IHM: Lent Reflections

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Week One Week Two Week Three Week Four Week Five Easter

Reflection for Lent 2010 - Week One

The One we await is already among us. HOW DO WE SEE?

As we realized during Advent, it takes courage to see that the One we await is already present to us...in our midst. That Presence calls on us for commitment to grow and respond.

During Lent, we look forward to the transformation which will help us to see and respond to that Presence by examining what prevents us from seeing and what enables us to see.

Most loving God, we ask that the fear
which feeds our doubting your Presence
be erased by the experience of Your care and Your call to us
to act with You and with Your compassion.

Quench our doubt and strengthen our belief
so that we become more fully aware
of Your life and work in us and through us.

Reflection - Week Two

The One we await is already among us. HOW DO WE SEE?

What is it in us that prevents us from accepting that God is present and working in our lives?

What do we need to enable us to see that Presence in and around us?

How do we begin to see more clearly what we are being called to be and to do?

Ever-present and loving God, change my heart to be willing
to risk following You,
May I find a safe haven in your Presence
which draws me to see you in myself and others
as we work together
to bring about
the world of justice and peace
that You envision for us.

Reflection for Lent 2010 - Week Three

The One we await is already among us. HOW DO WE SEE?

Recognizing that fear and need for security can prevent us from seeing and responding to that Presence which is always with us, we ask, "What will enable us to see more clearly the Holy Reality which surrounds us with undemanding and accepting love?"

Ever-present and surrounding Love,
help us to see you in all of your creation.
By respecting and looking with reverence on our world,
on one another and on our fellow creatures,
may we begin to let your love enrich us
and all that you have made.

May disrespect and misuse of your gifts
embodied in our judgments and need for power
be cleansed from our hearts and actions
so that we may see clearly that we are called
to embody your Presence in our world.

Reflection for Lent 2010 - Week Four

The One we await is already among us. HOW DO WE SEE?

Looking to our experience, we can see that life and death are intimately connected.

The seed must die to bear fruit. Seasons must fade and change to beget new life.

Yet, mortality and immortality seem to be mutually exclusive; but, in Christ, new life comes out of death.

What can help us to see what in our lives must die so that we can live more fully?

What will enable us to move through the many kinds of deaths which are part of life to the freedom which living with awareness of the Divine Presence can give us?

Loving God, You are the essence of life
which is Your gift to us in so many ways.
Help us to turn from fear of dying
to the joy of expectation,
seeing that Your will for us
is that we may have the fullness of life forever.

Let us find in the life and death of Jesus
the pattern for our own lives...
freedom to love and serve and live
in the light of your embracing Presence
which calls us to be that Presence for our world.

Reflection for Lent 2010 - Week Five

The One we await is already among us. HOW DO WE SEE?

Looking to our experience, we can see that life and death are intimately connected. The seed must die to bear fruit. Seasons must fade and change to beget new life. Yet, mortality and immortality seem to be mutually exclusive; but, in Christ, new life comes out of death.

What can help us to see what in our lives must die so that we can live more fully?

What will enable us to move through the many kinds of deaths which are part of life to the freedom which living with awareness of the Divine Presence can give us?

Loving God, You are the essence of life
which is Your gift to us in so many ways.
Help us to turn from fear of dying
to the joy of expectation,
seeing that Your will for us
is that we may have the fullness of life forever.

Let us find in the life and death of Jesus
the pattern for our own lives &
freedom to love and serve and live
in the light of your embracing Presence
which calls us to be that Presence for our world.

Reflection for Easter

A green shoot grows
Out of an old tree stump.
Announcing to the world
That power lies within death.

All the resurrections
Ever birthed in this world
Find a sister
In this green shoot growing.

Things in me that have died,
The worn-out and the worthless,
They are waiting to give rise
To some green shoot
Of a sister.

They are inviting me
To faith in resurrection
And reverence
For old tree stumps.

Joyce Rupp
Rest Your Dreams on a Little Twig

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