Merry Flanagan writes...

My mother arose every morning, pulled the curtains up and said,

"This is the day the Lord has made,

Rejoice and be glad in it."

I still do the same -

"This is the day the Lord has made,

Rejoice and be glad in it."

The phrase helps me - may it also help others.

Shirley Parker writes...

2 cor 4: 3 & 4
"and even if our Gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing.
In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the Light of the Gospel of the Glory of Christ, who is the image of God."

This has always bothered me in the past, but Brian's meditation Wed. Feb 28th, light & dark, angels & demons, helped me see for the first time that the unbelievers are not predestined by God to be blind to the gospel. The god [small "g"] of this world is the little red guy with the pitchfork on the left shoulder, not the messenger [angel] from God [capital "G"] on the other shoulder whom we need to focus on, which we do by carefully and prayerfully studying the scriptures daily.

Dear God, Holy Spirit, Truth Divine, dawn upon this soul of mine. Word of God and inward light, wake my spirit, clear my sight. A Men.

Shirley Parker writes...

2 cor 4: 3 & 4
"and even if our Gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing.
In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the Light of the Gospel of the Glory of Christ, who is the image of God."

This has always bothered me in the past, but Brian's meditation Wed. Feb 28th, light & dark, angels & demons, helped me see for the first time that the unbelievers are not predestined by God to be blind to the gospel. The god [small "g"] of this world is the little red guy with the pitchfork on the left shoulder, not the messenger [angel] from God [capital "G"] on the other shoulder whom we need to focus on, which we do by carefully and prayerfully studying the scriptures daily.

Dear God, Holy Spirit, Truth Divine, dawn upon this soul of mine. Word of God and inward light, wake my spirit, clear my sight. A Men.

Andy Schultz writes...

Here is a prayer I received a few years ago when I was in confirmation:

My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going.
I do not see the road ahead of me.
I cannot know for certain where it will end.
Nor do I really know myself,
and the fact that I think that I am following your will
does not mean that I am actually doing so.
But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you.
And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.
I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.
And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road
though I may know nothing about it.
Therefore will I trust you always
though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death.
I will not fear, for you are ever with me,
and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.
- Thomas Merton

I like this prayer because it reminds me that there is much I don't know about the consequences of my actions. Even if I think I have made a mistake ("lost and in the shadow of death"), maybe I didn't mess up as badly as I think I did, and things will turn out ok ("you will lead me by the right road"). At the same time, this prayer affirms what we do know about God. God always leads us in the right direction, and God is always with us. Even in times of despair, God provides hope.
Keep this prayer in mind during the Lenten season.

Katy Lee writes...

During the first week in March, I had the opportunity to spend my first college spring break in Coronado, California with three friends from my dorm. Not to brag, but if you have never heard of Coronado, you might want to consider learning about it by watching the Travel Chanel’s “Best 10 U.S. beaches” countdown; my friend, whose father is in the Navy, has the privilege of living on this beautiful island off of San Diego where year-round the average temperature is about 70 degrees. After spending the last four months stuck in the bitter, windy Chicago winter, we spent our last two miserable days before break in a frozen sleeting blizzard, in absolute disgust of Illinois and with desperate hopes that our plane flight wasn’t canceled. Thankfully we made it off Wheaton’s campus and four hours later arrived in sunny Southern California.
I did not realize how much I had winter depression until I came out of the cold and darkness; it was amazing! We had left Chicago with fleece jackets, and mere hours later were bathed in tropical sunlight with toes in the sand. It was absolute heaven, and that “something” (probably Vitamin A) that had been missing in my life was suddenly there. I could hardly handle it, I was so overjoyed to see mountains, a new city and most of all the bright Pacific Ocean.
I wanted to share this because I think so often we let ourselves live in a spiritual winter without even realizing it--and by that I mean the January/February sort of winter, not the November/December winter. At least at the beginning the newness of white snow is exciting, but our spiritual winter is more like C.S. Lewis’ The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe where it is “always winter and never Christmas.” Slowly our day-to-day walk with God becomes a kind of chore, boring and almost so “everyday” that it does not even seem special. For me it came it came out in the form of stagnancy for my relationships and schoolwork. When I was not letting God be the living, active force behind everything I was doing, life became unexciting. I was bitter and selfish about being cold, physically and spiritually, and was uninterested in anything new. When I came back from vacation I felt like it was Easter morning for my spirit: because I’d let in the sun, I felt a newness of life, and a readiness to enjoy things again, to walk and play outside. I hope this Lenten season can be more and more about letting God be a part of everything we think and do, dousing our lives in the sunlight of prayer and His word: only then will we experience true joy, whether we’re on the beach or in the snow, and see the true joy the disciples had at the first Easter.

Don Hopkins writes...

Are not you also one of this man's disciples?Are not you also one of his disciples?Did I not see you in the garden with him?(John 18:17, 25, 26)

These three yes-no questions were faced by Peter after Jesus was arrested and put on trial. His life depended on his response. In various forms his answers were "No" "No" and "No!" Peter's denial always makes me think of the times I have denied that I am a disciple of Jesus. It has never been life-threatening, just inconvenient. I have failed to speak out in defense of a cause or a person that I know for certain that Jesus would have defended. Why do I think it's that important not to offend people? Will they think less highly of me? I sometimes rationalize by thinking that if I stay on their good side, I might be able to change their minds someday. Or perhaps offending them would do more harm than good. Like Peter, I go away feeling guilty and ashamed. Do you love more than these?Do you love me?Do you love me?(John 21:15, 16, 17)

Jesus asked Peter these three yes-no questions after the resurrection. In various forms Peter's answers were "Yes" "Yes" and Yes!" Jesus' response to Peter's "Yes" was a gentle command to feed His lambs and feed His sheep. Jesus didn't tell Peter to atone for his denial by confronting his enemies like a man and get crucified right then and there. He tells him to perform acts of kindness. I am reminded of the song "They'll know we are Christians by our love." Praise God! Jesus gives us a second chance to turn our "No" into a "Yes!" He gives us a third chance, a fourth chance, a ...

Prayer: Loving Father thank you for the power of the resurrection in our lives that turns our "No" into a "Yes." Help us to admit that we are one of Jesus' disciples by our words and by our deeds of love. Amen