March 11/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 30.6 Sometimes joy, peace, contentment just vanish from our lives. Work isn’t going well, or there is a family crisis, or we’re experiencing one of those lonely disconnects that sometimes happens in…
Author: Betsy Cahill
Song 22: Going Through the Motions
March 9/Third Saturday of Lent For you are not pleased with sacrifices; should I offer a burnt offering, you would not accept it.My sacrifice, O God, is a contrite spirit; a heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.~ Ps 51.18-19 I often end my morning prayer by praying that I will meet the day’s challenges in ways…
Song 21: Hearing Aid
March 8/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…
Song 20: Testing, Testing
March 7/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 95.8-9 It is easy to trust in God when things are going smoothly, isn’t it? When things fall our way at work, when our…
Song 19: Get Up and Bar the Door
March 6/Third Wednesday of Lent For he has strengthened the bars of your gates. ~ Ps 147.13 We have “Dry January,” to encourage people to be mindful of the boundaries they set around alcohol; now, courtesy of an enterprising New York Times reporter, we have “Flip Phone February,” intended to inspire people to reclaim their personal and professional lives by…
Song 18: Security System
March 5/Third Tuesday of Lent Remember that your compassion, O LORD, and your kindness are from of old.In your kindness remember me, because of your goodness, O Lord. ~ Ps 25.6-7 One of the sources of closeness within families or among friends is the sheer predictability of behavior: the dad who invariably insists on leaving early for the airport, the…
Song 17: The Seekers
March 4/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: There’s a Wideness
March 2/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 “Two wrongs don’t make a right!” I can still hear the taunting tones in which one…
Song 15: Beneath the Surface
March 1/Second Friday of Lent When the LORD called down a famine on the land and ruined the crop that sustained them, He sent a man before them, Joseph, sold as a slave. ~ Ps 105.16-17 The book assigned for my high school Bible History course was entitled The Book of the Acts of God (or as we irreverently called it,…
Song 14: Water, Water, Everywhere
February 29/Second Thursday of Lent [Blessed are those] who delight in the law of the Lord, and on his law they meditate day and night. They are like trees planted near running water,That yield their fruit in due season, and their leaves do not wither. ~ Ps 1.2-3 My husband has remarked more than once that the surest way to…