40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Wednesday in the First Week of Lent, 21 February 2024
Jonah 3:1-10 ><}}}}*> + ><}}}}*> + ><}}}}*> Luke 11:29-32
God our Father,
in this Season of Lent,
let us take one step backward
to let you do your work
in us,
among us.
We have been so used
to our expertise
and knowledge
that we seem to know
everything,
even better than you
like Jonah.
Allow us to take
"sackcloth and ashes"
like the people of Nineveh
to transcend our habits
by taking the back seat this time,
limiting ourselves to your
simple instructions
as we try to believe in you
and others too.
Jonah began his journey through the city, and had gone but a single day’s walk announcing, “Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed,” when the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast and all of them, great and small, put on sackcloth.
Jonah 3:4-5
Continue to speak to us
even harshly like Jesus
in the gospel,
calling us an "evil generation"
seeking signs of your
presence in Christ;
very often,
we need to be shaken
deep inside,
to stop a while
so you can work in us
and among us,
filling us with your
love and mercy
so that we discover
your love and mercy
in us when we are
able to cry like the
psalmist:
"Have mercy on me,
O God,
in your goodness;
in the greatness of your
compassion wipe out my offense.
Thoroughly wash me
from my guilt and of my sin
cleanse me"
(Ps. 51:3-4).
Amen.
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