40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Friday after Ash Wednesday, 16 February 2024
Isaiah 58:1-9 + + + Matthew 9:14-15
Thank you, dear Father
for this lovely season of Lent
when everything is in hue
of violets representing the future,
the imagination and dreams,
while spiritually calming
our emotions to attain
spiritual enlightenment
while at the same time
keeping us grounded in you,
O God,
our very first love.
Give us the courage
in Christ Jesus your Son
to confront our very selves,
to accept who we
really are before you
minus all the pretensions
and alibis and excuses:
forgive us, Lord
because very often we look so
highly of ourselves,
unconsciously or consciously
playing god,
keeping ourselves
as standard and measure
of what is right and proper,
even of truth; worst,
many times, we demand you
to conform to us
than we conforming to you.
Thus says the Lord God: Cry out full-throated and unsparingly, lift up your voice like a trumpet blast; tell my people their wickedness, and the house of Jacob their sins. They seek me day after day, and desire to know my ways, like a nation that has done what is just and not abandoned the law of their God; they ask me to declare what is due them, pleased to gain access to God.
Isaiah 58:1-2
Let us be your prophets
especially in this age when
we no longer fast nor abstain,
no longer praying individually
and communally,
so contented with online Masses,
so that we have forgotten not only
you, Father but even those
around us, both those nearest
to us in the family circle
and those outside our margins;
Father, in this age with
so much emphasis
on individual rights,
we have forgotten about
others: we have refused to
see each others plight
and condition in life
because we have bloated
our egos,
has failed to look at the mirror
to confront our own dirt
and smudges,
questioning everyone
even you, O Lord,
except our very selves.
Amen.
lordmychef.com 