April 10/Good Friday For all my foes I am an object of reproach, a laughingstock to my neighbors, and a dread to my friends; they who see me abroad flee from me.I am forgotten like the unremembered dead; I am like a dish that is broken. ~ Ps 31.12-13 When I was a little girl I had a treasured doll…
Song 38: What to Give the God Who Has Everything
April 9/Holy Thursday How shall I make a return to the LORD for all the good he has done for me? ~ Ps 116.12 With the advent of apps like Venmo, we can now repay small debts with a swipe of the screen. But squaring up with God is not quite so easy — in fact, it can’t be done. …
Special Announcement
Dear Friends, Many of you have commented that the daily Lenten reflections I have been offering have been especially helpful during this year’s season of uncertainty. As you know, I have traditionally limited these reflections to the confines of Advent and Lent. While I am not able to continue indefinitely, I am going to do something new this year. I…
Song 37: Darkness Visible
April 8/Wednesday of Holy Week Insult has broken my heart, and I am weak, I looked for sympathy, but there was none; for consolers, not one could I find. I will praise the name of God in song, and I will glorify him with thanksgiving. ~ Ps 69.21, 31 Haven’t we all been there — isolated, broken-hearted, and alone? “I looked…
Song 36: Our Help in Ages Past
April 7/Tuesday of Holy Week For you are my hope, O LORD; my trust, O God, from my youth.On you I depend from birth; from my mother’s womb you are my strength. ~ Ps 71.5-6 Not long ago, a childhood friend sent me a photograph of her 10th birthday party, a modest affair at which my sisters and I gave…
Song 35: Dominus Illuminatio Mea
April 6/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 feels darker than ever, this Holy Week. Sidelined by COVID-19 restrictions, we were unable to share the joyous and hopeful community celebration of Palm Sunday. The borrowed donkey,…
Song 34: Banished for Life
April 4/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 All of us, these days, suffer from the “condition we call exile,” to borrow the title of an essay by the late Russian…
Song 33: A Bulwark Never Failing
April 3/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 a…
Song 32: Follow the Leader
April 2/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 Today let us slip our feet into the worn sandals of Abram, seventy-five years old and a long-time resident of Haran (probably in present-day Turkey). One…
Song 31: We Got Rhythm
April 1/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, particularly when we are buried under extra layers of stress, the heart is silenced by anxiety or doubt. In these moments of incapacity, we might consider reaching for the Bible, to let God pray…