Wednesday, February 17th

Wednesday, February 17th - Ash Wednesday

Mark 1:1-3
The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
As it is written in the prophet Isaiah,
“See I am sending my messenger ahead of you,
who will prepare your way;
the voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.’”

To ponder
Ignatius of Loyola chose a word for this purity of intention - indifference - and used that word in a particular way. By it, he meant being as free as humanly possible to follow the call of God. - Elizabeth Liebert, The Way of Discernment

Start by shedding
How do your beginnings go? How do you usually get started on something? Do you plan or procrastinate? Are you cautious or do you just jump right in? How is your Lenten journey beginning today?

The gospel of mark begins with a call to prepare, but this preparation looks different than the kind we’re used to. Often our preparations involve loading up - packing for a trip, shopping back-to-school sales, or cramming for a test, but this is not the sort of preparation the gospel calls us to today. Instead this preparation looks a lot like shedding - shedding what we think we know, confessing our shortcomings, and owning up to what we have and haven’t done. We shed and shed until we are capable of wild indifference (which is different from apathy), releasing our personal agendas and letting go of hoped-for outcomes until we feel quite bare. There in that stripped-down state, with empty hands, we are ready and open to receive Christ.

Prayer
God, take what you must from me until I am unburdened and therefore ready to receive what you have for me. Amen.

(from: “A Story to Tell: Devotions for Lent” Bekki Lohrmann, Harvard Stephens Jr., Lydia Posselt, David L. Miller; Augsburg Fortress, 2020)