’ is an ecumenical, 40-day family walk with Jesus through the holy season of Lent. At the center of this journey is a large jar (or maybe a bowl) around which your family can gather each day over the six weeks of lent for prayerful reflection and the chance to share with each other. Included in each time of prayer is one or two minutes of silence guided by this question: What is Jesus saying to you today?
The jar is a container into which you will place visible signs of your prayers, concerns, requests, and offerings. Anything relatively small can go into the jar, including written prayers to God, requests for forgiveness, coins (as an offering to be given away at the end of Lent), even a leaf or a small rock you might find while on a walk.
At the end of Lent, the jar can be placed somewhere in your home as a permanent reminder of your family’s commitment to a life of prayer and faith. Or, as another option, the contents of the jar can be burned as a ritual sign of your prayers rising like incense to God. Exactly what you do with your jar and its contents is up to you!
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Today’s Word: Dazzled
“In my deepest wound I found you, Lord, and it dazzled me.” St. Augustine
I write a lot, I realize, about this idea of “finding God.” A good deal of the time, this discovery comes down to seeing the divine in the beauty of the world around us, in the kindnesses of strangers and friends, in the sacred burning bush moments of everyday life. And, to be honest, that’s all pretty easy stuff, as long as we’re willing to sit still, be quiet for a while, and recall these moments of God that happen every day, like clockwork, whether or not we deign to pay attention. But good for us for paying attention. Keep at it, for it’s the beginning of all prayer.
But then along comes St. Augustine, reminding us that he found God not in some eye-widening sunset, not in some breathtaking act of charity, not in some simple moment of prayer, kneeling in his cell or chapel, although certainly he must have found God in those places and moments, just like the rest of us. He found God — and was “dazzled” by God — in his deepest wound.
Sacrament and Service Go Hand in Hand
My next “Faith Perspectives” column for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch appeared online yesterday and should appear in the paper on Saturday morning. It’s a reflection on the recent Holy Thursday liturgy and the link between sacrament and service, between sharing in the Eucharist and washing the feet of those around us. You can read my column below or online here: http://bit.ly/sacramentservice
Just a few weeks ago at the evening Holy Thursday “Mass of the Last Supper” at my parish, I sat and kneeled and prayed, contemplating the creation of the sacrament of the Eucharist by Jesus in that upper room so long ago. This simple sacred meal, in which Catholics believe bread becomes Christ’s body and wine becomes his blood, is celebrated daily by Catholics around the world as the true presence of Christ in our midst. It is our center, our gathering place, our source and sustenance.
But the mass and the scripture readings for that evening did not end with the disciples huddled in the upper room, prayerfully professing their faith in this new-found communal meal. For before they had much time to even ponder the meaning this new sign of the divine in the world, Jesus gives them something else to consider.