March 23/Fifth Friday of Lent I love you, O LORD, my strength, O LORD, my rock, my fortress, my deliverer, My God, my rock of refuge, my shield, the horn of my salvation, my stronghold! ~ Ps 18.2-3 Rock, fortress, and stronghold. Such rugged metaphors befit a psalm that is said to be an expression of gratitude to God after…
March 22/Fifth Thursday of Lent He remembers forever his covenant which he made binding for a thousand generations – Which he entered into with Abraham and by his oath to Isaac. ~ Ps 105.8-9 What does it mean to make a covenant? It means that we enter into a relationship based on mutual obligations and assurances. Such accords, compacts, contracts,…
March 21/Fifth Wednesday of Lent “Praiseworthy and exalted above all forever.” ~ Daniel 3.53 Sometimes prayer flows easily from our hearts to God’s ears; other times, the heart is stilled by anxiety or doubt. In these moments of incapacity, we might consider reaching for the Bible, to let God pray through us and with us in the words of sacred…
March 20/Fifth Tuesday of Lent O LORD, hear my prayer, and let my cry come to you. Hide not your face from me in the day of my distress. ~ Ps 102.2-3 We’re not supposed to doubt that God hears us; we’re not supposed to question his whereabouts; we’re not supposed to cry, “How dare you?” It makes us uneasy…
March 19/Fifth Monday of Lent Solemnity of St. Joseph The promises of the LORD I will sing forever; through all generations my mouth shall proclaim your faithfulness. ~ Ps 89.2 In the long parade of human history, one generation’s unfinished business is inevitably carried over to the next. In the case of climate change or the national debt, this can…
March 17/Fourth Saturday of Lent O searcher of heart and soul, O just God. ~ Ps 7.9 Consider a jeweler examining a diamond. She holds the magnification loupe up to her eye in one hand, tilting and turning the stone around in the other. Through the other end of the loupe, her scrutinizing eye looks enormous and even scary. Now…
March 16/Fourth Friday of Lent The LORD confronts the evildoers, to destroy remembrance of them from the earth. The LORD is close to the brokenhearted; and those who are crushed in spirit he saves. ~ Ps 34.17, 19 Does God really confront the evildoers? Or to take the more concrete Hebrew expression from today’s psalm, is “the face of the LORD…
March 15/Fourth Thursday of Lent Our fathers made a calf in Horeb and adored a molten image; They forgot the God who had saved them, who had done great deeds in Egypt. ~ Ps 106.19, 21 Today, let us walk for a moment in the sandals of the infamous children of Israel who fashioned a golden calf. Daunted by the…
March 14/Fourth Wednesday of Lent The LORD is good to all and compassionate toward all his works. The LORD is near to all who call upon him, to all who call upon him in truth. ~ Ps 145.9, 18 Stephen Sondheim’s song “Finishing the Hat,” from the 1984 musical Sunday in the Park with George, is a paean to the…
March 13/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 a scarce commodity in our lives. Whether it comes in the form of…