Prayer of the Week - Lent 1

For sometime now I've been sending a weekly e-mail to my parishioners with a "Prayer of the Week." This was something that began before I came to COTM, and it simply seemed very natural for me to pick it up and continue it. I've decided from now on I should post the Prayer of the Week here, as well as e-mailing to the COTM list.

Beloved Parishioners,

Coming into this Lent the poet Mary Oliver has been on my mind. She has a remarkable capacity to read what medieval theologians called the "Book of Nature." The idea was that God was the author of two divine volumes: The Book of God (The Bible) and the Book of Nature. Any reasonable person, with the right set of tools, could "read" in either the Holy Gospel of God's creation and redemption of humanity.

Here's one of Mary's poems that I think is particularly appropriate for the beginning of the penitential season of Lent...

Wild Geese

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting -
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

At first blush this poem may seem to be eschewing traditional Christian notions about the importance of striving to live a moral life and repenting when we fail. A deeper reading, however, may speak to a moment beyond the striving. Many of the great spiritual masters of our faith spoke of the growth of the Christian life as proceeding by stages from purgation to illumination and finally towards union with the Divine (put another way, from morality to wisdom to love). In this view, repentance and amendment of life is only the beginning of the Christian journey. This is important to keep in mind even as we explore the dark depths of Lent. It's far too easy to reduce Christianity to a mere set of ethical teachings about being good to other people (indeed, this is perhaps the most common heresy about Christianity, that's it's only about being "good" and that Jesus was just an inspired "teacher"). If we believe the Gospel or heed the harsh cry of the wild geese, then our place in the family of things is much more profound--something about redemption and life everlasting.

I believe that at its best the experience of contrition and forgiveness can offer us a glimpse of what the Gospel is all about. Certainly in my own life, I have been shocked at the kind of transformation that has taken place when I've had the courage to admit wrongdoing and seek reconciliation. Something profoundly transformative happens when grace squeezes into the cracks that formerly separated us. We do well to meditate on our memories of this dynamic and to examine whether our lives would be enriched by present acts of confession.

Therefore my prayer this week is an encouragement to seek reconciliation not merely in order to be "good"--but so that we may have the full and eternal life promised to us in Jesus Christ.

Almighty God, you hate nothing that you have made and work continually to bring us back to union with you, we humbly ask this day that your Holy Spirit would inspire our hearts with the courage and patience to be humble and penitent in the face of our many failings. We know through your Holy Gospel that you are eager to forgive us our sins and restore us to new life. Help us to make true confession to you who know all and love all, through Jesus Christ, Our Lord. Amen.

In Christ,

Tay