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MEDITATIONS FOR LENT PART II
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More thoughts for our Lenten journey.
Babies and small children are pure beauty, love, joy—the truest in this world. But the thorns are there of night watches, of illnesses, of infant perversities and contrariness. There are glimpses of heaven and hell. –Dorothy Day
Which do we see first and focus on: the joy and beauty and love, or the thorns?
Men of few words are the best men. –William Shakespeare
Silence goes hand in hand with fasting. –Jean-Paul Aron
The language that God hears best is the silent language of love. –St John of the Cross
How quiet can we be for the rest of this Lent? What might we hear (and be able to listen to)?
A mother may allow her child to sometimes fall, and to learn the hard way, for its own good. But because she loves the child she will never allow the situation to become dangerous. Admittedly earthly mothers have been known to let their children die, but our heavenly Mother, Jesus, will never let us, his children, die. –Mother Julian of Norwich
We have fallen; what have we learned—about repentance, mercy, healing, resolve?
Nowadays the sign of the cross normally calls to mind the gibbet to which Christ was nailed. But we have to ask ourselves whether this was the primary origin of the sign on the forehead in the primitive Christian community. It seems indeed that it was not... We have to notice that several ancient texts compare the sign of the cross with the letter tau, which in Greek had the form T. The fathers of the church themselves remark that the Book of Ezekiel declares that the members of the messianic community will be marked on their foreheads with the sign tau. Tau, the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet, signifies God [see Ezekiel 9:1-6]. It is [here] we may possibly have the oldest Christian representation of the cross. It signified the name of God. –Jean Danielou
Think about this next Ash Wednesday, and every time you bless yourself with holy water when coming into church.