"Where is Lent in the Bible" by Fr. Mike Schmitz

Our Advent/Lent Devotionals

A blessed and happy Thanksgiving to all of you!

One of the things I am most thankful for this past year was the opportunity to have an Advent (and Lenten) devotional published by the fine people at ACTA Publications.  The best part of the process was being able to compose these daily reflections along side my beloved wife, Rakhi.  Having been married a little over eight year now with three wonderful children, the entire process of selecting a portion of the daily lectionary reading, reflecting and praying about each passage, and composing daily insights together as a couple was something I will cherish.  To be honest, at first I was a bit worried that we might not be able to find the time to do this project.  Yet, God did provide the time and energy (and hopefully insight) to complete both devotionals.  (A special thanks to my mom for watching for the kids at various points for a few hours during the day which allowed us to go off somewhere quiet to write.)

Two things struck me as we working on both of these devotionals.  First, I was really amazed by my wife's insights and creativity.  Now, I have known this for the many years that we have been together, but most often she likes to work quietly on her own, like most artists do.  Yet, during this project, I was able to accompany her more directly as we reflected on the day's lectionary passage as well as watching her do the illustrations for the cover and text.  It was truly a blessing to see her work, one that I will treasure.  Secondly, I came to appreciate The Message: Catholic/Ecumenical Edition even more than I had originally.  Of all the translations out there, and yes it is a paraphrase, it remains the only one that consistently elicits emotions from me when I read.  Now this is not to say that I will be using The Message for serious bible study (whatever that may be) but I have now found a place for The Message in my daily prayer time.  This was not something that I would have expected almost ten years ago when I started this blog.  But to each their own.

The Advent and Lenten devotionals were designed to give you short reflections and action steps for each day of the season, accompanied by illustrations designed by my wife.   It was important to me that these devotionals would be small (in order to be easily carried around with or placed in a Bible case), contain room for personal notes, and inexpensive (the Advent one is .99 cents and the Lenten is $1.25).  In the end, I think we achieved these three goals.  So, if you are looking for a devotional during this upcoming Advent and Lenten seasons that is a little different than most, utilizing a translation of the bible that might cause you to reflect, rethink, laugh, or simply just pause for a few more moments than usual, ACTA might have the one you are looking for.

The Advent devotional: Expectantly Waiting in Wonder

The Lenten devotional: Walking Together in Freedom

Lent 2017

But there’s also this, it’s not too late—

    God’s personal Message!—

Come back to me and really mean it!

    Come fasting and weeping, sorry for your sins!

Change your life, not just your clothes.

    Come back to God, your God.

And here’s why: God is kind and merciful.

-Joel 2:12-13 (MSGCE)

Lent 2016

So, Lent is now upon us.  I typically pick a book to journey with me during these forty days, slowly reading and reflecting on a small portion each day.  This year, I have decided to read The Showings of Julian of Norwich.  How about you?  What will you be focusing on during this holy season?

Ash Wednesday

But there’s also this, it’s not too late—

    God’s personal Message!—

“Come back to me and really mean it!

    Come fasting and weeping, sorry for your sins!”

Change your life, not just your clothes.

    Come back to God, your God.

And here’s why: God is kind and merciful.

    He takes a deep breath, puts up with a lot,

This most patient God, extravagant in love,

    always ready to cancel catastrophe.

Who knows? Maybe he’ll do it now,

    maybe he’ll turn around and show pity.

Maybe, when all’s said and done,

    there’ll be blessings full and robust for your God!

Blow the ram’s horn trumpet in Zion!

    Declare a day of repentance, a holy fast day.

Call a public meeting.

    Get everyone there. Consecrate the congregation.

Make sure the elders come,

    but bring in the children, too, even the nursing babies,

Even men and women on their honeymoon—

    interrupt them and get them there.

Between Sanctuary entrance and altar,

    let the priests, God’s servants, weep tears of repentance.

Let them intercede: “Have mercy, God, on your people!

    Don’t abandon your heritage to contempt.

Don’t let the pagans take over and rule them

    and sneer, ‘And so where is this God of theirs?’”

At that, God went into action to get his land back.

    He took pity on his people.

-Joel 2:12-18 (MSG)

My Lenten Reading 2015

Each year during the season of Lent I typically choose a devotional and a book to read, along with my daily use of the Liturgy of the Hours.  As I mentioned a few weeks back, I will be using Turning Around: Daily Lenten Reflections with The Message as a supplement to my daily prayer routine.  I am looking forward to starting that tomorrow with Ash Wednesday.  

The other book I will be reading is Fr. Donald Senior's Why the Cross?   The topic of this book seems timely, of course.  I have always enjoyed Fr. Senior's works, so this should be the perfect book for Lent.  Here is a short description of the book:

The meaning of Jesus's execution on a Roman cross is one of the most divisive issues in contemporary theological discourse because issues related to the goodness of God and the place of suffering in the Christian life are at stake. Although it is important to locate that discussion in the context of the range of New Testament perspectives on the soteriological significance of the cross, it is also important that we recover the meaning of the cross as a metaphor for discipleship. In the end, the event of Jesus’s death cannot be understood apart from the character of his life. This book will contribute to New Testament studies but also serve related discussions in theology and Christian formation.

I hope to comment, from time to time, about what I read, though not necessarily in an orderly fashion.  If you would like to join me in reading this book, let me know.  Those of you who are committing to some other kind of book or devotional, I would love to hear what you are doing this Lent.  

Ash Wednesday

"Even now, says the LORD, return to me with your whole heart, with fasting, and weeping, and mourning; Rend your hearts, not your garments, and return to the LORD, your God. For gracious and merciful is he, slow to anger, rich in kindness, and relenting in punishment. Perhaps he will again relent and leave behind him a blessing, Offerings and libations for the LORD, your God. Blow the trumpet in Zion! proclaim a fast, call an assembly; Gather the people, notify the congregation; Assemble the elders, gather the children and the infants at the breast; Let the bridegroom quit his room and the bride her chamber. Between the porch and the altar let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep, And say, “Spare, O LORD, your people, and make not your heritage a reproach, with the nations ruling over them! Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’” Then the LORD was stirred to concern for his land and took pity on his people."  --Joel 2:12-18

A Blessed Lent to You!

B16 on the Final Prayer of Jesus

This comes from the Papal Audience yesterday. I thought this might be a nice reflection to consider as we approach the Lenten season.

From the Vatican Information Service:

The prayer of Jesus at the moment of His death, as narrated by St. Mark and St. Matthew was the theme of Benedict XVI's catechesis during his general audience, held this morning in the Paul VI Hall.

"In the structure of the narrative", the Pope said, "Jesus' cry rises at the end of three hours of darkness, which had descended upon the earth from midday to three o'clock in the afternoon. Those three hours of darkness were, in their turn, the continuation of an earlier period which also lasted three hours and began with the crucifixion. ... In biblical tradition darkness has an ambivalent meaning: it is a sign of the presence and action of evil, but also of the mysterious presence and action of God Who is capable of vanquishing all darkness. ... In the scene of Jesus' crucifixion darkness envelops the earth, the darkness of death in which the Son of God immerses Himself, in order bring life with His act of love".

"Insulted by various categories of people, surrounded by a darkness covering everything, at the very moment in which He is facing death Jesus' cry shows that, along with His burden of suffering and death apparently accompanied by abandonment and the absence of God, He is entirely certain of the closeness of the Father, Who approves this supreme act of love and of total giving of Self, although we do not hear His voice from on high as we did in earlier moments".

Yet, the Holy Father asked, "what is the meaning of Jesus' prayer? The cry addressed to the Father: 'my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?'" He explained that "the words Jesus addresses to the Father are the beginning of Psalm 22, in which the Psalmist expresses the tension between, on the one hand, being left alone and, on the other, the certain knowledge of God's presence amongst His people. ... The Psalmist speaks of a 'cry' to express all the suffering of his prayer before the apparently absent God. At moments of anguish prayer becomes a cry.

"This also happens in our own relationship with the Lord", the Pope added. "In the face of difficult and painful situations, when it seems that God does not hear, we must not be afraid to entrust Him with the burden we are carrying in our hearts, we must not be afraid to cry out to Him in our suffering".

"Jesus prays at the moment of ultimate rejection by man, at the moment of abandonment. However, He is aware that God the Father is present even at the instant in which He is experiencing the human drama of death. Yet nonetheless, a question arises in our hearts: how is it possible that such a powerful God does not intervene to save His Son from this terrible trial?"

The Holy Father explained that "it is important to understand that the prayer of Jesus is not the cry of a person who meets death with desperation, nor that of a person who knows he has been abandoned. At that moment Jesus appropriates Psalm 22, the Psalm of the suffering people of Israel, at that moment He takes upon Himself not only the suffering of His people, but also that of all men and women oppressed by evil. ... And He takes all this to the heart of God in the certainty that His cry will be heard in the resurrection. ... His is a suffering in communion with us and for us, it derives from love and carries within itself redemption and the victory of love.

"The people at the foot of Jesus' cross were unable to understand, they thought His cry was a supplication to Elijah. ... We likewise find ourselves, ever and anew, facing the 'today' of suffering, the silence of God - many times we say as much in our prayers - but we also find ourselves facing the 'today' of the Resurrection, of the response of God Who took our sufferings upon Himself, to carry them with us and give us the certain hope that they will be overcome".

"In our prayers", the Holy Father concluded, "let us bring God our daily crosses, in the certainty that He is present and listens to us. The cry of Jesus reminds us that in prayer we must cross the barrier of 'self' and our own problems, and open ourselves to the needs and sufferings of others. May the prayer of the dying Jesus on the cross teach us to pray with love for so many brothers and sisters who feel the burden of daily life, who are experiencing moments of difficulty, who suffer and hear no words of comfort, that they may feel the love of God Who never abandons us.

Palm Sunday

Jesus proceeded on his journey up to Jerusalem. As he drew near to Bethphage and Bethany at the place called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples.He said, “Go into the village opposite you, and as you enter it you will find a colt tethered on which no one has ever sat.Untie it and bring it here.And if anyone should ask you,‘Why are you untying it?’ you will answer,‘The Master has need of it.’” So those who had been sent went off and found everything just as he had told them. And as they were untying the colt, its owners said to them, “Why are you untying this colt?”They answered,“The Master has need of it.” So they brought it to Jesus,threw their cloaks over the colt, and helped Jesus to mount. As he rode along,the people were spreading their cloaks on the road; and now as he was approaching the slope of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of his disciples began to praise God aloud with joy for all the mighty deeds they had seen. They proclaimed:“Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord.Peace in heaven and glory in the highest.” Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him,“Teacher, rebuke your disciples.”He said in reply,“I tell you, if they keep silent,the stones will cry out!”

-Luke 19:28-40

How will Jerusalem welcome her Messiah? Although Jesus had always refused popular attempts to make him king, he chooses the time and prepares the details for his messianic entry into the city of "his father David". Acclaimed as son of David, as the one who brings salvation (Hosanna means "Save!" or "Give salvation!"), the "King of glory" enters his City "riding on an ass". Jesus conquers the Daughter of Zion, a figure of his Church, neither by ruse nor by violence, but by the humility that bears witness to the truth. And so the subjects of his kingdom on that day are children and God's poor, who acclaim him as had the angels when they announced him to the shepherds. Their acclamation, "Blessed be he who comes in the name of the Lord", is taken up by the Church in the Sanctus of the Eucharistic liturgy that introduces the memorial of the Lord's Passover.

-CCC 559

Almighty and Everlasting God, You have given the human race Jesus Christ our Savior as a model of humility. He fulfilled Your Will by becoming Man and giving His life on the Cross. Help us to bear witness to You by following His example of suffering and make us worthy to share in His Resurrection.

We ask this through Christ, our Lord

Amen.

As Lent Approaches

Every year around this time I begin thinking about what book or devotional I would like to pray with during the 40 days of Lent. Coupled with the tradition of "giving up something" for Lent, I have found that adding something to my prayer time to be quite fruitful. I know that there are many devotionals out there that are specifically tied into the daily Mass readings for Lent or contain collections of the writings of the Saints or Popes. I remember a couple years back, I set aside a particular time each day to prayerfully read through the Book of Exodus. I found that reading through Exodus during the Lenten season helped me to come to a greater understanding of the new Exodus (Luke 9:31) of Jesus, particularly during Holy Week.

So, do you have any recommendations? Do you have any traditions which you return to each Lent?

Let Lent Begin

"We are ambassadors for Christ,as if God were appealing through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ,be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who did not know sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him.
Working together, then,we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. For he says: In an acceptable time I heard you,and on the day of salvation I helped you. Behold, now is a very acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation."

- 2 Corinthians 5:20-6:2

The USCCB has a site dedicated to lent, which includes prayers, audio, and other resources. Enjoy...but not too much because its lent!

Lenten Posting

Some of you may have noticed that my blogging has been a bit sparse the last few weeks. Well, there is a good reason for this. I am entering my last semester of S.T.B. studies at the seminary and therefore getting closer to the final S.T.B. comprehensive exam which will take place during Holy Week. Yes, Holy Week! Its funny how that works out.

So, along with the usual class and ministry work, I am spending a lot of time reviewing for the comprehensive exam, which is now just over a month away. Therefore, don't be surprised if my posting continues to be down a bit during Lent. I do have some ideas for future posts and a new series of posts, but I also welcome any ideas from you. I will also gratefully accept any prayers! :)