Thoughts On Lent

Metropolitan

March 6, 2019

1. Ash Wednesday speaks visibly to the fact that one day, we will die; that we came from dust and to dust we will return. We don’t have control over the time allotted to us, but we do have the present with us, and let us be grateful for it.

2. Lent Season is like the fall season, when even the trees fast to recharge life.

3. Fasting is oxygen for the soul, so that we can breathe in the life of another world, for which we are made.

4. It is an opportunity like none other to think deeply and to think alone.

5. Silence is a habit to be learned, and the Season of Lent is both the classroom and the teacher of it.

6. Silent prayers become loud knocks at the door of mercy during Lent Season; therefore, let us pray without ceasing.

7. This season can be an amazing stimulus to awaken our hardened, self-centered soul to feel the pain of the needy and the suffering around us and move us to action.

8. Lent is a season when we are linked with millions of souls. This invisible energy becomes the force for us to bring hope to the enslaved: the hundreds of thousands in the red-light districts and the begging children on the streets.

9. Slow down, you are moving too fast! Lent is meant for us to slow down enough so that God can fix the broken parts while we are still alive.

10. Take time to be alone to think; think deep with the Invisible One, so that we can become truly human.

11. Hypocrisy is a mask made of fears and Lent is the season to untie your hands to take these masks off so that you can find the real you.

12. There is no greater reality than love. Let this season help you to feel and grow to love, and be loved. Be vulnerable.

13. Those who wait upon God will renew their strength to walk, run and fly (Isaiah 40:31). Lent is the season designed for it.

14. It is only by giving up what you want that you will find what you really need. Let this season assist you to give up some things for better things.

15. Who likes discipline? No one! And even when we know all that we should do, we become useless without the discipline to do it. Let Lent be your teacher to establish disciplines in life such as prayer, fasting, reading, silence, the ability to say “no,” suffering and kindness.

16. How many times have you lied to people and said, “I will pray for you.” Now is the time to make that list and fulfil those promises with the ample time that is given to you during this Lent Season.

17. It is God’s natural design to bless you so that you become healthy in your body and soul. Be glad that you can fast from destructive eating habits. Lent is a healing season, inside and out.

18. Learn to pray the ‘Jesus Prayer’ so often that it becomes natural with the rhythm of your breathing. “Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” Lent is meant for a deeper understanding of prayer. Act on it.

19. Music not played and sung is not music. Love that is not tangible, touchable, is not love. Love is a verb. Go out and help the less fortunate during this Lent Season. Almsgiving is an integral part of the season.

20. Seasons never stay the same. They change. Winter is on its way, and before the cold winter comes upon you, do all you can through prayer and action to survive in the dark times of life. Lent Season is for accelerated spiritual growth. Don’t waste it.

21. One cannot fix a failing engine if the train is moving one thousand miles per hour. It must slow down, and if needed, be stopped before the entire engine dies. Think and compare this to our lives. Lent is meant for us to slow down so that God can fix our inside through His Word and Spirit.

22. Only you know your inner problems: pride, envy, jealousy, worldliness, love of money, anger, self-promotion, unforgiveness, bitterness, laziness, unkindness, gossip, unbelief, hurting others with sarcasm, seeking people’s honour and praise, seeking of power and position; the list can go on. This is the season to pray specifically for God to help you to overcome and grow into the image of Christ. Then, do what He tells you.

23. Have you wondered the reason behind why the Western Church (like in America and Europe) is now known as “post Christian”? There are many reasons for it, but one of the key reasons was the removal of many godly disciplines such as Lent and other similar ancient Church practices. Let us not allow this to be our fate. Let us follow in the footsteps of the saints of old and the Church Fathers.

24. Lent is a season for repentance, fasting and preparing oneself for Easter. Therefore, take time to think deep and reflect.

25. Read St. Luke 15, the story of the prodigal son and his father. Close your eyes, be still for a few minutes and then imagine that you are the son who walked away from your father’s love. Your father is not angry, but is waiting for you to come home. This Lent Season is for you to come home. Get up and go home.

26. Fasting of any kind is your way of telling God that you want to be a living sacrifice for His glory. See fasting as a privilege, not a burden. This is part of the sacramental life. Be glad for this season.

27. Make a list of all those who hurt you or those whom you have hurt, either by word or deed. Make a decision to be reconciled to all by forgiving and receiving forgiveness. Take the humble road. This season is meant for this.

28. A prayer: O Lord Jesus, born of the Virgin Mary, please consider my sins and cleanse me from within. Make of me Your temple for Your most pure body and holy blood. Have mercy on me and hold me in Your arms.

29. Conviction: How evil and presumptuous I am to partake of Your Holy Body and Blood—I, the unworthy one among Your worthy children. Please have mercy on me. Cleanse my defiled soul, oh Lord. Loving Saviour, save me, for You are my only hope.

30. Innumerable are my transgressions, loving God. You, who are pure, visit my soul in my infirmity and please remember me, this sinner who needs Your forgiveness and blessing.

31. O my soul, you long to take the Holy Body of the Lord and His Holy Blood. Kneel in awe and fear. It is light you have come to that no man can approach. .  Before you partake in the sacrifice of the life-giving Body and Blood of our Lord and Christ, receive the Mystery with trembling and much prayer.

32. O Lord, my God
I am vile and unworthy
for You to find rest in me
for my soul is a shack
desolate and fallen.
But You who stepped down to the manger of dirt and ruin
where dumb animals abode—
You did not disdain to enter in.
You who did not reject the sinners and doomed,
touched the leper and downcast
with compassion, allowed the worst to embrace You.
I, the worst of sinners, do not come to You
in presumption, but pleading for Your mercy
to make me worthy to partake of Your
mystery meal of Your Body and Blood.
What joy fills my cleansed soul by You, my Lord, now entered in my body, soul and spirit.

33. I only heard of You, my God and Lord.
You walked with us who are mortal men,
but now we see You in glory, Your own.
We are unworthy, lost and condemned,
too weak to look up to You or stand on our feet,
a world You thrust us into that we never knew.
Please I beg of You, help me know You.
I yield my life, all that I am,
for You to live through me.
Your life
for mortal men is all the same,
but for me I know You are the glorious One.
Thank You for Your mercy that lets me
partake of Your life in the Holy Sacrament.

34. (Confession during Lent)
My lips and tongue are defiled,
heart impure with sin ruined.
Hear my prayer, O Christ, my Lord.
Please don't look upon my evil life.
I yield and surrender my life to Thee
to cleanse me from deep within.
The Holy One who forgave the harlot,
the tax collector who found mercy and grace,
the thief on the cross who found forgiveness,
the sick and dying found healing and hope—
cast me not away, merciful Lord.
I cling at Your feet of Mercy
to embrace and offer my kiss
with tears of sorrow for my sins.
Please purify me and cleanse me with Your Word and blood.
Who am I but a passing shadow
a stranger in strange land?
Thank You for Your love and mercy,
restoring me to my Heavenly Father.
I worship You, magnify You,
and glorify You, Jesus my Lord,
both now and in the ages to come.

35. A prayer: Thank You, Lord, for keeping me alive to journey to this, Your eternal sacrifice on the Cross. Each day of this Lent Season, cause my heart to feel Your pain, and as it gets more painful, I remind myself—it is all because of me that You laid down Your life to be killed—You, the Creator God. What shall I say? I have no words to utter what I feel, and You, my God, know I love You.

36. Think about the blessed Mother Mary, the Mother of God. Think deep of her heart’s feelings, knowing that her beloved son she breastfed, the little boy she saw growing up , was the eternal God she gave birth to. Yet she knew when the evening came, He would lie down to sleep, and she would sing a lullaby and offer her prayers—she may have wondered Whom she is praying for! For the One lying in the cradle before her is God the Almighty. It is hard to imagine these thoughts! But finally, here she is, after thirty-three-and-a-half years of having Him with her, and soon, very soon, He is going to the battleground to be killed as a criminal of the worst kind; man killing his Creator God. Were you there when they nailed Him to the wooden Cross? Yes, we all were there. Yes, it is our sin and the whole world that nailed Him to the Cross! How can one not love Him and worship Him as a way of life? Think about it.

37. Take a break. Take rest. Recuperate. These are familiar words. They all tell us that we need to pause to recharge our lives—to sharpen the knife for a more effective life. Lent is designed by the Holy Church and instructed throughout the Scripture. We have the need to stop, to pause. But not to just lie around doing nothing; this time is for prayer, meditation, fasting and silence, and all these spiritual disciplines are hard work. We produce more by being influenced by the power of God to continue in this journey to meet Christ. Don’t forget the reason for this season.

38. You my Lord, what can I say?
Before I say a word, You know it all.
My thoughts You read from far.
Where can I go to get away from You?
Heaven, hell, or a black hole, You are there.
You, the Creator, the One who stood outside
of time, space and matter, and created
all from nothing, for there was nothing.
Thoughts so hard to think, with
my finite mind so dull and earthly,
yet, You think of me non-stop.
I can't fathom it, yet it is true.
You only think good of me and
Long for me to come and be hugged by You.
Why do I run away from such a loving God?
I hate my evil heart that doesn't understand.
Thank You for this season, I choose to
slow down, just to think—
think deep about You and pray.
Please hold me,
for I am too weak, and I am afraid.
Thank You for Your love and mercy,
The privilege You gave me to
Be Yours for time and eternity.

39. The second law of thermodynamics is one that cannot change, just as the law of gravity. It says that things left to themselves will deteriorate. This is so true of our lives. Read Revelation Chapters 2 and 3 and see what happened to people of the “One, holy, catholic and apostolic Church!” Almost all backslid. Think about our lives. Whatever happened to the feeling of unworthiness, nothingness and gentleness we once had as a real part of our lives?

Maybe our accomplishments or our reputation has changed us for the worse. We are fallen and don’t know it. Lent comes, reminding us to wake up from lethargy and be rekindled with new beginnings by God’s mercy and grace. Don’t neglect it.

40. The Season of Lent invites us to follow in the footsteps of the Son of Man who observed Lent Season in fasting and prayer. This is the way of humility and power from above.

41. If Lent observance is focused on ourselves and not on others—the needy and suffering millions around us—then all our fasting and prayers are just empty sound. Our life makes sense when we live for others.

42. A prayer: Great God who loves the broken and hopeless, grant me, Your servant, grace to overcome pride, self-centeredness, jealousy and an unloving attitude to others. Please open my eyes to see my own failures and sins so that I may be slow to judge others and be willing to judge myself, and seek for Your mercy.

43. Let this Lent Season be used by God to break the hard soil of your heart so that you may become a partaker of His divine nature (2 Peter 1:4). No seed will sprout on hardened soil.

44. If we do spiritual things like fasting, giving alms, prayers and one hundred other spiritual activities based on our own self-righteousness, then we are worse off than those ungodly sinners. There is a difference between the ‘righteousness of God’ and ‘our own righteousness.’ Let this Lent Season teach us to be His, not ours, in this journey to the cross.

45. Lent points us to one direction—the cross! The cross is never a matter of abuse and suffering, but it is a choice to bring life and hope to others. Don’t lose your focus. Follow in His footsteps, and it will take you to the right place—to be at His feet, as it did for blessed Mary, the Mother of God, and St John the Apostle.

46. The life of St. Peter, the great leader of the Church, becomes our example to understand that  we are weak and failing sinners, no matter how strong we feel. His repentance is the way of restoration to greater heights. This is the meaning of Lent: repentance and choosing humility.

47. Do not let introspection become your habit to become holy and righteous. The more you look into yourself, the more dirt and darkness you will find. Take one look at self and then look at the God of mercy; He will keep you alive.

48. The enemy of knowing God is the busyness of life. Martha was doing the right thing, but she was void of the presence of Christ. The result: frustration, complaining and murmuring. Mary chose to be still and quiet at the feet of Christ. Choose Mary’s example during this season. Walk away from this busy, noisy culture for this Season of Lent.

49. A Prayer: Loving Father, please grant me the grace to see this holy season as Your gift of special days for my spiritual renewal and healthy motivation to follow in the footsteps of Your beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.

50. Lent Season is a beautiful period of repentance, choosing to be a servant, cleansing, fasting, praying, showing kindness to others and growing deep in the grace of God. But also remember, the enemy of our soul and demons can use something so good (Lent Season) to bring condemnation and make you feel like a failure and a hypocrite; making you blind to the human part of our life. Don’t let guilt and self-condemnation ruin this season of mercy and grace.