Lent Day 21 | 40 to Life

The below reflection was provided by the Diocese of Southern Virginia:

Friday in the Third Week of Lent

Grant us, O Lord our Strength, a true love of your holy Name; so that, trusting in your grace, we may fear no earthly evil, nor fix our hearts on earthly goods, but may rejoice in your full salvation; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

One of my favorite descriptions of grace is from Frederick Buechner’s book Wishful Thinking. “The grace of God,” he writes, “means something like: ‘Here is your life. You might never have been, but you are, because the party wouldn’t have been complete without you. Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don’t be afraid. I am with you. Nothing can ever separate us. It’s for you I created the universe. I love you.’”

Trusting in that grace, today’s Collect suggests, helps us not to fear the terrible things that happen in the world, and not to be overly attached to the beautiful things. The more we trust, the more we can approach our lives with a joyous expectation, not a demanding one.

A role model for that kind of trusting is Mary of Nazareth, whose “yes” to God we celebrate on today’s Feast of the Annunciation. Perplexed by Gabriel’s greeting, unsure how the promised birth could possibly happen, Mary is still open to setting out on an adventure with God. “Here I am, the servant of the Lord,” she says. “Let it be with me according to your word.” May it be so with us as well.

The Diocesan Lenten Reflections come from clergy and laity in each of our nine convocations. The reflections are based on the collect appointed for each day in Lent. Today's collect and the associated daily readings can be found HERE.