April 2/Fourth Wednesday of Lent The Lord is good to all, and his compassion is over all that he has made. ~ Ps 145.8-9 I’ve probably glossed over this simple verse dozens of times without really stopping to think about its implications. “The Lord is good to all, and his compassion is over all that he has made.” …
Author: Betsy Cahill
Song 24: Peace Like a River
April 1/Fourth Tuesday of Lent There is a river whose streams gladden the city of God, the holy dwelling of the Most High.God is in its midst, it shall not be disturbed; God will help it at the break of dawn. ~ Ps 46.5-6 Peace is hard to come by these days. Whether it comes in the form of environmental…
Song 23: Morning Has Broken
March 31/Fourth Monday of Lent For his anger lasts but a moment; a lifetime, his good will.At nightfall, weeping enters in, but with the dawn, rejoicing. ~ Ps 30.5 For most of us, worries cluster most densely at night, descending like locusts in the darkness. Along with our thoughts, with only the void of sleep in front of us and…
Song 22: No Stain Unturned
March 29/Third Saturday of Lent Thoroughly wash me from my guilt and of my sin cleanse me. ~ Ps 51.4 Confession time: I love doing laundry. The sorting, the soaking, the washing and drying and folding: for me, these actions are meditative, reassuring, even relaxing (I might not have said this some years ago when I was in the throes…
Song 21: Hearing Aid
March 28/Third Friday of Lent “If only my people would hear me, and Israel walk in my ways, I would feed them with the best of wheat,and with honey from the rock I would fill them.” ~ Ps 81.14, 17 It is a longstanding joke in my family that my father began to lose his hearing around the time that…
Song 20: Testing, Trusting
March 27/Third Thursday of Lent Harden not your hearts as at Meribah, as in the day of Massah in the desert,Where your fathers tempted me; they tested me though they had seen my works. ~ Ps 95.9 How quick we are to turn our backs on God in the face of challenges or setbacks. Like the Israelites wandering amid the…
Song 19: Get Up and Bar the Door
March 26/Third Wednesday of Lent For he strengthens the bars of your gates, he blesses your children within you. ~ Ps 147.13 At the start of the new year we observed “Dry January,” intended to encourage us to be mindful of our alcohol consumption; the next month, as suggested by an enterprising New York Times reporter, we celebrated “Flip Phone February,”…
Song 18: Sit. Stay. Heed.
March 25/Third Tuesday of LentSolemnity of the Annunciation Sacrifice and offering you do not delight in, but you have dug out my ears.To do your will, O God, I delight in; your teaching is within my belly [lit. transl]. ~ Ps 40.7, 9 Obedience — how it goes against the human grain. We no sooner construct a set of rules…
Song 17: The Seekers
March 24/Third Monday of Lent As the hind longs for the running waters, so my soul longs for you, O God.Athirst is my soul for God, the living God. When shall I go and behold the face of God? ~ Ps 42.2-3 The rise of the so-called “Nones,” who do not identify with any religious institution, has been widely reported…
Song 16: The Wideness in God’s Mercy
March 22/Second Saturday of Lent For as the heavens are high above the earth,so surpassing is his kindness toward those who fear him.As far as the east is from the west, so far has he put our transgressions from us. ~ Ps 103.11-12 Forgiveness is out of fashion, seen in many quarters as a sign of weakness. Witness the…