First Sunday in Lent - March 9, 2014

Gracious Father, we pray for your holy catholic church....Where it is corrupt, purify it; where it is in error, direct it; where in any thing it is amiss, reform it. Where it is right, strengthen it.  - Prayer for the Church, BCP p. 816

Health-conscious consumers now demand fuller disclosure about calorie counts and other nutrition information on foods.  Restaurants often resist providing this, fearing it could cost them customers.

For us as disciples, Lent offers the perfect time to ask what truly feeds us-physically, emotionally, and spiritually.  Are we being fed by God or by religion? Have our spiritual lives become so familiar and routine that they no long nourish us in healthy, vibrant ways?

The traditional approach of practicing spiritual discipline during Lent can help us identify which habits work and which do not. Giving something up may free time, energy, and focus in a surprising way. It may help us discover how much of ourselves we have invested in small, nonproductive habits.

We also may not realize that our well-intentioned spiritual practices no longer work to draw us nearer to God. Taking on a new or renewed spiritual discipline during Lent may teach us fresh and powerful ways of seeking and seeing God. We may find something previously unrecognized or untried that our souls have craved all along.

In our Prayer for the Church, we ask God to correct the church when it is wrong and strengthen it when it is right.  Lent can help each of us take those same steps. Changing our ways of seeking God-whether by giving something up or taking something on-can bump us out of our comfort zones and bring fresh insight and energy. Such changes, taken on for this brief season, can teach us exactly what feeds us in body, mind, and soul. And Lent may be the ideal time to decide if the cost of our spiritual practices is greater than the nourishment they provide.

Loving God, help us use this season to renew our practices of faith.

From Disciples on the Way by Carol Mead