Last week, as I was preparing for the Lenten journey, my attention was drawn to two different prayers I would like to share with you.
The first one was used at Breck at the conclusion of the Senior Speeches. This prayer comes from Satish Kumar (a Jain monk):
May God kindle in us the fire of love
to bring us alive and give warmth to the world.
Lead me from death to life; from falsehood to truth
Lead me from despair to hope, from fear to trust.
Lead me from hate to love, from war to peace.
Let peace fill our hearts, our world, our universe.
The second prayer is one Lindsay Freeman used at our clergy pre-Lenten retreat last week. This prayer comes from John O’ Donohue and is the prayer I used in my Easter blog last year:
May I have the courage today
To live the life that I would love,
To postpone my dream no longer
But do at last what I came here for
And waste my heart on fear no more.
At its core, the Lenten Journey is an invitation for us to become aware. The blessing of the journey is that it provides for us the opportunity to be intentional about moving away from whatever holds us back and toward the person God is calling us to be.
“I invite you, therefore, in the name of the Church, to the observance of a holy Lent.”