Perritte Memorial United Methodist Church

At Least, To Pray, Is Left, Is Left
Emily Dickinson (USA/1830-1886)

At least – to pray – is left – is left -
Oh Jesus – in the Air -
I know not which thy chamber is -
I’m knocking – everywhere -

Thou settest Earthquake in the South -
And Maelstrom, in the Sea -
Say, Jesus Christ of Nazareth -
Hast thou no arm for me?

Every day during Lent, a brief thought, meditation, prayer, or picture will be posted here. You’re invited to use this as a jumping off point for your own spiritual practices during this season of preparation for Easter. If you would like to share a response, please comment below!

Steer the ship of my life, good Lord, to your quiet harbour, where I can be safe from the storms of sin and conflict. Show me the course I should take. Renew in me the gift of discernment, so that I can always see the right direction in which I should go. And give me the strength and the courage to choose the right course, even when the sea is rough and the waves are high, knowing that through enduring hardship and danger we shall find comfort and peace.

St Basil of Caesarea (Cappadocia/329-379)

Every day during Lent, a brief thought, meditation, prayer, or picture will be posted here. You’re invited to use this as a jumping off point for your own spiritual practices during this season of preparation for Easter. If you would like to share a response, please comment below!

Temptation is like a river that is difficult to cross. Those who are not overwhelmed by temptation are good swimmers; they cross the river without sinking. But those who cannot swim are submerged when they enter the river.

Cyril of Jerusalem (c 315-86)

Every day during Lent, a brief thought, meditation, prayer, or picture will be posted here. You’re invited to use this as a jumping off point for your own spiritual practices during this season of preparation for Easter. If you would like to share a response, please comment below!

If you are in East Texas, join us as we continue our series on “The Way of Jesus” Sunday mornings at 11a, or at our Mosaic experiential service at 5p; 1025 Durst St., Nacogdoches, Tx.

Cleansing the Temple
Mary Ann Ebert

Is this the gentle Jesus
Whose healing touch is balm,
Consoler of the broken
And messenger of calm?
Is this the friend of children
At whom the tempests cease–
Are these his hands of blessing,
Is this his voice of peace?

His eye is bright with anger,
His workman’s hand strikes clear–
The traders cringe and scatter,
Torn by unholy fear.
The mighty temple totters
For all its golden wealth:
The Spirit blows a tempest
Of cleansing, of new health.

This is the day he promised
Of good news to the poor–
Cast out the old corruption,
That blocks the temple door!
Throw wide the gate of freedom,
Let all God’s children come!–
Through Jesus’ broken body
God’s people shall come home.

Every day during Lent, a brief thought, meditation, prayer, or picture will be posted here. You’re invited to use this as a jumping off point for your own spiritual practices during this season of preparation for Easter. If you would like to share a response, please comment below!

O God, early in the morning I cry to you.
Help me to pray
and to concentrate my thoughts on you;
I cannot do this alone.

In me there is darkness,
but with you there is light;
I am lonely, but you do not leave me;
I am feeble in heart, but with you there is help;
I am restless, but with you there is peace.
In me there is bitterness, but with you there is patience;
I do not understand your ways,
but you know the way for me …

Restore me to liberty,
and enable me to live now
that I may answer before you and before men.
Lord, whatever this day may bring,
your name be praised.
Amen.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (Germany/1906-1945)

Every day during Lent, a brief thought, meditation, prayer, or picture will be posted here. You’re invited to use this as a jumping off point for your own spiritual practices during this season of preparation for Easter. If you would like to share a response, please comment below!

The Empty Church
R S Thomas (Wales/1913-2000)

They laid this stone trap
for him, enticing him with candles,
as though he would come like some huge moth
out of the darkness to beat there.
Ah, he had burned himself
before in the human flame
and escaped, leaving the reason
torn. He will not come any more

to our lure. Why, then, do I kneel still
striking my prayers on a stone
heart? Is it in hope one
of them will ignite yet
and throw on its illumined walls the shadow
of someone greater than I can understand?

Every day during Lent, a brief thought, meditation, prayer, or picture will be posted here. You’re invited to use this as a jumping off point for your own spiritual practices during this season of preparation for Easter. If you would like to share a response, please comment below!

Ring the bells that still can ring;
leave your perfect offering.
There’s a crack, a crack in everything:
that’s how the light gets in.

Leonard Cohen (Canada/b 1934)

Every day during Lent, a brief thought, meditation, prayer, or picture will be posted here. You’re invited to use this as a jumping off point for your own spiritual practices during this season of preparation for Easter. If you would like to share a response, please comment below!

“Your cross” means your own anxieties and your sufferings in your own body, which itself is shaped in a way already like a cross.

Tertullian (Tunisia/155-225)

How is a disciple to know which is his or her cross? We receive it upon entering the discipleship of the suffering Lord, and come to recognize it in the community of Jesus.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (Germany/1906-1945)

Every day during Lent, a brief thought, meditation, prayer, or picture will be posted here. You’re invited to use this as a jumping off point for your own spiritual practices during this season of preparation for Easter. If you would like to share a response, please comment below!

Praying the heart 
Elizabeth Cunningham

You can only pray what’s in your heart.

So if your heart is being ripped from your chest
pray the tearing

if your heart is full of bitterness
pray it to the last dreg

if your heart is a river gone wild
pray the torrent

or a lava flow scorching the mountain
pray the fire

pray the scream in your heart the fanning bellows

pray the rage,
the murder and
the mourning

pray your heart into the great quiet hands that can hold it
like the small bird it is.

Every day during Lent, a brief thought, meditation, prayer, or picture will be posted here. You’re invited to use this as a jumping off point for your own spiritual practices during this season of preparation for Easter. If you would like to share a response, please comment below!

Let us ask God to make us true in our love, to make us sacrificial beings, for it seems to me that sacrifice is only love put into action.

Elizabeth of the Trinity (France/1880-1906)

Every day during Lent, a brief thought, meditation, prayer, or picture will be posted here. You’re invited to use this as a jumping off point for your own spiritual practices during this season of preparation for Easter. If you would like to share a response, please comment below!