And So Lent Begins

This beautiful reading at Morning Praise yesterday really sets the scene for Lent perfectly.

Is not this the fast that I choose:
to loose the bonds of injustice,
to undo the thongs of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to break every yoke?

Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,
and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover them,
and not to hide yourself from your own kin?

Then your light shall break forth like the dawn,
and your healing shall spring up quickly;
your vindicator shall go before you,
the glory of God shall be your rear guard.


Photo by Susan Freitag, OSB

If you offer your food to the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the afflicted,
then your light shall rise in the darkness
and your gloom be like the noonday.

God will guide you continually,
and satisfy your needs in parched places,
and make your bones strong;
and you shall be like a watered garden,
like a spring of water, whose waters never fail.
Isaiah 58


If you'd like to hear some lovely hymns, you can listen to our schola sing six of Sr. Mary David's at this site.

Please remember our Sister Mary Philip who died this week at the age of 91. Unique in many ways, one of them was that she entered religious life at age 32, which in the 1940s was highly unusual.