Embracing the crucified Lord means embracing His Lordship.
–Sermon Excerpt
Triune Love at the Cross
Peter Leithart writes:
The cross is the work of the Father, who gave His Son in love for the world; the cross is the work of the Son, who did not cling to equality with God but gave Himself to shameful death; the cross is the work of the Spirit, through whom the Son offers Himself to the Father and who is poured out by the glorified Son. The cross displays the height and the depth and the breadth of eternal Triune love.
Lenten Quote, Day 32, on Palm Sunday
We recognize Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem as an act of great defiance. This is the city of his destiny. This is the city in which his enemies will rise up and kill him. Still he comes, comes to “give his life a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28). –Richard Jensen
Lenten Quotes, Day 31
Alleluia, how the people cheer
And palm leaves rustle as the king draws near.
~ John Beavis
And palm leaves rustle as the king draws near.
~ John Beavis
Jesus Christ is a God whom we approach without pride, and before whom we humble ourselves without despair.
~ Blaise Pascal
~ Blaise Pascal
Lenten Quote, Day 30
On this thirtieth day of Lent we hear verses from two beautiful hymns. From the famous Palm Sunday hymn:
All glory, laud, and honor,
to thee, Redeemer, King,
to whom the lips of children
made sweet hosannas ring.
And from the Lenten Ah, Holy Jesus:
For me, kind Jesus, was thy incarnation,
thy mortal sorrow, and thy life’s oblation;
thy death of anguish and thy bitter passion,
for my salvation.
Lenten Quote, Day 29
“How can we complain when He Himself was considered ‘as one struck by God and afflicted’.” (Isa. 53:4)
~ St. Therese of Lisieux
Lenten Quote, Day 28
If we realize this, then we may understand what Easter is and why it needs and presupposes Lent. For we may then understand that the liturgical traditions of the Church, all its cycles and services, exist, first of all, in order to help us recover the vision and the taste of that new life which we so easily lose and betray, so that we may repent and return to it. […] And yet the “old” life, that of sin and pettiness, is not easily overcome and changed. The Gospel expects and requires from man an effort of which, in his present state, he is virtually incapable. […] This is where Great Lent comes in. This is the help extended to us by the Church, the school of repentance which alone will make it possible to receive Easter not as mere permission to eat, to drink, and to relax, but indeed as the end of the “old” in us, as our entrance into the “new.” […] For each year Lent and Easter are, once again, the rediscovery and the recovery by us of what we were made through our own baptismal death and resurrection. —Alexander Schmemann’s Great Lent
Lenten Quote, Day 27
Here is a litany of humility by Rafael Cardinal Merry del Val (1865-1930)
O Jesus! meek and humble of heart,
Hear me.
From the desire of being esteemed,
Deliver me, Jesus.
From the desire of being loved,
Deliver me, Jesus.
From the desire of being extolled,
Deliver me, Jesus.
From the desire of being honored,
Deliver me, Jesus.
From the desire of being praised,
Deliver me, Jesus.
From the desire of being preferred to others,
Deliver me, Jesus.
From the desire of being consulted,
Deliver me, Jesus.
From the desire of being approved,
Deliver me, Jesus.
From the fear of being humiliated,
Deliver me, Jesus.
From the fear of being despised,
Deliver me, Jesus.
From the fear of suffering rebukes,
Deliver me, Jesus.
From the fear of being calumniated,
Deliver me, Jesus.
From the fear of being forgotten,
Deliver me, Jesus.
From the fear of being ridiculed,
Deliver me, Jesus.
From the fear of being wronged,
Deliver me, Jesus.
From the fear of being suspected,
Deliver me, Jesus.
That others may be loved more than I,
Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may be esteemed more than I,
Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That, in the opinion of the world, others may increase and I may decrease,
Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may be chosen and I set aside,
Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may be praised and I unnoticed,
Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may be preferred to me in everything,
Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may become holier than I, provided that I may become as holy as I should,
Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
Lenten Pastoral Meditation
Out of the most unlikely people in biblical history we discover the richest theology. The first century did not view the testimony of women as reliable. This is one reason the resurrection story is so fascinating, since the women were the first ones to witness the empty tomb. In the Gospel of John, chapter 11, Martha declares with great certainty that Jesus is not only the Lord of the living, but also of the dead. Martha is a type of the church. She demonstrates that our hope is not simply for this present world, but in a world that is fully resurrected by the Lord of life. Jesus is Lord over death and like Lazarus we too will be raised at the Last Day.
Prayer:
Gracious Father, You have raised your servant Lazarus from the dead. You have overcome the tyranny of death. Teach us to see your resurrection power in our own lives as we live in light of your resurrection. For Christ’s sake, Amen!
Lenten Quote, Day 26
Our Lenten quote this morning is a beautiful prayer by the Anglican theologian and scholar E.B. Pusey:
God, give us grace, this coming Lent, so to lay to heart our ways, that we may weary of all which is not His, from Him, to Him: and may, through Him, the Living Way, by new love and obedience, attain to Him, Who, with the Father and the Holy Ghost, is the End of our being, the Fulness of bliss of all creation, “the Eternal Infinite Truth, the origin, fountain, measure, end, and cause of all created truth,” the ever-blessed, beatific Life; to which He, of His mercy, bring us sinners, to Whom be all glory and thanksgiving and adoration and praise, for ever and ever. Amen.