A wonderful Lenten reflection for today from Pope Francis

 

The righteous will answer him and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you?’ And the king will say to them in reply, ‘Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.’ (Mt 25: 37-40)

May our concern for the poor always be marked by Gospel realism. Our sharing should meet the concrete needs of the other, rather than being just a means of ridding ourselves of superfluous goods. Here too, Spirit-led discernment is demanded, in order to recognize the genuine needs of our brothers and sisters and not our own personal hopes and aspirations. What the poor need is certainly our humanity, our hearts open to love. Let us never forget that “we are called to find Christ in them, to lend our voice to their causes, but also to be their friends, to listen to them, to speak for them and to embrace the mysterious wisdom which God wishes to share with us through them” (Evangelii Gaudium, 198). Faith teaches us that every poor person is a son or daughter of God and that Christ is present in them. “Just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me” (Mt 25:40).

— Homily, 24 January 2021

Encouragement for Orthodox Christians on Holy Friday

 

The special beauty and poetry of Great Thursday for Orthodox Christians...

It's Holy Week for Orthodox Christians. Below are two photos and messages from Palestine. I seldom edit these posts because I like their poetry and I think that they can be understood and appreciated as they are. 

Thursday Evening

As the evening we enter from the light of the Great Thursday to the pain of Friday, the day of Christ's pains and death and burial, when the Liturgy Friday evening begins with the service of the Gospel of Pain, which is the Friday magic prayer. As Jesus followed us on the Great Thursday to the High, we follow him on Great Friday to the Glorious Glorious.

Today's service is very old, its notes go back to early Christian times, to the prayers of the Church of Orchlem and three elements included:

- The first consists of sailing, readings and night eviction from the Mount of Olives to the Church of the Resurrection where the grave of Christ is;
- The second includes prostration for the remains of the Holy Cross;
- The third includes prayers and recitations in the same place of iron.

This day is not just a symbol of copper and a symbol of it, it does not stop when it comes to past. It is a day when evil shall prevail, but it shall be defeated at the feet of the Lord Jesus.

Ahead of this redemption event that the Lord Jesus Christ hoped for by his voluntary sacrifice on the cross raises the following question: We who call ourselves Christians, should we not often make our own logic as the logic of this world that ruled Jesus by death?

Which side would we stand if we were living in the Oracle of Pilates Days? This is the question that addresses us with every word from Great Friday service.

Today is the Day of the Decoration of this real world, not the Symbolic, and the Day of our true Religion, not the weather.

It is a revelation of the nature of this world that favored and still favors darkness over light, evil over good and death over life. This is the world that Christ condemned to death has condemned himself to death. And we are as much as we accept his spirit, sin and betrayal to God as we are condemned.
And this day remains the day of redemption with excellence, for the death of the saviour has appeared a death to save us. Christ's death is the peak of revelation of His mercy and love. And in the end he is my salvation because he breaks down the very fountain of death itself: evil. Through all his pains, Christ alone was victorious because evil cannot do anything against him

We also received this:

Great Thursday

1- Thursday morning
Great Thursday enters us into the secret secret of the Great.
Today's prayers are defined by four events:
1- The Lord's Last Supper with His disciples.
1- Washing the feet of the pupils.
1- The Lord's prayer in the body.
1- The betrayal of Judah.

The first two events reveal the love of God in the world. The third event reveals the obedience of Jesus to God the Father until death. While the fourth event, the betrayal of Judas, reveals the secret of sin which is the deviation of love and distorting it towards something not worthy of love. This is the secret of sin that pushed Christ to the cross.

Thursday as we remember Jesus' final hours with his disciples, handed over and judged by Jewish and Romanian authorities. Therefore, the main topic of this day is "Loving to the End":

“Jesus knew that the hour had come to pass from this world to his Father, he loved his own, whom in the world, loved them to the end” (John 13:21). Love to the end extends to death, to the broken body and bloodshed, this is the truth that Jesus announced at the secret dinner with his disciples where the secret of the pride founded a secret counselor advising them to eat his body and drink his blood and make remembrance of what He did on this last dinner.

This is how we are, in every holy place, fulfilling what Jesus commanded us to do. So on this day Jesus presented his body and blood as a lie, and he entered into his pain. It remains that the secret meaning of dinner is that "It is not by bread alone that man lives", but by the bread that comes down to us from above that is full. May God give us food and drink in Christ Jesus.

A Splendid Lenten Reflection By Grace Okerson

It was a joy for me to read this brief Lenten Devotional written by Grace Okerson and sent on by the Methodist Federation for Social Action.

2022 Lent Devotional: Week 5

By Grace Okerson

“Without community, there is no liberation...but community must not mean a shedding of our differences, nor the pathetic pretense that these differences do not exist.” – Audre Lorde

This quote by Audre Lorde always reminds me that liberation is intricately connected to the company we keep; we are all connected---for better or for worse.

So much of my personal and professional work over the past five years has been centered around being connected to those around me, especially those on the margins. I served as a missionary through the General Board of Global Ministries for two years in Detroit, MI with the NOAH Project tackling issues around homelessness. It was there that I developed a deep passion for social justice and mission. It was that work in Detroit and the glaring intersection between homelessness and mass incarceration that fed my passion and interest of prison abolition and led me to seminary which has informed my advocacy and work in ways I could not have imagined. Those that I worked alongside were different than I was, but it was those differences that fueled a beautiful relationship full of awe and wonder. It was those differences that made it clear that there was work to be done together if the liberation of all God’s people was to be achieved.

As Christians, we need to focus on liberation. Liberation and freedom are a part of God’s intention for humanity. When looking at creation and the imago Dei, we can see that God’s intention for humanity was mutuality, respect, and valuing of one another. God’s intention was for all humans to have dignity and worth. God created us to be bound up with one another. Adam and Eve were “bone of bone and flesh of flesh,” intricately connected to one another for better or for worse. Humanity was created to be free. Although we are radically free, there is responsibility in said freedom. The freedom we have is for something. It is for creation, for God, and for others. Freedom for is not power over something or someone. It is freedom that is oriented toward the flourishing of the earth, of one another, and for receiving God within our lives. To be made in the image of God is to participate in God’s freedom within what is given to us. The freedom for one another causes us to be dependent upon one another.

As a queer, Black woman, belonging is something that I have always craved. I have always strived to be “enough” and have tried to contort myself to fit into the boxes that society has made for me. Rather than try to find a box that can encompass my identity, I have found that I need to get rid of the boxes entirely. I was not created to fit into a box or conform to societal standards. I was fearfully and wonderfully made in the image of God tasked to bring Christ’s kin-dom here on earth. I am different. And my difference matters, and makes me unique. I am a person who values community above all else and strives to create inclusive and affirming communities where individual flourishing can be realized. When thinking about freedom and liberation, I often love to ask others the following question: “Who would you be if you were allowed to flourish in all the desires of your heart?”

The answer to that question is at the heart of liberation. The answer to that question is the gateway to figuring out how we all can become radically free. Let’s get free together.

You make our collective work possible by your witness for justice every day in your church, community, and Annual Conference. MFSA does not receive any financial support from the United Methodist Church's giving channels. 100% of our budget is funded through your membership dues and your generosity in giving.

A Florida native, Grace Okerson is a first year Master of Divinity Student studying at Candler School of Theology @ Emory in Atlanta, Georgia. She is pursuing a concentration in Chaplaincy with the hope of going into hospital and/or hospice chaplaincy. She wants to journey with people through their grief and in their points of crisis, putting her own gifts, talents, and lived experience of grief to use.

Equipped with a Master of Arts in Public Ministry from Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, Grace’s passions surround dismantling white supremacy and prison abolition. Grace graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Social Science with minors in Diversity and Social Inequality, Women and Gender Studies, and Journalism Studies from the University of Central Florida.

From 2017-2019, Grace then served as Global Mission Fellow with the General Board of Global Ministries as the Lunch & Volunteer Coordinator at the NOAH Project, an agency tackling issues around homeless in downtown Detroit, MI.

Grace currently works with McCormick Theological Seminary’s Solidarity Building Initiative as the Special Projects Coordinator & Content Curator. Through a praxis of curious- learning, innovative-action, and active-reflection, Grace has imagined into existence life-giving solutions and collaborative partnerships towards justice-making and solidarity-building with those who have been marginalized by hyper incarceration.

Grace is a certified candidate for ordained ministry in the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church and plans to continue her ministry as a deacon. When she is not working or in school, you can find Grace exploring the city and traveling the globe. Grace enjoys walks, reading, writing, and taking naps on the beach.

Beyond fasting: 10 tips for a more meaningful Lent By Joe Iovino

I'm lifting this article by Joe Iovino from the United Methodist Now webpage, a great resource for Methodists and the Methodist-curious. You can sign up for an e-mail newsletter and other ways of connecting there---highly recommended!


Lent is a time for self-reflection and deepening one's relationship with God in Jesus Christ. For many this season leading up to Easter will be weeks of giving up something they enjoy. Others will spend extra time in devotions and prayer, while a few more will carry a cross or nail in their pocket as a reminder of the sacrifice Jesus made for them and the whole world.

If those practices work for you, wonderful! Others may want to find another way of observing this holy season. Consider adopting one or more of the following creative uses of the days between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday.

1. Apologize to someone

Lent is a season of repentance. Most often we think of asking God for forgiveness from our sin, but that is only half of the story. Most sins include hurting others, which mattered to Jesus. He taught that if during worship if you "remember that your brother or sister has something against you... First make things right with your brother or sister and then come back and offer your gift." (Matthew 5:23-24 CEB). Lent is a great time to seek forgiveness from those we have harmed.

2. Perform random acts of kindness

Express your love for Jesus by loving others. Pay for the order of the person behind you in the drive-through. Give an extravagant tip. Carry gift cards to give away. Ask others how they are doing, then stop and listen to their responses. Share the love of Jesus in any way you can think of each day during Lent.

3. Delve into a book of the Bible

Enhance your devotions by getting to know a book of the Bible well. Read it repeatedly, at least once in a single sitting. Find articles about it. Meditate on it with a commentary. Memorize portions of it. Pray through it. Google sermons about it. Find hymns based upon it. In the six weeks of Lent, you could develop a deep understanding of a book of the Bible about which you have always been curious.

4. Serve people in need

Identify an organization with which you would like to participate. Find out what is required to become a volunteer, then sign up to serve throughout the season of Lent. When Jesus washed his disciples' feet at the Last Supper, he taught that we are called not to be served, but to serve (John 13:1-17).

5. Visit the lonely

Jesus also taught his disciples to treat others as we would treat him. This included visiting those who are sick and in prison (Matthew 25:31-36). Talk to local nursing homes, children’s hospitals, prisons, senior centers or any other place where people need some human contact. Although Covid protocols may prevent in-person contact, you can send a card, make a phone call or seek another way to let someone know you care. If a facility allows for in-person visits, find out how you may visit (observing all procedures to keep everyone safe). When together, play games, look at photos albums, tell stories and enjoy those about whom Jesus said, "When you have done it for [them], you have done it for me."

6. Read Wesley's sermons about the Sermon on the Mount

These 13 sermons (see Matthew) are central to the message of John Wesley. They make up a little more than one-quarter of the fifty "Standard Sermons" he gave to his Methodist lay preachers to teach them "the essentials of true religion" ("The Sermons of John Wesley – An Introduction"). Reading these sermons will have you focused on Jesus' Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) and give you a sense of what it means to be a United Methodist in the tradition of John Wesley.

7. Tell others you love them

Some of us struggle to say those three little words. Maybe we assume others already know how we feel. Maybe we think we show our love and don't need to say it. Or maybe we are concerned it won't be reciprocated. Fight the fear and say "I love you" to friends, family members, and everyone else you love at least once during the season.

8. Throw a party for everyone

Jesus often used the image of a party to describe the Kingdom of God. He talked about wedding receptions and banquet feasts, and participated in several large group celebrations. Host your own Kingdom party! You may choose to keep your gathering limited to family members or those with whom you regularly socialize during our pandemic era. You may choose to cook for the neighborhood or office colleagues, preparing to go containers and invite others to stop by for a take home meal. Keep this act of love festive with fun napkins and other decorations.

9. Serve in worship

Your church needs you. For those meeting in person, sing in the choir, usher, serve as a reader, work with the tech team or find some other way to serve your church. For those meeting remotely, ask your church staff how you might be able to help, including sending out cards or making phone calls to people on the church prayer list. Don't wait for someone to ask you to use your God-given gifts. Offer yourself in service to your church for the season.

10. Say "thank you"

Parents, family members, mentors, coaches, teachers, authors, pastors, Sunday school teachers, and others have shaped you into the person you are. Each week during Lent, send a note of gratitude to one of them. Tell them how much they meant to you and how they inspired you. Consider including a small gift. Even if you do not know that author or speaker personally, draft an email of thanks.

There are many ways to be observant during Lent. Be original. Find yours.

Joe Iovino works for UMC.org at United Methodist Communications. He may be reached at jiovino@umcom.org. Please share with him your creative ideas for observing Lent.


This story was originally posted on February 23, 2015, and updated March 21, 2022.

“The invitation is to all:” A Wesley hymn devotion for Lent

From the United Methodist Church:

United Methodists are likely to sing Charles Wesley’s “Come, Sinners, to the Gospel Feast” sometime during Lent, the weeks leading up to Easter. The hymn invites everyone to receive new life in Jesus Christ.

Some people have a spiritual gift for making others feel welcome. Gifted parents make their sons and daughters’ fiancées feel part of the family on their first Easter together. Generous students and welcoming coworkers eat lunch with those who are new. Kind church members alleviate the anxiety of parents of squirming kids by offering a warm smile from across the row.

Jesus demonstrated the ability to turn a stranger into a friend. He ate with those whom others kept at arm’s length; chose a tax collector as part of his inner circle; and made Samaritans heroes in his stories. Jesus invited all to follow him, regardless of their personal history or social standing.

Read lots more here.

2022 Lent Devotional: Week 4 By Pastor Miguel Estrada---A Profound Lesson From The Methodist Federation For Social Action---And Please Boycott Wendy's

From the Methodist Federation for Social Action:

2022 Lent Devotional: Week 4

By Pastor Miguel Estrada

During the 2018 season of Lent, the Alliance for Fair Food (AFF), the ally organization of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), recruited pastors and other Christian leaders who are in solidarity with the CIW to offer short Lenten reflections that intersect lent, a time of discipline and self-determination with the ongoing struggle for Fair Food. These reflections were released to our Interfaith Network as part of our Lenten reflection series.

At the same time that we at AFF were working on gathering these reflections, a team of 7, farmworkers and organizers were in NYC for 3 months with the goal of mobilizing solidarity for CIW’s Freedom Fast, a 5-day fast outside of the offices of Wendy’s majority owner and Board Chairman, Nelson Peltz. The Fast was demanding that Wendy’s join the rest of the fast-food industry in supporting CIW’s Fair Food Program (FFP), a program with groundbreaking worker protections, including protections against sexual violence, while at the same time protesting the ongoing human rights abuses faced by workers in Mexico’s produce industry where Wendy’s was buying its tomatoes.

It’s important to know that this action was being organized in the context of the #MeToo movement. At that time, many women, inspired by the unprecedented power of this movement, were looking for long-term, proven solutions to sexual harassment and assault in the workplace. An answer to this national scourge had emerged from one of the most unlikely corners of society: the farmworker community of Immokalee, Florida.

For generations, farmworker women have endured some of the most hostile working conditions this country has to offer. Farmworker women have referred to the constant barrage of catcalls, groping, and sexual assault as “our daily bread” in the fields, and in one study, four out of every five farmworker women reported experiencing sexual harassment or violence at work.

But in 2011, after nearly two decades of hard-fought organizing with consumers across the country, farmworkers with the CIW launched the FFP and, within a few short years, put an end to sexual assault and other human rights violations in the $650 million Florida tomato industry. By harnessing public awareness and the purchasing power of more than a dozen of the world’s largest retail food companies, the FFP has radically transformed working conditions for tens of thousands of farmworkers and has been recognized for its unique success by human rights observers from the White House to the United Nations. Today, the FFP extends to seven states and several crops, and all the major fast-food companies – McDonald’s, Burger King, Subway, Taco Bell, KFC, and Chipotle – are on board. All except for Wendy’s. Something that, unfortunately, remains true to this day.

With the goal of bringing Wendy’s to the table, a busload of farmworkers and community members left the warm comfort of Immokalee and traveled to chilly New York City to fast for farmworker justice. Among those on the bus was Rev. Miguel Estrada, the pastor at Peace River Presbytery's Mision Peniel in Immokalee and longtime supporter of CIW. The following is his reflection:

Like Nicodemus, looking for Jesus at night, I approached the experience of fasting for five days with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers in front of the offices of Nelson Peltz in Manhattan with more doubts than answers. I fasted with the intention of continuing the call to Wendy's to join the Fair Food Program, which among other things promotes the cessation of sexual abuse experienced by women in the agricultural fields.

Now, I can say that my secret visit to the Redeemer, like the visit of Nicodemus, has opened my eyes to the light; to the desire to move next to those who do not fear to be where justice shines in all its splendor. I wish to be with those who do not fear being in the light, with those who do not hide "because they know that their works have been done in God" (John 3.21).

My awakening to light, I describe it as follows: 

I thought I knew ... 

what it is to work hard, until I saw the people who do it in the fields. 

what it is to be abused, until I witnessed the exploitation that befalls agricultural workers. 

what it is to be poor, until I measured how little farmworkers receive for their hard work. 

what it is to sacrifice for others, until I saw the commitment of a farmworker to their family and community. 

what it is to suffer, until I knew the physical and emotional pain of agricultural workers. 

what it is to endure hunger, until I sat down at the table with people returning from work in the fields. 

what is to feel pain, until I heard the stories of resilience of the peasants. 

So, I also thought I knew ... 

what is fair, until I realized that through my lifestyle I am complicit by action and omission in a system that enslaves, abuses, exploits, and sacrifices many for the well-being of a few. 

what it is to be happy, until I saw the smiling face of an agricultural worker after a long day's work. 

what it is to enjoy the simple things in life, until I heard the frank and spontaneous laughter of the children of the farmworkers.

 what it is to be brave, until I witnessed how the peasants put a stop to the abuser. 

what it is to be in solidarity, until the one who had little shared her bread with me when I was hungry. 

what it is to have faith and hope, until I accompanied the farmworkers on the road in the fight for justice even in the face of opposition. 

Lent is not over yet; the time of reflection continues. Surely, I will continue to find that there are many other things that I think I already know, but that in the light of my encounter with the Redeemer I will have to relearn. 

- Rev. Miguel Estrada (Penned in front of the offices of Trian Partners, 280 Park Avenue in New York, NY) 

We hope that Pastor Miguel’s reflection inspires you, as it did us, to commit to the cause of farmworker justice. Today, 4 years after this fast in NYC, CIW farmworkers continue in their search for self-determination and continue to pressure Wendy’s to ensure protections against sexual violence and forced labor by joining the FFP. You can stand with these farmworkers by marching alongside them on April 2nd, in Palm Beach, Florida. For more information, visit our website: https://ciw-online.org/.

2022 Lent Devotional: Week 3 By Emily Burns/Methodist Federation for Social Action

A Lenten meditation provided by the Methodist Federation for Social Action:

 2022 Lent Devotional: Week 3

By Emily Burns

 Psalm 62: 5-8, 11:

“Rest in God alone, my soul, for my hope comes from him. He alone is my rock and my salvation, my stronghold; I will not be shaken. My salvation and glory depend on God, my strong rock. My refuge is in God. Trust in him at all times, you people; pour out your hearts before him. God is our refuge. God has spoken once; I have heard this twice: strength belongs to God.”

One of my favorite authors, Kate Bowler, describes Lent as a time when, “We ask God to show us the world as it is. We begin with the reality of our finitude rubbed on our foreheads on Ash Wednesday...then we walk through that reality in a kind of dress rehearsal. It’s the downward slope of God-the Great Descent, where the whole church walks toward the cross. A time when we all get a minute to tell the truth: Life is so beautiful and life is so hard. For everyone.”

Lent is a season of grief to acknowledge Christ’s sacrifice and the reality of our suffering. We live within the sacred tension that “life is so beautiful and life is so hard.” We know Easter is on its way, but we sit with the brokenness of the world as we wait. We cannot ignore it. We sit with the grief of more than 800,000 deaths from COVID-19 in the United States and more than 5 million worldwide. We cannot look away from the reality that even before the pandemic, 1 in 4 households experienced a major form of economic hardship and that number rises to 1 in 2 for Black and Latinx households. Many of us have felt the toll that this pandemic has had on our mental health. We are experiencing more anxiety and depression than before the pandemic but struggle to access adequate mental health care. The list goes on and on. COVID-19 has exposed the gaps in society’s systems, and those who have been the most deeply affected have been the most disadvantaged.

We sit here with the reality that the world is not as it should be. People are hungry, grieving, scared, and sick. As the “end” of the pandemic is declared to be nearing, some of us may wonder why we do not feel relief. We have all been going through a collective stressor. As we are finally coming to the point where we can breathe, the reality that is our changed world and all that we have experienced feels like it is crashing down upon us. Many of us are grieving the loss of loved ones while others may be feeling the exhaustion of being both a parent and teacher to children. Some have lost their jobs and others are managing the effects of Long Covid. Whatever your experience has been, life feels unbearably hard for many of us and it can be hard to hope.

This Lent, I will look for God to meet me in those places of despair, helplessness, grief, sorrow... I will “find my rest in God alone and remember that my hope comes from them.” I may not get the easy solutions and answers I want, but I receive God’s presence within the unresolved. That presence gives me the strength to continue to seek justice and work toward systems that care for the most vulnerable. Rachel Held Evans writes that “sometimes we are closer to the truth in our vulnerabilities than in our safe certainties.” This Lent, may you encounter God in your vulnerabilities, in your grief, and in your sorrow. May “the strength [that] belongs to God,” sustain you as you seek justice and make change.

You make our collective work possible by your witness for justice every day in your church, community, and Annual Conference. MFSA does not receive any financial support from the United Methodist Church's giving channels. 100% of our budget is funded through your membership dues and your generosity in giving.

Humility--Lenten Reflections

The following comes from the Catholic Near East Welfare Association Lenten Reflections and quotes Pope Francis:

Jesus spoke to the crowds and his disciples, saying, “Do not be called ‘Master’; you have but one master, the Christ. The greatest among you must be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled; but whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” (Mt 23:10-12)

"God loves humility. God lifts up those who humble themselves; he lifts up those who serve. … Today, then, let us ask ourselves, each one of us in our heart: how am I doing with humility? Do I seek to be recognized by others, to affirm myself and to be praised, or do I think rather about serving? Do I know how to listen … or do I want only to speak and receive attention? Do I know how to take a step back, defuse quarrels and arguments, or do I always want to stand out? Let us think about these questions: how am I doing with humility?"