February 24/First Saturday of Lent Happy are those who keep his decrees, who seek him with their whole heart. ~ Ps 119.2 In an age where phrases like “friends with benefits” and “hooking up” describe a culture in which relationships are seen as disposable — transactions rather than genuine engagements — the notion of a whole-hearted commitment to another person…
February 23/First Friday of Lent Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD; LORD, hear my voice! ~ Ps 130.1-2 The only time I have truly been in peril on the sea was years ago when, on a solo outing in the family Sunfish off the beach, I capsized. As the sail filled with water and the waves…
February 22/First Thursday of Lent The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. ~ Ps 23.1 The opening verse of Psalm 23 is simplicity itself, especially in its original Hebrew, which conveys ineffable comfort in four brief words: Adonai ro’i / lo echsar (to hear Leonard Bernstein’s haunting musical interpretation of this verse in his “Chichester Psalms,” click here:…
February 21/First Wednesday of Lent A clean heart create for me, O God, and a steadfast spirit renew within me. ~ Ps 51.10 I first met this verse — which has served as a touchstone for me throughout my life — as a young Episcopalian choir girl. Perhaps we were rehearsing Charles Wesley’s “O for a heart to praise my…
February 19/First Monday of Lent Let the words of my mouth and the thought of my heart find favor before you, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer. ~ Ps 19.15 Addressing the Lord What does it mean for “the words of my mouth and the thought of my heart” to “find favor” before God? To put it another way, what…
February 17/Saturday after Ash Wednesday Incline your ear, O LORD, and answer me, for I am poor and needy. Preserve my life, for I am devoted to you; be gracious to me, O LORD, for to you do I cry all day long. ~ Ps. 86.1-3 When my children were in elementary school, one of the principal goals that undergirded…
February 20/First Tuesday of Lent The eyes of the LORD are on the righteous, and his ears to their cry for help. When the righteous cry out, the LORD hears, and from all their troubles he rescues them. Near is the LORD to the brokenhearted, and the crushed in spirit he saves. ~ Ps 34.15, 17, 18 Body Language We…
February 16/Friday after Ash Wednesday For I acknowledge my offense, and my sin is before me always: “Against you only have I sinned, and done what is evil in your sight.” ~ Ps 51.5-6 One of my favorite New Yorker cartoons depicts a man and a woman facing each other. Her arms are folded, forbiddingly, across her chest. The man is…
February 15/Thursday after Ash Wednesday Happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or take the path that sinners tread, or sit in the seat of scoffers; but their delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law they meditate day and night. ~ Ps 1.1-2 In the past several years, a number of surveys…
February 14/Ash Wednesday Have mercy on me, O God, in your goodness; in the greatness of your compassion, wipe out my offenses. ~ Ps 51.3 On this Ash Wednesday, which by a whim of the calendar is also Valentine’s Day, we are called to turn from the sweet delights of the world to the dust and ashes of the penitential season. …