Ash Wednesday: a remembrance of who we really are and a prayer of repentance

 The picture above is from this site.

There are two services at Saint Paul's, Humffray Street, Ballarat to-day for Ash Wednesday. I went to the 12 noon one and the next one is at 7pm.  My forehead is well-crossed with the ashes which are made by burning the crosses which are returned by parishioners from last year's palm crosses which mark Palm Sunday.

On Ash Wednesday, we are called not only to repentance.  We are called to remember, to be self-aware. 

If you wish to mark this special day in a brief and simple manner, below is a short Litany of Penitence.  The words are important - but more important is the spirit which is behind the individual's saying of the words.  This is heart and mind and spirit stuff that can change your life and how you live it.

A Litany of Penitence
Eternal God, maker of heaven and earth
Have mercy on us.Incarnate Word, redeemer of the world,
Have mercy on us.Abiding Spirit, give of light and life,
Have mercy on us.For turning away from y our presence,
For disobeying your word and commandments,
Forgive us, Lord.For trusting in our own strength instead of yours,
For betraying your trust and the trust of others,
Forgive us, Lord.For resisting your grace and refusing your blessings,
For holding back from proclaiming our faith in you,
Forgive us, Lord.For damaging this earth and exploiting its creatures,
For neglecting and wasting the gifts you have give us,
Forgive us, Lord.
For failing to forgive as we have been forgiven,
For judging others and bearing grudges,
Forgive us Lord.For skimping on our commitments and relationships,
For failing in hospitality,
Forgive us, Lord.For tolerating oppression, injustice, and wrong,
For keeping silent when we should have spoken up,
Forgive us, Lord.For turning away when others have offered us love,
For closing our hearts when others have needed compassion,
Forgive us, Lord.For all we have done unkindly, unjustly and dishonestly,
For our careless speech and hurtful words,
Forgive us Lord.

Thoughts for troubled times - 13

In the midst of concern for our economic direction, the size our carbon footprint...

I know, O Lord, that the way of man is not in himself,

that it is not in man who walks to direct his steps,

Correct me, O Lord, but in just measure;

not in thy anger, lest thou bring me to nothing.

The Book of Jeremiah 10: 23,24

Thoughts for troubled times - 7

The picture came from here

For if you truly amend your ways and your doings,

if you truly execute justice one with another,

if you do not oppress the alien,

the fatherless

or

the widow,

or

shed innocent blood in this place,

and if you do not go after other goods to your own hurt,

then

I will let you dwell in this place,

in the land that I gave of old to your fathers for ever.

Book of Jeremiah 7: 5-7

The broken wheel of life

Photo by Ted Szukalski

Man is born broken.

He lives by mending.

The grace of God is the glue.

Eugene O'Neill

Season of the Soul: The Sinner

THE SINNER

Lord, how I am all sickness, when I seek
What I have treasured in my memory!
Since, if my soul make even with the week,
Each seventh note by right is due to thee.
I find there quarries of piled vanities,
But shreds of holiness, that dare not venture
To show their face, since cross to your decrees:
There the circumference earth is, heaven the center.
In so much dregs the quintessence is small:
The spirit and good extract of my heart
Comes to about the many hundred part.
Yet Lord restore yours image, hear my call:
And though my hard heart scarce to you can groan,
Remember that you once did write on stone.

George Herbert

Season of the Soul: Lent 4

Lenten Theme:
What is a fool for Christ

Fool Prayer

by Beth McLean

inspired by the Ash Wednesday Liturgy

from A Prayer Book for Australia.

Lord, make me a ‘fool’ for you.
Lord of mercy and compassion, help me to see as you see.

Give me courage to stand up for justice,

to support those who are oppressed, unwanted, despised.

Help me to find you in all I meet,

let me be not afraid of derision or scorn

for your sake and for the sake of your children.

Transform me.

Readings:
Joshua 5:2-12

Psalm 32

2 Corintians 5:16-21

Luke 15:11-32

To-day's reading of the Good News of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ

tells the parable (story used by Jesus to teach people) of the Prodigal Son.

And he said, "There was a man who had two sons; and the younger of them said to his father, `Father, give me the share of property that falls to me.' And he divided his living between them. Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took his journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in loose living. And when he had spent everything, a great famine arose in that country, and he began to be in want. So he went and joined himself to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would gladly have fed on the pods that the swine ate; and no one gave him anything. But when he came to himself he said, `How many of my father's hired servants have bread enough and to spare, but I perish here with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me as one of your hired servants."' And he arose and came to his father. But while he was yet at a distance, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, `Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.' But the father said to his servants, `Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet; and bring the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and make merry; for this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.' And they began to make merry."Now his elder son was in the field; and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. And he called one of the servants and asked what this meant. And he said to him, `Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has received him safe and sound.' But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him, but he answered his father, `Lo, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command; yet you never gave me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends. But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your living with harlots, you killed for him the fatted calf!' And he said to him, `Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to make merry and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.'"

For those interested in comparative religious studies or inter-faith dialogue, this site is interesting for its discussion of the Prodigal Son in the Christian tradition and in the Buddhist tradition. Very interesting!

An absent God?

From Beginning to Pray by Archbishop Anthony Bloom. 1970, New York. Paulist press
Excerpted from Chapter I – The Absence of God
….
When God breaks through to us or when we break through to God, in certain exceptional circumstances, either because things suddenly disclose themselves with a depth we have never before perceived or when we suddenly discover in ourselves a depth where prayer abides and out of which it can gush forth, there is no problem in prayer. When we are aware of God, we stand before Him, worship Him, speak to Him.

At the outset there is, then, one very important problem: the situation of one for whom God seems to be absent. … Obviously I am not speaking of a real absence – God is never really absent – but of the sense of absence which we have. We stand before God and we shout into an empty sky, out of which there is no reply. We turn in all directions and He is not to be found. What ought we to think of this situation?

First of all, it is very important to remember that prayer is an encounter and a relationship, a relationship which is deep, and this relationship cannot be forced either on us or on God. The fact that God can make Himself present or can leave us with the sense of His absence is part of this live and real relationship. If we could mechanically draw Him into an encounter, force Him to meet us, simply because we have chosen this moment to meet Him, there would be no relationship and no encounter. We can do that with an image, with the imagination, or with the various idols we can put in front of us instead of God; we can do nothing of the sort with the living God, any more than we can do it with a living person. A relationship must begin and develop in mutual freedom.
….
The second very important thing is that a meeting face to face with God is always a moment of judgment for us. We cannot meet God in prayer or in meditation or in contemplation and not be either saved or condemned. I do not mean this in major terms of eternal damnation or eternal salvation already given and received, but it is always a critical moment, a crisis. ‘Crisis’ comes from the Greek and means ‘judgment’. To meet God face to face in prayer is a critical moment in our lives, and thanks be to Him that He does not always present Himself to us when we wish to meet Him, because we might not be able to endure such a meeting. …. He gives us a chance to judge ourselves, to understand, and not to come into His presence at a moment when it would mean condemnation.
….
As long as we ourselves are real, as long as we are truly ourselves, God can be present and can do something with us. But the moment we try to be what we are not, there is nothing left to say or have; we become a fictitious personality, an unreal presence, and this unreal presence cannot be approached by God.
….
In order to be able to pray, we must be within the situation which is defined as the kingdom of God. We must recognise that He is God, that He is King, we must surrender to Him. We must at least be concerned with His will, even if we are not yet capable of fulfilling it. But if we are not, if we treat God like the rich young man who could not follow Christ because he was too rich, then how can we meet Him? So often what we would like to have through prayer, through the deep relationship with God which we long for, is simply another period of happiness; we are not prepared to sell all that we have in order to buy the pearl of great price.
….
So when we think of the absence of God, is it not worth while to ask ourselves whom we blame for it? We always blame God, we always accuse Him, either straight to His face or in front of people, of being absent, of never being there when He is needed, never answering when He is addressed. At times we are more ‘pious’ (very much in inverted commas), and we say piously, ‘God is testing my patience, my faith, my humility.’ We find all sorts of ways of turning God’s judgment on us into a new way of praising ourselves. We are so patient that we can put up even with God!
….
What we must start with, if we wish to pray, is the certainty that we are sinners in need of salvation, that we are cut off from God and that we cannot live without Him and that all we can offer God is our desperate longing to be made such that God will receive us, receive us in repentance, receive us with mercy and with love. And so from the outset prayer is really our humble ascent towards God, a moment when we turn Godwards, shy of coming near, knowing that if we meet Him too soon, before His grace has had time to help us to be capable of meeting Him, it will be judgment. And all we can do is to turn to Him with all the reverence, all the veneration, the worshipful adoration, the fear of God of which we are capable, with all the attention and earnestness which we may possess, and ask Him to do something with us that will make us capable of meeting Him face to face, not for judgment, nor for condemnation, but for eternal life.
….
Try and think about the absence of God, and do realise that before you can knock at the door – and remember that it is not only at the door of the Kingdom understood in the general way, but that Christ really says ‘I am the door’ – before you knock at the door, you must realise that you are outside. If you spend your time imagining that in a mad way you are already in the kingdom of God, there is certainly no point in knocking at any door for it to be opened. Obviously, you must look round trying to see where are the angels and the saints, and where the mansion is which belongs to you, and when you see nothing but darkness or wall, you can quite legitimately find it surprising that Paradise is so unattractive. We must all realise that we are not yet in it, that we are still outsiders to the kingdom of God, and then ask ourselves ‘Where is the door and how does one knock at it?’

Seasons of the Soul: Repentance

Repentance by Randall M. Hasson

For more details go here.

Repentance
Lord, I confess my sin is great;
Great is my sin. Oh! gently treat
With your quick flower, your momentary bloom;
Whose life still pressing

Is one undressing,
A steady aiming at a tomb.

Man's age is two hours work, or three:
Each day does round about us see.
Thus are we to delights: but we are all

To sorrows old

If like be told
From what life feels of Adam's fall.

O let your height of mercy then
Compassionate short-breathéd men.
Cut me not off for my most foul transgression

I do confess

My foolishness;
My God, accept of my confession.

Sweeten at length this bitter bowl,
Which you have poured into my soul;
Your wormwood turn to health, winds to fair weather:
For if you stay,
I and this day,
As we did rise, we die together.

When you for sin rebuke each man,
Forthwith he waxeth woe and wan:
Bitterness fills our bowels; all our hearts
Pine, and decay,
And drop away,
And carry with them th’ other parts.

But you will sin and grief destroy;
That so the broken bones may joy,
And tune together in a well-set song,
Full of His praises,
Who dead men raises.
Fractures well cured make us more strong.

George Herbert

Repentance

A Litany of Penitence

Eternal God, maker of heaven and earth
Have mercy on us.
Incarnate Word, redeemer of the world,
Have mercy on us.
Abiding Spirit, give of light and life,
Have mercy on us.
For turning away from y our presence,
For disobeying your word and commandments,
Forgive us, Lord.
For trusting in our own strength instead of yours,
For betraying your trust and the trust of others,
Forgive us, Lord.
For resisting your grace and refusing your blessings,
For holding back from proclaiming our faith in you,
Forgive us, Lord.
For damaging this earth and exploiting its creatures,
For neglecting and wasting the gifts you have give us,
Forgive us, Lord.
For failing to forgive as we have been forgiven,
For judging others and bearing grudges,
Forgive us Lord.
For skimping on our commitments and relationships,
For failing in hospitality,
Forgive us, Lord.
For tolerating oppression, injustice, and wrong,
For keeping silent when we should have spoken up,
Forgive us, Lord.
For turning away when others have offered us love,
For closing our hearts when others have needed compassion,
Forgive us, Lord.
For all we have done unkindly, unjustly and dishonestly,
For our careless speech and hurtful words,
Forgive us Lord.