March 26/Third Saturday of Lent Thoroughly wash me from my guilt and of my sin cleanse me. ~ Ps 51.4 After raising four children, I thought I knew a thing or two about laundry. But I nearly met my match with the challenges one of my children presented to me after a solo cross-country bike ride a few summers ago. …
Author: Betsy Cahill
Song 21: Sit. Stay. Heed.
March 25/Third Friday of LentFeast of the Annunciation Sacrifice and offering you do not delight in, but you have dug out my ears.To do your will, O God, I delight in; your teaching is within my belly [lit. transl]. ~ Ps 40.7, 9 Obedience — how it goes against the human grain. We no sooner construct a set of rules…
Song 20: Testing, Testing
March 24/Third Thursday of Lent Oh that today you would hear his voice.Harden not your hearts as at Meribah, as in the day of Massah in the desert,Where your fathers tempted me; they tested me though they had seen my works.~ Ps 95.8-9 It is easy to trust in God when things are going smoothly, isn’t it? When things fall…
Song 19: Boundaries
March 23/Third Wednesday of Lent For he has strengthened the bars of your gates. ~ Ps 147.13 Walls, fences, gates — they can function as tools of exclusion. But looked at from another perspective, they create spaces that are inclusive, protected, and apart (interestingly, the Hebrew word for holiness connotes apartness). Think of garden walls that frame a beautiful outdoor…
Song 18: Love 101
March 22/Third Tuesday of Lent Make me to know your ways, O LORD; teach me your paths.Lead me in your truth, and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation. ~ Ps 25.4-5 Other than my family and a cleric or two, no group of people has been as important to me as teachers, from my 5th grade…
Song 17: Dry Spell
March 21/Third Monday of Lent As the hind longs for the running waters, so my soul longs for you, O God.Athirst is my soul for God, the living God. When shall I go and behold the face of God? ~ Ps 42.2-3 Having watched my hiking companion drain the last drop from our shared water bottle, half an hour later I…
Song 16: Singing a New Song
March 19/Second Saturday of LentSolemnity of St. Joseph The steadfast love of the LORD I will sing forever; through all generations my mouth shall proclaim your faithfulness. ~ Ps 89.2 The other night my father was reminiscing about his grandfather, a genteel agnostic who ferried his portly Aunt Georgie to church every Sunday, waiting in the car until the service was…
Song 15: On the Job
March 18/Second Friday of Lent When the LORD called down a famine on the land and ruined the crop that sustained them, He sent a man before them, Joseph, sold as a slave. ~ Ps 105.16-17 Two years into COVID, beset by inflation, supply chain shortages, and a collateral pandemic of anger and resentment that has infected our social polity,…
Song 14: Water, Water Everywhere
March 17/Second Thursday of Lent He is like a tree planted near running water, That yields its fruit in due season, and whose leaves never fade. ~ Ps 1.3 My husband has remarked more than once that the surest way to kill a plant is to put it under my care. He has a point. I have lost count of the…
Song 13: Words to Live By
March 16/Second Wednesday of Lent Into your hands I commend my spirit; you will redeem me, O LORD, O faithful God. ~ Ps 31.6 “Into your hands I commend my spirit.” Is there a more compelling and powerful expression of trust in the entire Bible? Jesus uttered it from the cross at the moment of his death, and that cry has…