Wednesday, April 06, 2011

TNEL Day 28: Lent is LONG!

WHEW! Who knew Lent was so long?? Four weeks down and still two to go. I'm trying not to scrape the bottom of the barrel for things to be thankful for but sometimes it's hard to come up with something meaningful or at least not completely trivial. But it's good that Lent is 6 weeks long. Whether you give up something or add something, you need an extended period of time to reflect on what you're actually doing. A book I recently read by Henri Nouwen, The Return of the Prodigal Son, comments on gratitude not just as a spontaneous response but as a discipline -- a mindset that you develop so that you come to understand that all of life is a gift of grace. I really like that idea, and it fits with what I'm trying to do here. So I guess I am grateful that I have 2 more weeks to go ...
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2 comments:

  1. FranceenApril 8, 2011 at 10:24 AM

    Hi Jeannie,

    I'm really enjoying your Lenten thoughts, and am grateful for them! Day 28's theme reminded me of words that have meant a great deal to me for the past 40 years or so. It's a little meditation on the subject of the Beatitude, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for their is the Kingdom of Heaven" from a little book called "Living Prayer" by Archbishop Anthony Bloom:

    "...the poverty that opens the kingdom of heaven lies in the knowledge that if nothing that is mine is really mine, then everything that is mine is a gift of love, divine or human love, and that makes things quite different. If we realise that we have no being in ourselves, and yet we exist, we can say that there is a sustained unceasing act of divine love. If we see that whatever we have, we can in no wise compel to be ours, then everything is divine love, concretely expressed at every single moment; and then poverty is the root of perfect joy because all we have proves love."

    Thanks for your Lenten window into the Kingdom of God!

    Love,

    Franceen

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  2. JeannieApril 8, 2011 at 2:12 PM

    Thanks Franceen -- that's a lovely and very profound quotation.

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