March 26/Monday of Holy Week The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom should I fear? The LORD is my life’s refuge; of whom should I be afraid? ~ Ps 27.1 It is Monday morning. The hullabaloo of Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem on what we know as Palm Sunday is over. The donkey has been returned to its…
March 24/Fifth Saturday of Lent The LORD shall ransom Jacob, he shall redeem him from the hand of his conqueror. Shouting, they shall mount the heights of Zion, they shall come streaming to the LORD’s blessings. ~ Jer 31.11-12 The “condition we call exile,” to borrow the title of an essay by the late Russian poet Joseph Brodsky, is nothing…
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…