Tomorrow evening begins our journey through the Holy Triduum - the three days beginning with Maundy Thursday and ending with Easter - days that leads us through the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus. We will be doing something slightly different in our observance of Maundy Thursday this year at Boise First. Perhaps it will help all of us to enter into the richness of the lessons. Perhaps as we remember the depth of Jesus' humility, compassion and love which was later met with betrayal, arrest and torture, our hearts will be softened and awakened to the love that is God.
A soft heart is responsive. A soft heart is resilient. A soft heart is tender ...compassionate ...forgiving ... merciful...gentle...
A soft heart is strong, and finds strength from being united to God in prayer.
I encourage you to walk this journey to Easter - no short cuts. Re-arrange your schedule. Turn your to-do list into a do-less list, and spend the extra time in prayerful contemplation and service. Make time for the journey to a soft, strong, responsive heart - a heart rooted in the God of love.
The world needs such soft, strong, prayerful hearts if it is ever to experience transformation into a world of compassion, mercy, justice, and peace:
"Prayer and action, therefore, can never be seen as contradictory or mutually exclusive. Prayer without action grows into powerless pietism, and action without prayer degenerates into questionable manipulation. If prayer leads us into a deeper unity with the Compassionate Christ, it will always give rise to concrete acts of service. And if concrete acts of service do indeed lead us to a deeper solidarity with the poor, the hungry, the sick, the dying, and the oppressed, they will always give rise to prayer. In prayer we meet Christ, and in him all human suffering. In service we meet people, and in them the suffering Christ. Action with and for those who suffer is the concrete expression of the compassionate life and the final criterion of being Christian." Henri J.M. Nouwen, Show Me The Way - Daily Lenten Readings.
Meet Christ this year on the road to new life.
May your observance of the Holy Triduum be blessed -
Kim
No comments:
Post a Comment