Lenten Meditations: Sunday 28 February

Feb 28, 2021 by Jill

SECOND SUNDAY OF LENT

LITURGICAL THEME FOR THE DAY:  :   Protopresbyter Alexander Schmemann once wrote about the idea of Lent that “To understand the various liturgical particularities of the Lenten period, we must remember that they express and convey to us the spiritual meaning of Lent and are related to the central idea of Lent, to its function in the liturgical life of the Church. It is the idea of repentance. This repentance is known as a metanoia/ metanoia . Repentance, for us in this context addresses the idea of a deep, radical reevaluation of our whole life, of all our ideas, judgments, and concerns. The hope for us in making such a conversion is that we will be faithful in resisting temptation and living each day in our Lenten journey with a renewal and new commit­ment in Christ.

MEDITATION OF THE DAY:  In this letter to the Romans, Saint Paul is attending to the  church in Rome where  Gentile Christians and the Jewish Christians  were in a state of disunity. They were in need of being  reconciled to one another. Of course, the issue then was that  he wanted the Jewish Christians to recognize that faith in Jesus Christ did not require conversion to Judaism first. Paul explains that becoming a member of God’s people depends on one thing and one thing only: faith. Paul reminds us that even Abraham wasn’t a Jew. He was a Gentile. The key point of reflection is that  everyone comes to relationship with God the same way Abraham did – through faith which typically requires the change of heart. Paul reminds us that  Abraham’s faith serves as a reminder for  all who trust in God, both Jew and gentile, are children of Abraham. In these days of significant cultural deliverances this story offers some hope that such divides can be crossed in faith.

PRAYER OF THE DAY:  O Gracious God, we ask you to open our hearts to the call of faith  and free us from the things that keeps us from making a journey of faith so that we may  look upon your Son who calls us to repentance and a change of heart, for he lives and reigns with you for ever and ever.  Amen

ANCIENT WISDOM/PRESENT GRACE:  “And we, too, being called by His will to Christ Jesus, are not justified by ourselves, nor by our own wisdom, or understanding or godliness, or works which we have wrought in holiness of heart; but by that faith through which, from the beginning, Almighty God has justified all men; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.” – St. Clement of Rome

Lenten Discipline – Most of us know at least one person or family who’s lost much during the pandemic of COVID. Consider an act of kindness great or small where  you can  be a servant and witness faith  to them.

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