Lenten Meditations: Thursday 12 March

Mar 12, 2020 by

Thur

Mar 12

am: 119:49-72 pm: 1 Jer 17:5-10 1 Cor 2:1-13 Luke 16:19-end

 

FIRST THURSDAY IN LENT – Gregory the Great, Bishop of Rome, 604

LITURGICAL THEME FOR THE DAY:  Gregory the Great’s influence on the forms of public worship throughout Western Europe was enormous. He founded a school for the training of church musicians, and Gregorian chant (plainchant) is named for him. The schedule of Scripture readings for the various Sundays of the year, and the accompanying prayers (many of them written by him), in use throughout most of Western Christendom for the next thirteen centuries, is largely due to his passion for organization. His treatise,  On Pastoral Care, while not a work of creative imagination, shows a dedication to duty, and an understanding of what is required of a minister in charge of a Christian congregation. His sermons are still readable today, and it is not without reason that he is accounted (along with Ambrose, Jerome, and Augustine of Hippo) as one of the Four Latin Doctors (Teachers) of the ancient Church.

MEDITATION OF THE DAY:  Trust is something that is earned at least if you are a human because we are reminded that human beings oft times are not good stewards of the precious gift of trusting. This passage from Jeremiah reminds us all well of the the consequences of putting trust in the wrong person. Each of us can share story upon story of what that loss, betrayal and hurt feels like.

Perhaps that is why the metaphor being a poor plant that lives its life in deserts, unable to see when any “good” comes (NRSV “relief”), trying vainly to grow in “parched” places, uninhabited and sown with salt (Jer.17:6) resonates all too well. We know that salt, we know where and how it burns in our souls Yet if we keep our trust in the Lord we are “trees planted near water,” their leaves forever green, their fruit bountiful and continuous (Jer.17:8). Of course, that type of trust to a God we claim we do not always see is not easy but can it be any harder than the polemic of those we know who trust wrongly or rightly? The sad reality is that we human beings are mortal fickle, weak can never be perfect givers or recipients of the trust of any human being, no matter how brilliant or holy they may be. They are human like us and we will need to learn to forgive as the Lord does but trust him first and foremost.

PRAYER OF THE DAY: Father, through our observance of  a Holy Lent, help us to understand the vulnerability and simplicity needed to trust in your Son’s way for us so that we might be better witnesses of Him  who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

LENTEN DISCIPLINE – Meditate on God’s word through the use of spiritual or religious music, perhaps a Gregorian chant. Let the music and the words wash over your soul.

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