March 16/Fourth Monday of Lent Weeping may linger for the night, but joy comes with the morning. You have turned my mourning into dancing; you have taken off my sackcloth and clothed me with joy. ~ Ps 30.5, 11 Nightfall sometimes seems to be on an endless loop, and mourning the order of the day. As we look around our…
Category: Songs for Lent
Song 22: Scrubbing Bubbles
March 14/Third Saturday of Lent Thoroughly wash me from my guilt and of my sin cleanse me. ~ Ps 51.4 In a lecture some years ago, the spiritual writer Kathleen Norris observed of laundry, “I might characterize it as approaching the moral realm; there are days when it seems a miracle to be able to make dirty things clean.” For…
Song 21: Stranger Danger
March 13/Third Friday of Lent There shall be no strange god among you; you shall not bow down to a foreign god. ~ Ps 81.9 One of the first lessons we learn as we grow up, and a lesson we certainly impart to our children, is this: Don’t talk to strangers (including ones online). Don’t answer the door if you…
Song 20: Listen Up!
March 12/Third Thursday of Lent Oh, if today you would listen to his voice. ~ Ps 95.7 After many years of marriage and motherhood, I have learned to identify the precise moment in a conversation when one of my children, or my husband, starts to tune out my well-meaning advice. A slight turn of the head, an infinitesimal glazing of…
Song 19: Boundaries
March 11/Third Wednesday of Lent For he has strengthened the bars of your gates. ~ Ps 147.13 We have “Dry January,” to encourage people to set boundaries around alcohol consumption after holiday over-indulgence. A couple of years ago, thanks to an enterprising New York Times reporter, we can celebrate “Flip Phone February,” intended to inspire people to reclaim their personal…
Song 18: Past Performance
March 10/Third Tuesday of Lent Be mindful of your mercy, O Lord, and of your steadfast love, for they have been from of old. ~ Ps 25.6 An actress is only as good as her last role. One successful litigation does not necessarily ensure the next. Asset management firms are required by the Securities and Exchange Commission to say that…
Song 17: The Seekers
March 9/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 The rise of the so-called “Nones,” who claim no religious affiliation, has been widely reported for years; the…
Song 16: There’s a Wideness
March 7/Second Saturday of Lent For as the heavens are high above the earth, so surpassing is his kindness toward those who fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has he put our transgressions from us. ~ Ps 103.11-12 Forgiveness is out of fashion, viewed in many quarters as a sign of weakness. Witness…
Song 15: How Firm a Foundation
March 6/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 Origin stories are important, conferring lasting lessons and foundational values to those who come afterwards. A sprawling family reveres and emulates the perseverance and hard…
Song 14: Dust in the Wind
March 5/Second Thursday of Lent They are like trees planted by streams of water, which yield their fruit in its season,and their leaves do not wither.Not so the wicked, not so; they are like chaff which the wind drives away. For the Lord watches over the way of the just, but the way of the wicked vanishes. ~ Ps 1.3,…