Jump-Start your Lent

How is your Lent going? If you need a little jump-start, try this prayer. It’s beautiful.

God,

Once again –

For it is certainly not the first time

You call me to return to the center that is you

To your place, to your way of doing things.

You have asked me many times to come back to the place where you dwell

To listen only to you, to focus on you, to live intimately with you

So here I am again, hoping that this time your word will take root and find a home within me

Here and now, God, I recommit myself to you

To find space and time to pray and to not conveniently forget in my busy days

I reverence again your call to fast and not just “give up things”

I want to fast from all that is negative, all that does me and others harm

Greed, whining, selfishness, self-indulgence, destructive behavior

I want to be centered in you, Father, and all that you are:

Peace, joy, compassion, and mercy

Instead of giving up, I want to “take on”

To choose not to live in guilt and shame, for that is not of you

I want to celebrate and take on a new way, to begin a renewal within myself

I want to make a difference, Lord

Not just during this time of Lent, but beyond Lent

I want to begin a new way of living that echoes your call to me

To serve everyone … everywhere

Father, I promise to go outside myself

To be with someone who is lonely, who is dying, who is hurting

I will visit those whose hearts are imprisoned, feed those who are hungry

Fight for those who are oppressed and who suffer

In their eyes and in their stories, I see myself

May I experience healing – not necessarily a cure

But a balm that will anoint me with the hope

That your rising is not something to remember nostalgically

As a wonderful historical story

But as your promise to me

Help me, Lord, to return to you

For the time is Now…Now

In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.