Lent, Day Twenty-Two, Third Wednesday of Lent

Lent, Day Twenty-Two, Third Wednesday of Lent
SEEK YOUR TRUE HOME

One emotion was very strong--that was homecoming. Jesus opened his home to me and seemed to say, "Here is where you belong." The words he spoke to his disciples, "In my Father's house there are many places to live in... I am going to prepare a place for you" (John 14:2), became very real. The risen Jesus, who now dwells with his Father, was welcoming me home after a long journey.

 This experience was the realization of my oldest and deepest desires. Since the first moment of consciousness, I have had to desire to be with Jesus. Now I felt his presence in a most tangible way, as if my whose life had come together and I was being enfolded in love. The homecoming had a real quality of return, a return to the womb of God.

Henri J.M. Nouwen
Beyond the Mirror: Reflections on Death and Life, pg 44

Scripture:
  You have searched me, Lord,
    and you know me.
² You know when I sit and when I rise;
    you perceive my thoughts from afar.
³ You discern my going out and my lying down;
    you are familiar with all my ways.
⁴ Before a word is on my tongue
    you, Lord, know it completely.

¹³ For you created my inmost being;
    you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
¹⁴ I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
    your works are wonderful,
    I know that full well.
¹⁵ My frame was not hidden from you
    when I was made in the secret place,
    when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
¹⁶ Your eyes saw my unformed body;
    all the days ordained for me were written in your book
    before one of them came to be.

  Psalm 139:1-4, 13-16

PRAYER
Indwelling God, you know the truth of me even before I was formed in my mother's womb, you know my thoughts even before I apprehend them, you welcome me home into the warmth of your love even when I do not realize that I am lost. I know myself so little even as you know me so well. I cannot fathom the future, but grant me the grace to appreciate the present in that place where I most belong-in your heart. Amen.

LENTEN ACTION
Practice"letting go" of one aspect of the future which is not in your hands.Spend this dayin mindfulness of eachpresent moment rather than letting your thoughts and plans race ahead of yourself.