Palm Sunday

Readings for Palm Sunday:

Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29 Luke 19:28-40

A Prayer for the Day:

O God, you make us glad with the weekly remembrance of the glorious resurrection of your Son our Lord: Give us this day such blessing through our worship of you, that the week to come may be spent in your favor; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.*

A Prayer for the Week:

Almighty and everliving God, in your tender love for the human race you sent your Son our Savior Jesus Christ to take upon him our nature, and to suffer death upon the cross, giving us the example of his great humility: Mercifully grant that we may walk in the way of his suffering, and also share in his resurrection; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.*

*From The Book of Common Prayer

[This is part of 40 Days of Prayer: Daily Emails for Lent]

Day 34: Returning to God with Our Souls

This week's reflections have tried to form something of a roadmap for how we can return to God in a an authentic and thorough way, for the remainder of our lives. When all of these pieces (our minds, hearts/spirits/wills, bodies, and relationships) are headed in the same Godward direction together, our souls will also find their home in life as God intended it to be lived. We have immense trouble today acknowledging that we have souls, and even when we do–having any clue what they are or what to do about them. Since this week's framework has largely come from Dallas Willard's book, Renovation of the Heart, and his description of the soul is about the only one that has ever made much sense to me, allow me to quote a couple of paragraphs:

What is running your life at any given moment is your soul. Not external circumstances, or your thoughts, or your intentions, or even your feelings, but your soul. The soul is that aspect of your whole being that correlates, integrates, and enlivens everything going on in the various dimensions of the self. It is the life-center of the human being. It regulates whatever is occurring in each of those dimensions and how they interact with each other and respond to surrounding events in the overall governance of your life. The soul is "deep" in the sense of being basic or foundational and also in the sense that it lies almost totally beyond conscious awareness.

In the person with the "well-kept heart," the soul will be itself properly ordered under God and in harmony with reality. The outcome will be... "a person who is prepared for and capable of responding to the situations of life in ways that are good and right." For such a person, the human spirit will be in correct relationship to God. With his assisting grace, it will bring the soul into subjection to God and the mind (thoughts, feelings) into subjection to the soul. The social context and the body will then come into subjection to thoughts and feelings that are in agreement with truth and with God's intent and purposes for us. Any given event in our life would then proceed as it should, because our soul is functioning properly under God.(5)

In another place, Dallas compares the soul to something like the operating system on your computer. We never notice the large majority of what happens there, though it is the regulator of everything we experience. Our operating systems and our souls normally only get much attention when something goes badly wrong with them.

So how do we direct them in our desire to return to God? We have to clear out space in our lives for God's grace to work at the soul level, deeper than our feelings. The two primary practices the church has hung on to through the ages for doing this are silence and solitude. We all need these, regardless of whether we are introverts or extroverts, because otherwise we will drown out anything that may be happening at that level–more often than not, with good things.

If we want our entire lives to return to God this Lent and beyond, we cannot do without time in quiet, apart from other people, for the simple purpose of being with God. Wesley urged his early Methodists to retire from the world at least each morning and evening to be alone with God, saying that if we spend an entire day in constant interactions with others, our souls will surely be damaged.

So now that we've come to the brink of Holy Week, how is your soul? Is it well-kept and prepared to follow Jesus through the next week? Or is it so accustomed to being ignored that you might avoid giving it any space to be with God, even during this most sacred of times?

A Prayer for the Day:

Almighty God, who after the creation of the world rested from all your works and sanctified a day of rest for all your creatures: Grant that we, putting away all earthly anxieties, may be duly prepared for the service of your sanctuary, and that our rest here upon earth may be a preparation for the eternal rest promised to your people in heaven; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.*

A Prayer for the Week:

Almighty and everliving God, in your tender love for the human race you sent your Son our Savior Jesus Christ to take upon him our nature, and to suffer death upon the cross, giving us the example of his great humility: Mercifully grant that we may walk in the way of his suffering, and also share in his resurrection; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.*

Click here for this week's scripture readings.

*From The Book of Common Prayer (5) See Dallas Willard, Renovation of the Heart

[This is part of 40 Days of Prayer: Daily Emails for Lent]

Day 33: Returning to God with Our Relationships

Though we have all probably heard to the contrary, there is nothing that is actually "just between you and God." Everything about our lives with God inevitably affects others. Plus, as inescapably social beings, our lives with God are always affected by others. So, in the context of this week's discussions, talking about returning to God with our relationships is a bit of a chicken-and-egg discussion. Our relationships play a huge role in shaping the quality of our life with God, and the quality of our life with God shapes every relationship we have. Let's look first at the way that our relationships impact our life with God: We do not become spiritually healthy people apart from spiritually healthy community. John Wesley was perhaps (in my biased opinion) as effective as any in Christian history at helping individuals grow, but he insisted that we do not progress in life with God on our own. He said, “'Holy solitaries' is a phrase no more consistent with the gospel than holy adulterers. The gospel of Christ knows of no religion but social; no holiness but social holiness."(3)

The application here is obnoxiously simple: if you want to be someone who has more of the character of Jesus, spend more time with more people who have more of the character of Jesus.

So what about the other side of it–thinking that things are just between me and God? Wesley again: "Christianity is essentially a social religion...to turn it into a solitary one is to destroy it."(4) Part of Jesus' point in saying that his hearers were a city on a hill that cannot be hidden is this inevitability of our lives affecting those around us. I would not want to try to hide New York. It is just as difficult to keep anything between just God and me.

Some considerations for each side of this:

• When I look back at the path of my Christian life, a major turning point was when, before my senior year of college, I sent a letter to my campus pastor. He was the most authentic disciple of Jesus I knew, and I wanted his kind of life with God. I had no idea what his schedule was like, but I asked if we could spend some time together. He invited me to be with him for an hour every week, and the course of my life changed. Think of someone whose life with God is of the kind that you desire to have. Invite them to a meal, send them an email, or give them a call. 
• Is there some area of your life where you'd prefer to think something was remaining between you and God and not affecting anyone else? If what I have said here is true, who might it be affecting without you having been aware? What do you need to do about it?

A Prayer for the Day:

Almighty God, whose most dear Son went not up to joy but first he suffered pain, and entered not into glory before he was crucified: Mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross, may find it none other than the way of life and peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.*

A Prayer for the Week:

Almighty and everliving God, in your tender love for the human race you sent your Son our Savior Jesus Christ to take upon him our nature, and to suffer death upon the cross, giving us the example of his great humility: Mercifully grant that we may walk in the way of his suffering, and also share in his resurrection; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.*

Click here for this week's scripture readings.

*From The Book of Common Prayer (3) From Wesley's preface to his "Hymns and Sacred Poems" (4) From Wesley's sermon, "Upon Our Lord's Sermon on the Mount, Discourse 4"

[This is part of 40 Days of Prayer: Daily Emails for Lent]

Day 32: Returning to God with Our Bodies

When you and I look in the mirror, we see the primary tool that God has given us to know and serve him. We have covered some of this ground in previous weeks, but it is worth revisiting since, as Dallas Willard says, the role of the body in the spiritual life is "the least understood aspect of progress in Christlikeness."(2) Your body is not the enemy in your attempts to live life with God. Instead, it is a marvelous vehicle for loving God and loving others, and it is the only instrument God has given us to do so. But... you and I know our bodies well. We know that they fail us. Jesus' statement to Peter, James, and John on his last night with them sounds truer than what I wrote in the previous paragraph: "The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak." We know too well the temptations that are ever present in our bodies, as they seem to unceasingly pull us toward gluttony, greed, lust, vanity, and all-around superficial living. Isn't the "spiritual" life about learning how to effectively tell our bodies to shut up so that we can get on with the really important things God wants of us? And, at the end of it all, isn't the point that we finally become free of these bodies, leave them behind, and go on to live the ultimate spiritual life forever with God in heaven?

That has been a prevalent Christian viewpoint for a long time, but scripture and the best of Christian tradition answer with a resounding "no." Our bodies are the height of God's good creation, and if our lives with God in this age are ever to make sense, we must come to the essential role they play in becoming the kind of people that God wants us to be–forever.

Though the importance and worth of our bodies is communicated throughout the Bible, it is nowhere stated more emphatically than in the passages dealing with Jesus' resurrection. To see how well your theology on this issue matches up with what the Bible says, notice your reaction to this statement: Jesus never left his body behind. We know that the story says his tomb was empty, but–after that–he never left his body behind. What this means is that there is still an embodied Jesus ruling as the anointed King of the world. What happened to him (being raised in his own real body–though it was different in some ways) will also happen to everyone. Our bodies really matter, and they always will, as the future that awaits us is just as embodied as the life we know now (only–in some good sense–more so).

So, in the context of this Lent and our discussion this week about returning to God, what difference does that make for the lives that we are really living in these bodies today? Willard again:

Our part in this transformation, in addition to constant faith and hope in Christ, is purposeful, strategic use of our bodies in ways which will retrain them, replacing "the motions of sin in our members" with the motions of Christ. This is how we take up our cross daily. It is how we submit our bodies a living sacrifice, how we "offer the parts of our body to him as instruments of righteousness." (Rom 6:13)(2)

In other words, those pulls away from God that we are all aware of in our bodies are not just in our imaginations, but they are real, ingrained, bodily habits that need to be dealt with. More than dealt with–they need to be "killed off," "crucified with Christ," as we replace them with habits that are conducive to God's life in us rather than opposed to it.

It is progress for us to realize that the things that block God's life in us are always bodily, whether in an obvious case like sexual lust, or in a less obvious example such as gossip. (How many times has your mouth said something before you realized what you were doing?) Yet even when we accept that, how do we deal with those things? If a main bodily stumbling block for me is overeating and finding my comfort in food rather than in God, how do I employ my body in the opposite direction?

The answer has to do with something we can call indirection. We don't defeat greed by trying really hard not to be greedy. We don't kill off the embodied habits that cut us off from God's life by just trying to do their opposites. No, we put other bodily habits in place (such as giving, praying, and fasting–or others like reflecting on the scriptures, solitude, worship, fellowship, etc.) which open us up, piece by piece, to God's grace. There is more grace than we can imagine and when we open ourselves to it through these means that have been passed down to us, our bodies become places where God dwells, and he deals with the sinful habits over time.

In light of what we've already said this week, this can only happen over the long haul when,

• first–our minds have been filled with the things that lead us to think about God as he really is, then our emotions become characterized by love, joy, and peace rather than hurry and worry;
• then–that part of us that chooses, the heart/spirit/will, naturally–even easily–chooses things that lead us in a Godward direction;
• and then–naturally, every one of those choices will be empowered by these bodies that we live in. This is true regardless of how they look, how old or young they are, and what medical issues they might be facing.

So, what is one way that you already know to "present your body to God as a living sacrifice" today?

A Prayer for the Day:

Heavenly Father, in you we live and move and have our being: We humbly pray you so to guide and govern us by your Holy Spirit, that in all the cares and occupations of our life we may not forget you, but may remember that we are ever walking in your sight; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.*

A Prayer for the Week:

Almighty and everliving God, in your tender love for the human race you sent your Son our Savior Jesus Christ to take upon him our nature, and to suffer death upon the cross, giving us the example of his great humility: Mercifully grant that we may walk in the way of his suffering, and also share in his resurrection; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.*

Click here for this week's scripture readings.

*From The Book of Common Prayer (2) See Willard's Article, "The Human Body and Spiritual Growth"

[This is part of 40 Days of Prayer: Daily Emails for Lent]

Day 31: Returning to God with Our Hearts

What I'm about to say may not make me popular with some, but here goes: I'll admit that I'm a bit gun-shy when we talk in church about doing anything with our "hearts." I think the term gets used far too often, and–perhaps because of nothing more mature than trying to be macho–I always have my radar up for things that are going to require me to do something "touchy-feely." Whenever something shows up as a blip on that radar, I usually try to avoid it, and one of the primary indicators to me that I might want to avoid something in church is if its title includes the word "heart." (If, in addition to the word, there is also any sort of heart clip art, I will almost certainly steer clear.) I'm not proud of this, and I realize that it's not a particularly holy tendency, but at least I'm being honest.

So I admit that machismo rather than maturity is mostly to blame for my anti-heart reaction, but I think there's also another level to it: usually we have very little sense of what we're talking about in church when we talk about doing things with the heart. Most of our associations with it have to do with our feelings or emotions (which explains my avoidance of anything pointing in that direction), so any suggestion that we should do things such as praying with our hearts, or reading the Bible with our hearts, or even loving God with our hearts meet my initial defenses.

Again, thanks to Dallas Willard's work in Renovation of the Heart, I've come to see that loving, reading, and praying with our hearts are all things that should have a very concrete, practical meaning. In the book, Dallas proposes that–according to the images in the scriptures–talking about doing something with our hearts isn't actually talking about our feelings or emotions, but rather about our wills (to which the macho me heaves a sigh of relief).

Dallas makes the case that references in the scriptures to the heart, the spirit, and the will are all referring to the same part of us, essentially the part of us that chooses. Regardless of whether or not you share my disinclinations toward the touchy-feely, this is actually very good news for all of us. I'll see if I can explain why.

Think for a moment of someone who, in your estimation, is "world-class" at something, perhaps a professional athlete, musician, or some other kind of performer. We normally think of such people as not only being talented, but also having tremendous willpower. They have made the difficult decisions, day after day and year after year, which have resulted in their world-class abilities.

But what if I told you that I know something surprising about whichever great performer you have in mind: that, rather than having tremendous willpower, they actually have none at all? What if I told you that neither do I, and neither do you?

This makes sense if, instead of thinking of the heart as something indefinite but related to our feelings, we think of the heart in the context of a human life as we're considering it this week (again, thanks to Dallas). If we look at the heart, spirit, will as the part of us that chooses, and we understand the ground we covered yesterday about the role that our minds play in shaping everything about who we are, we can let ourselves off the hook about not having enough willpower to do certain things, because we'll realize that the will actually has no power. Instead, it is pointed in some direction(s), and makes decisions accordingly.

Back to your world-class performer: It's undeniably true that they indeed have made the tough decisions over years and decades to refine their talents into world-class abilities. But if what I'm saying is true, they didn't make those decisions based on tremendous willpower. Rather, they put the right things into their minds, and directed their minds to dwell on those things, so that whenever big or small decisions were presented to them, their hearts/wills/spirits chose accordingly, and all of those choices added up over time to turn into remarkable abilities.

So here comes the good news: the ability we are after is the ability to live our lives according to God's desires for us, namely that we would be people with the character of Jesus who participate in his kingdom in our everyday lives. This does not rest on our willpower. More concretely: your ability (or lack thereof) to actually live without anger, lust, deception, vanity, greed, and worry–to bless those who curse you and be completely free of the need to judge others–does not depend upon you having a world-class amount of willpower. No one does. We're all off the willpower hook.

What does matter, tremendously, if we seriously want to return to God with our hearts, is that we do the things that will naturally–over the course of months, years, and decades–point our hearts/wills/spirits to choose in the direction of that kind of life.

So, if you want to live a life completely in God's will five years from now, the question is not whether you have a five-year strategic plan to get you there. The question is whether, today, you are putting the things in your mind that will shape your thoughts and feelings in such a way that, when decision times come over the next five years, you will consistently choose in that Godward direction. And–the biggest surprise is–rather than requiring tremendous willpower, it won't even be difficult. (See Matthew 11:28-29.)

A Prayer for the Day:

Lord God, almighty and everlasting Father, you have brought us in safety to this new day: Preserve us with your mighty power, that we may not fall into sin, nor be overcome by adversity; and in all we do, direct us to the fulfilling of your purpose; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.*

A Prayer for the Week:

Almighty and everliving God, in your tender love for the human race you sent your Son our Savior Jesus Christ to take upon him our nature, and to suffer death upon the cross, giving us the example of his great humility: Mercifully grant that we may walk in the way of his suffering, and also share in his resurrection; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.*

Click here for this week's scripture readings.

*From The Book of Common Prayer

[This is part of 40 Days of Prayer: Daily Emails for Lent]

Day 30: Returning to God with Our Minds

If we are going to fully return to God–as individuals, families, churches, communities, and beyond–the place that change will begin is in our thoughts. Though that might sound simple enough, we normally don't act as if it is true. Think of how many times someone has tried to urge you to change something, not by altering the way you think about it, but by some other means–primarily our emotions and our wills. Though innumerable attempts are made at guilting us into things, or getting us to grit our teeth and just try harder, neither of those are sufficient for lasting change. (If this is too abstract, just think about the the last time someone tried to convince you to do something solely by saying you don't do that thing enough–whether exercise, buying jewelry, going to church, saving for your retirement, or anything else. Even if you've acted on one of those appeals in the past, did the behavior last for you?) Tomorrow we'll discuss why the appeals to our willpower don't work, but since we're approaching this week's theme of returning to God in a step-by-step manner, we can never underestimate the primary power of what we put into our minds. In Renovation of the Heart (which provides the framework for all of this week's reflections), Dallas Willard says, "The ultimate freedom we have as human beings is the power to select what we will allow or require our minds to dwell upon." He also says, "Thoughts are the place where we can and must begin to change."(1)

Why is this the case? Because our lives inevitably follow the course of the things we think about. We live at the mercy of the stories, images, and ideas that fill our minds. They affect everything about the kind of person we are becoming. And, as Dallas said, we have tremendous freedom in selecting the things that we allow in to our minds and what our minds will dwell upon.

To make this a bit less theoretical, hopefully a recent experience of my own can help you make a connection with similar ways that your thinking affects the entirety of your life:

I recently had a stretch of seven business days, six of which contained some medical test, procedure, or minor surgery. Everything ended up just fine, but even though my attitude was very positive when the appointments began, I had about a day and a half when my resolve had worn down and my attitude crashed. It seemed like every test keep leading to something else to be done, and suddenly a multitude of "what ifs" bombarded me. Rather than redirecting my mind to other things, which would have been the wise and more sensible thing to do, I let my mind dwell on the "what ifs," and fear began to sink its claws in. "What if...my wife... What if...my kids... What if... our income..." While the what ifs and their accompanying fear were bouncing around in my mind, I found myself being anxious (which I'm usually not), impatient with others (which I am too often, but have made good strides in learning to avoid), and unmotivated by things that are normally very life-giving to me.

Thankfully, I was fresh off of a good discussion in our Apprentice Group about worry and how, in God's kingdom, we can actually learn to live without it. So, even though more of my mental energy than normal was going toward worry, I was aware–with good information still fresh in my mind–of what was going on and was able to counter it. I am very grateful that one of the things we do in those Apprentice Groups is to memorize chunks of Scripture–not just an isolated verse or two, but long passages. With those passages stored in my mind, I was eventually able to redirect my mind to them rather than my worries. When my mind was occupied in more positive ways, the fear and anxiety subsided and I began again to enjoy the people and activities that are such gracious gifts in my life.

Hopefully you can identify. Our emotions follow our thoughts. Then our wills make decisions largely based on those emotions. Then we enact those decisions in physical ways (some of which we're aware and some we are not), which inevitably affect others around us. All of this, over the months, years, and decades of our lifetimes adds up to a soul that is either able to live well with God, itself, and others, or one that is not.

I've heard Dallas say something along the lines of, "You are already in the process of becoming the kind of person you will be forever." That's true, and of all the things we'll talk about this week that we can do as part of our road map for returning to God, today's is the most foundational: everything about who we are begins to go in a Godward direction, or away from God, beginning with what we put into our minds and what we allow them to dwell on.

Consider these:

• "What are three 'thoughts' that have occupied your mind this week? Why those thoughts, and not some others? What have their effects on your life been?"(1) 
• Begin to train your mind to dwell on God more often by slowly memorizing a passage of scripture, such as Colossians 3:1-17, Psalm 23, John 14:1-27, or Romans 8:1-15. (I know what you're thinking, but yes, you can do it. God will help.)
• Or, find a time this week to read through one of the gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke or John) in one or two sittings. If you're crunched for time, Mark is the shortest–you can probably read it in about an hour and a half or less.

A Prayer for the Day:

O God, the author of peace and lover of concord, to know you is eternal life and to serve you is perfect freedom: Defend us, your humble servants, in all assaults of our enemies; that we, surely trusting in your defense, may not fear the power of any adversaries; through the might of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.*

A Prayer for the Week:

Almighty and everliving God, in your tender love for the human race you sent your Son our Savior Jesus Christ to take upon him our nature, and to suffer death upon the cross, giving us the example of his great humility: Mercifully grant that we may walk in the way of his suffering, and also share in his resurrection; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.*

Click here for this week's scripture readings.

*From The Book of Common Prayer (1) See Dallas Willard, Renovation of the Heart: Putting on the Character of Christ

[This is part of 40 Days of Prayer: Daily Emails for Lent]

Day 29: A Road Map for Returning to God

Having tried to lay good foundation by this point of what Lent is, including spending time the past three weeks in three practices that have long been central to Christians during this season, we turn a corner this week. Now, as one final preparation for Holy Week, we take a step-by-step look at how to do what Lent ultimately invites us to do: return to God. At this point in his story, Jesus is resolutely headed toward his death in Jerusalem. Hopefully, by this point in Lent, we are resolutely denying ourselves, taking up our crosses, and following him. I'll be borrowing the framework for much of this week's postings from Dallas Willard's landmark book, Renovation of the Heart. In that book, he brilliantly describes the parts of a human person and how we can go about resubmitting each of them to be transformed by God. In the course of about one page, he sets out the following two lists, and any of us could spend the rest of our lives working out their implications.

After identifying the parts of a person (which we will spend the remainder of this week exploring) he says that in life away from God, our lives function in this order (pp.40-41):

• Body
• Soul
• Mind (Thoughts/Feelings)
• Spirit
• God

In other words, when we live apart from God, it is practically inevitable that our bodies become our main concern. If you don't believe me, scan the headlines in the magazine rack of the check-out aisle the next time you're in the grocery store. Everything focuses on our bodies–how they look, how they feel, how to get more pleasure out of them–basically, a million and one ways for our bodies to make us happier. Jesus made the same observation as he was midway through the Sermon on the Mount, noting that it is natural for the Gentiles (those who knew nothing about God or his ways) to be preoccupied with what they eat, what they drink, and what they wear–to live lives centered on their bodies rather than God's kingdom.

In life apart from God, every other part of who we are serves our bodies. Our souls (the "operating system" of our lives, where most things happen at a level deeper than our awareness) orient themselves around serving our bodies. Our minds–our thoughts and our feelings–fall in line, focusing on our bodies. Our spirits (our hearts/our wills/the parts of us that decide) follow suit, making decisions to please our bodies. Then, finally, in life apart from God, God is only useful as he can add something that ultimately brings us bodily pleasure. Maybe God can get us a nicer house and a safe and comfortable life, or perhaps he'll reverse all of the bad choices I've made over decades about the things I do with my body [even while I continue in them], or surely at least I can expect him to keep me out of anything painful. (Yes, we undoubtedly have our "Christianized" versions of the grocery store check-out magazine headlines.)

This is what Paul described as "the mind set on the flesh [which] is death" (See Romans 8:5-7). Life, ultimately, does not work this way, which is precisely why God wants something else for us.

One of the best, very biblical, definitions of holiness is "a way of life that works," and Dallas identifies the order of a life under God (a holy life) like this:

• God
• Spirit
• Mind
• Soul
• Body

In this order, the body is still not bad, but rather than being the focus of everything it becomes our ally, the vehicle through which all other aspects of our lives with God can take place (which is precisely why we should properly care for it). "The body serves the soul; the soul, the mind; the mind, the spirit; and the spirit, God... The life 'from above' flows from God throughout the whole person." God is in God's proper place, rather than the body being there. (Remember all of those warnings in the Bible about idolatry?) Then the door is opened for us to actually become people who love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. This is the way that Paul describes as "life and peace."

"Okay, now that we have all of that figured out..." No, you don't, and neither do I. But we have a wealth of guidance available to us on how we can proceed. We will spend the remainder of our week being specific and practical about how we can, really, move our lives toward God and experience more of the goodness of a way of life that works.

A Prayer for the Day:

O God, the King eternal, whose light divides the day from the night and turns the shadow of death into the morning: Drive far from us all wrong desires, incline our hearts to keep your law, and guide our feet into the way of peace; that, having done your will with cheerfulness while it was day, we may, when night comes, rejoice to give you thanks; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.*

A Prayer for the Week:

Almighty and everliving God, in your tender love for the human race you sent your Son our Savior Jesus Christ to take upon him our nature, and to suffer death upon the cross, giving us the example of his great humility: Mercifully grant that we may walk in the way of his suffering, and also share in his resurrection; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.*

Click here for this week's scripture readings.

*From The Book of Common Prayer

[This is part of 40 Days of Prayer: Daily Emails for Lent]