Lent, Day Thirty-Three, Fifth Sunday of Lent

Lent, Day Thirty-Three, Fifth Sunday of Lent
The great challenge is living your wounds through instead of thinking them through. It is better to cry than to worry, better to feel your wounds deeply than to understand them, better to let them enter into your silence than to talk about them. The choice you face constantly is whether you are taking your wounds to your head or your heart. In your head you can analyze them, find causes and consequences, and coin words to speak and write about them. But no final healing is likely to come from that source. You need to let your wounds go down to your hear. Then you can live through them and discover that they will not destroy you.

Henri J.M. Nouwen
The Inner Voice of Love: A Journey Through Anguish to Freedom, pg 66

Scripture:
20 But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God. 21 To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.
      22 “He committed no sin,
            and no deceit was found in his mouth.”
23 When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly.
1 Peter 2:20-23

PRAYER
God of wholeness and healing, I know that I am afraid of pain and acutely conscious of being harmed and hurt. Help me avoid my pattern of cause-and-effect, of rationalizing my wounds. Instead, let the soothing oil of your mercy heal my wounds; let me live through the pain and recognize that your joy is truly on the other side. Amen.

LENTEN ACTION
Pick one of the corporal works of mercy to practice over the next few days. The corporal works of mercy are as follows: To feed the hungry, to give drink to the thirsty,  to clothe the naked, to visit the imprisoned, to shelter the homeless, to visit the sick, to bury the dead.