Come Learn Rest Ministries

I spent Ash Wednesday traveling and longing to be in worship at some point during the day, but doubtful it would actually happen. It never did happen in a church, but I did worship while flying over Colorado, marveling at the snow-capped Rocky Mountains and listening to the words of Psalm 103 being sung through earphones.

The Rockies are so vast, so great and I felt so small. In that moment I realized Ash Wednesday is a reminder of our smallness and an invitation to journey during Lent toward a deeper understanding of God’s greatness.

For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his love for those who fear him;
as far as the east is from the west,
so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
As a father has compassion on his children,
so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him;
for he knows how we are formed,
he remembers that we are dust.
~Psalm 103:11-14

Wherever we travel physically, emotionally or spiritually during the next 40 days, may we always find our small selves surrounded by God’s great love.

Some of the most precious moments of my day are when the secular and the sacred touch and God’s love is fully realized. What a better way to spend Valentine’s Day than looking for those moments as Elizabeth Barrett Browning describes in her famous poem, How Do I Love Thee?

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of every day’s
Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love with a passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints, — I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life! — and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.

May you and I more fully know how to truly love, simply because God first loved us!

As I prepare a message about passion for a group of young moms, I am mindful that apart from the intimacy we have with our Lord we are unable to love well.  The following is a beautiful prayer to help us center our hearts on the Heart of Jesus.

O God, what will you do to conquer

the fearful hardness of our hearts:

Lord, you must give us new hearts,

tender hearts, sensitive hearts, to replace hearts

that were made of marble and of bronze.

You must give us your own Heart, Jesus.

Come, loveable Heart of Jesus.

Place your Heart deep in the center of our hearts

and enkindle in each heart a flame of love

 as strong, as great, as the sum of all the reasons

that I have for loving you, my God.

O holy Heart of Jesus, dwell hidden in my heart,

so that I may live only in your and only for you,

so that in the end, I may live with you eternally in heaven.  Amen.

~St. Claude La Colombiere