Friday after Ash Wednesday

Psalm 31 • Deuteronomy 7:12-16 • Titus 2:1-15 • John 1:35-42

Parts of Psalm 31 have been important to me during much of my life. The first five verses are very familiar because they appear in the service of Compline which I love and often say at the end of the day. I read Compline to my late husband during his long hospital stay or in visits to the emergency room. Verse 5: “Into your hands I commend my spirit, for you have redeemed me, O LORD, O God of truth” comes into my head in times of trouble, when I am conscious of trusting God and turning my life over to my Creator.

Another line from Psalm 31 has an even longer history in my life, and in my almost-subconscious: “My times are in your hand.” This line was first called to my attention by a dear friend when telling me about her mother back in New England who had been diagnosed with cancer. My friend reported that her mother was surprisingly calm and that she claimed this verse of Psalm 31 as her own for guidance. I was a young mother then, preoccupied with my family and my daily life, and I remember marveling at my friend’s mother’s calm assurance, and storing it away in my memory to puzzle over as a treasure. Many years have passed since I first became acquainted with this prayer. These years have brought me several health crises, of family members and my own, and I have come to cherish and adopt the affirmation “My times are in your hand.”

Another image from Psalm 31 catches my imagination in hard times. When I feel closed in with troubles, and see few options for relief, I remember

Blessed be the LORD! *
For he has shown me the wonders of his love in a besieged city.

Somehow thinking of myself in a “besieged city” gives me a new perspective and I remember once again “the wonders of God’s love.”

Jane Rotch

Thursday after Ash Wednesday

Psalm 37:1-18 • Deuteronomy 7:6-11 • Titus 1:1-16 • John 1:29-34

The Holy Trinity has long baffled many of us, including many scholars. But it seems to me that it is all about relationships that teach us the nature of God in his infinite manifestations. God three-in-one: creator-father, son and holy spirit. We recognize God in the beauty of this earth, and in the magnificent complexity of all his creations. We know him as Abba, father, an all-loving and all-knowing one. Through the gift of his beloved son he grants us the gift of endless forgiveness and eternal life. We see his spirit manifest through the thousands of small miracles all around us and in the multiple acts of kindness and sacrifice by those who live in his spirit. He is father, he is son, he is spirit. In his love for the son he teaches us of his love for us. We experience him through the Holy Spirit. In Luke’s account of Jesus’ baptism, God says, “You are my son, the Beloved, in you I am well pleased.” (Luke 3:21)

The psalmist asks us to trust, take delight, commit and be still with God. What a simple prescription! How little it seems that God asks of us when his gifts are so great. We are his beloved after all and wouldn’t we want to offer him everything he desires. Yet how difficult we find it. When you think about it, isn’t this the same way we would like to be in our human relationships: to trust, take delight, commit and be still with them. Be still and listen. If this is how it can be in human relationships, how much more delightful, trusting and committed our relationship with God should be, he who calls us beloved through his son.

Today, St. Valentine’s day, we send cards and flowers to our loved ones. Even though this day has been greatly commercialized, it does serve as a reminder to be grateful for all those we love. Perhaps it can sharpen our awareness that love is what it is all about. God is love. We are all his creation and so the greatest gift we can give to another is to love one another as he loves us.

A blessed St. Valentine’s Day to you.

— Alice Meador

Ash Wednesday

Psalm 95 • Jonah 3:1–4:11 • Hebrews 12:1-14 • Luke 18: 9-14

Teach Me to Pray

He called it “Graced Land,”
to which he never felt arrived,
unlike people do in essays
on how to pray.
The goal reportedly attained by others,
hadn’t worked for him.
Specifically,
the way that he and prayer misfired
when he tried staying focused,
eyes closed and such;
sometimes repeating mantras.
So he sought advice,
inquiring of me,
“How do you stay on track?
What has helped you learn to pray?”
Asking me, myself a neophyte!
But his earnest question
deserved an honest answer.
“When stopped at traffic lights,” I said.
Good use of time,
till signals switched to green.
Like sincere thoughts for healing
a passel of unseen patients
in the hospital cater-corner,
or the homeless guys
right there on the sidewalk
looking like the world is soon to end.
Or that he himself could level with the boss
when he got to work today.
Nearly unlimited need out there,
in the everyday;
every bit as timely
as ‘fast-breaking news’
he’d heard several times the hour before.

Doug Vest

Welcome to St. Paul's Memorial Church Lenten reflections

Dear friends,

Welcome to this year's Lenten reflections from St. Paul's Memorial Church in Charlottesville. These reflections will be posted daily here on this page.

The meditations were written by the members and friends of our parish. They honor our mutual commitment to lifelong spiritual formation. The authors include parishioners of all ages, students at the University of Virginia, St. Paul’s clergy, and people of other denominations whose lives have been touched by, or connected with, St. Paul’s.

Inspired by the Scripture readings each day, every offering is original and reflects the thoughts, interpretations, and feelings of the author. A new meditation will appear at midnight each day in Lent. Links to the scriptural passages for the day will be on the posting.

We hope that these meditations will help guide your journey through the Holy Season of Lent. May our lives be enriched as we share our understandings in these offerings.

May you have a blessed and Holy Lent!

Faithfully,

The Very Rev. James Richardson 
Rector, St. Paul's Memorial Church Charlottesville, Virginia