Liturgy 020: Fifth Monday of Lent

☕️ 5 Minutes to be Present to God, Self, and Others

🫁 Breath Prayer

Slow down and breathe deeply until you take notice of your soul, and the Spirit of God within you. Then repeat this breath prayer for 30 seconds.

INHALE: Jesus, Son of God
EXHALE: May Your Word Dwell in My Heart

📖 Lectio Divina

Read these words slowly, listening for God’s living Voice, addressing you personally by name.

Jeremiah 31:31-34

The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.

It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt — a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the LORD.

But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, "Know the LORD," for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the LORD; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.

🖼️ Reflection

There have been some rough stretches in my 9 years of marriage. There have also been ineffable moments of deep exclusive mutual trust.

Marriage is a mystery. It can open us up to our best and worst selves. It can create the most loving of interactions, as well as the most painful.

Marriage is also a dominant image of God and Israel throughout the Scriptures.

Prophets like Jeremiah and Hosea, and allegorical readings of Song of Solomon all portray God as a passionate Husband… which… sure… can be a bit creepy.

But it is a metaphor that can deepen our life of faith…

In this Jeremiah passage, God speaks of two covenants:

• Old Covenant — God’s Law is on Stone Tablets. Sin and obedience are framed as a written contract.

• New Covenant — God’s Law is within human hearts. Sin and obedience are not matters of contractual obligation, but a personal knowing of God.

Like the Apostle Paul, I too, am a sinner.

Sometimes I sin and I repent. I ask for forgiveness, and I move on. Like saying Excuse me after a cough… it’s no big deal… just a little airborne spreading of germs, no big deal, move on.

But when I sin against my wife… repentance and forgiveness is not so simple and mindless. I’ve caused harm to someone I love. I’ve broken trust. More than a moral failure, this is a relational one. What needs to be repaired is not my track record, but a way of living in relational awareness towards my partner’s very real thoughts and emotions.

Such is a life of repentance and faithfulness — a life lived in awareness of God’s desire and personal affection towards us. What a strange, paradoxical, humbling, powerful notion that God’s heart is moved by the ways we live and seek to know God deeply and personally…

Take yet another breath. What does it look like to spend a Monday in full awareness of a Loving Bridegroom God with affection and love towards us?

💡 Quote

Let your religion be less of a theory
and more of a love affair.
—GK Chesterton

Did not our hearts burn within us
as he spoke with us on the road?
—Cleopas

🕊️ Blessing

May your faith be a love affair. May you speak with God as one speaks with a closest friend. May the Word of a personal and passionate God be written in your heart. May you wake in the morning and lie awake at night with thoughts of God’s Love.

In the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
Amen