Final Lenten Post

A Few Words From Thomas Merton

Christians are not trying to steal something from God that God does not want them to have.

On the contrary, they are striving with their whole heart to fulfill the will of God and lay hands upon that which God created them to receive.

And what is that?

It is nothing else nut a participation in the life, and wisdom, and joy and peace of God's own self.

FromThe Desert: An Anthology for Lent, by John Moses, Morehouse Publishing, 1997, pp.113.

Psalm 95

God is before all things, and in God, all things hold together.

                                                                                                                                 -Colossians 1:17

Psalm 95

¹ O come, let us sing to the Lord;
   let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! 
² Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;
   let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise! 
³ For the Lord is a great God,
   and a great King above all gods. 
⁴ In his hand are the depths of the earth;
   the heights of the mountains are his also. 
⁵ The sea is his, for he made it,
   and the dry land, which his hands have formed. 

⁶ O come, let us worship and bow down,
   let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker! 
⁷ For he is our God,
   and we are the people of his pasture,
   and the sheep of his hand. 

O that today you would listen to his voice! 
⁸   Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah,
   as on the day at Massah in the wilderness, 
⁹ when your ancestors tested me,
   and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work. 
¹⁰ For forty years I loathed that generation
   and said, ‘They are a people whose hearts go astray,
   and they do not regard my ways.’ 
¹¹ Therefore in my anger I swore,
   ‘They shall not enter my rest.’

A Meditation on Psalm 131

A Meditation on Psalm 131

by Rev'd. Gretchen Grimshaw

Psalm 131

A Song of Ascents. Of David.


O Lord, my heart is not lifted up,

  

my eyes are not raised too high;


I do not occupy myself with things
 too great and too marvellous for me. 


But I have calmed and quieted my soul,
  

 like a weaned child with its mother;
  

my soul is like the weaned child that is with me.


O Israel, hope in the Lord
 from this time on and for evermore.

A Meditation on Psalm 131

Gracious God of hope from this time on and forevermore,

Here I am, again. Standing before you in need of….so many things.

Here I am, again. Standing before you with such humility.

Again, here I am. Kneeling before you

with eyes that have witnessed too much, and seen too little.

Again, here I am. Wanting before you,

with a heart that has beaten itself and broken its promises.

O God, how can you trust me?

Marvelous Creator of hope from this time on and forevermore,

Here I am, once more.

Having encountered so many transgressions  against justice & love, 
by my own hand.

Here I am, once more.

Having settled at least a part of the score with my own conscience.

One more time, here I am.

As a child of some experience, but little understanding.

One more time, here I am.

As I try to let loose another piece of my beastly independence.

O God, how can you believe in me?

Great Source of life and hope from this time on and forevermore,

Here I am, with You etched on my heart.

Here I am, with Your likeness shining through my eyes.

Here I am, with Your breath in my lungs.

Here I am, with Your promise in my bones.

O God, how can anything be too great or too marvelous for us?