for my dear friends, on the staff of Blackhawk Ministries, co-laboring to fast in keeping with Isaiah 58.
“Yet, Lord, instruct us to improve our fast
By starving sin, and taking such repast
As may our faults control…”
… George Herbert (1593-1633), The Poetical Works of George Herbert, New York: D. Appleton, 1857, p. 109-110
“Even if all the things that people prayed for happened, which they do not, this would not prove what Christians mean by the efficacy of prayer. For prayer is request. The essence of request, as distinct from compulsion, is that it may or may not be granted. And if an infinitely wise Being listens to the requests of finite and foolish creatures, of course He will sometimes grant and sometimes refuse them. Invariable “success” in prayer would not prove the Christian doctrine at all. It would prove something more like magic—a power in certain human beings to control, or compel, the course of nature.”
… C. S. Lewis (1898-1963), The Efficacy of Prayer [1958], Cincinnati: Forward Movement, 2003, p. 4
The daily postings for Lent will follow the daily Scripture readings at Blackhawk Ministries for the Preparation.
“Romantic love is blind to everything except what is lovable and lovely, but Christ’s love sees us with terrible clarity and sees us whole. Christ’s love so wishes our joy that it is ruthless against everything in us that diminishes our joy. The worst sentence Love can pass is that we behold the suffering which Love has endured for our sake, and that is also our acquittal. The justice and mercy of the judge are ultimately one.”
- Frederick Buechner
“Thou didst call, and cry aloud, and break through my deafness. Thou didst blaze forth, and shine, and scatter my blindness. Thou wert fragrant, and I drew in my breath, and pant for Thee. I tasted, and now I hunger and thirst. Thou didst touch me, and I burned for Thy peace.”
… St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430), Confessions [397], Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1886, X.xxvii, p. 263-264
Via Crucis – Pablo Sanaguano Sanchez (Ecuador)
Awe-Full
Great and holy God
awe and reverence
fear and trembling
do not come easily to us
for we are not
Old Testament Jews
or Moses
or mystics
or sensitive enough.
Forgive us
for slouching into Your presence
with little expectation
and less awe
than we would eagerly give a visiting dignitary.
We need neither Jehovah nor a buddy-
neither “the Great and Powerful Oz” nor “the man upstairs”
Help us
to want what we need…
You God and may the altar of our hearts
tremble with delight
at
Your visitation
amen.
- Frederick Ohler
