Category: Daily Reflections for Lent

Make justice your aim. —Isaiah 1:17 (NAB)

I like this translation of Isaiah’s verse better than the translation of the Bible I usually read. “Make justice your aim” is something I can do and am willing to do.

“Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.” —Luke 6:36-37

Professor and social scientist Brené Brown points out that studies show 85%-90% of the almost two million prisoners in the United States have had terrible exposure to violence and maltreatment in their past.

He brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” —Genesis 15:5

After college, my best friend Lisa and I joined the Jesuit Volunteer Corps.

Because they considered and turned away from all the transgressions that they had committed, they shall surely live; they shall not die. —Ezekiel 18:28

There is a scene near the end of C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia book The Last Battle when the children who have come to Narnia see some creatures they thought were evil take Aslan’s side as their world is ending and they are saved.

“For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.” —Matthew 7:8

Usually, when I read or hear this passage my mind goes immediately to the future.

Lent gives us a good opportunity to experiment with different types of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. It’s sort of like making New Year’s resolutions, but we can try things that we might not otherwise commit to for a year. Forty days is a long enough period to grow into a new habit while still stretching ourselves as we explore ways God might be inviting us to change.

Look to God, and be radiant; so your faces shall never be ashamed.—Psalm 34:5

My daughter came home from her high school world history class this year and said, “Mom, you wouldn’t believe how the textbook summarized Christianity!” 

“He will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left.” —Matthew 25:32-33

My daughter’s third-grade teacher was a sheep.

He ate nothing at all during those days, and when they were over, he was famished. —Luke 4:2

The story of Jesus’ temptation in the desert echoes the Israelites’ 40 years of wandering in the desert.

I’m always tempted to use Lent as a self-improvement program: a time to give up judging others, eat healthier, quit wasting my money on coffee shop treats to give it to charity instead, etc. Then I remember that Jesus didn’t go into the desert for 40 days for a self-improvement course.

When I was growing up, Lent was a drag. To me, its only significance was that on Fridays, we ordered Filet-O-Fish sandwiches instead of hamburgers at McDonald’s. Oh, and I deprived myself of desserts so that I would appreciate them more come Easter.

Call a solemn assembly; gather the people… assemble the aged; gather the children… —Joel 2:15b-16

Hopefully, after living through two years of the covid pandemic, we no longer take public gatherings for granted. Most of us didn’t go to Ash Wednesday services last year because there weren’t many in-person services then.