Liturgy 015: The Monday before Lent
☕️ 5 Minutes to be present to God, Self, and Others
🙏 Prayer
Slowly pray this breath prayer until you are settled in the presence of God:
INHALE: God of Kindness
EXHALE: Turn My Heart Towards You
📖 Lectio Divina
Read these words slowly, listening for the Active and Living Voice of God:
Romans 2:4, NRSV
Do you not realize that God’s kindness leads you to repentance?
🧘 Reflection
You can work hard, pay the bills, care for the kids, and not cheat on your spouse… while still being an emotionally distant partner. Likewise, we can check the boxes for Christian behavior, without experientially knowing the love of God.
This is how a young John Wesley approached his faith. He was a missionary, a professor, and a priest… all before knowing the love and affection of God personally.1
This Wednesday begins the season of Lent — a time for Christians to practice fasting and repentance. But it often becomes a rote religious (or dietary) exercise.
I invite you to consider this year’s Lent as a time of renewing your affection for God.
This is true repentance - a turning not only of our behavior but of our heart towards God. Any such impulse is a sign of God’s kindness and affection towards you.
All acts of piety and service become a source of joy when they flow from a loving union with God.
When did you last feel the affection of God towards you? What practice in the season of Lent will center you in the felt reality of God’s love?
💡 Quote
“But the man who is not afraid to admit everything that he sees to be wrong with himself, and yet recognizes that he may be the object of God's love precisely because of his shortcomings, can begin to be sincere. His sincerity is based on confidence, not in his own illusions about himself, but in the endless, unfailing mercy of God.”
—Thomas Merton
🕊️ Blessing
May your heart be restless until it finds rest in the affection of the Triune God.
Amen.
https://wesleyscholar.com/wesleys-warmed-heart-at-aldersgate-what-really-happened/