Don't forget to join us online at the Lent 4.5 Community Page where you can discuss these topics. 

"Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you."                                                          

Luke 6:38

 

Have you ever watched an eagle hunt? It will reel around and around high up in the sky, looking for movement on the ground. In a moment, the enormous raptor will dive to the ground then come back up with a small creature in its claws.

 

Eagles see in ways that humans cannot. Native Americans have long considered them sacred because of their keen vision and their extraordinary ability to fly so high into the sky that they nearly disappear from sight. An eagle, according to Native teaching, speaks to the Creator and sees with the Creator's eyes.

 

Sometimes it is helpful to examine the world through someone else's lens. See through the eyes of a Haitian family who lives in a house that is fifteen feet square, with a tin roof that has enough � inch holes sprinkled across it to let the rain in at night. For them an 800 square foot house, like one that might be found in an impoverished area of the U.S., would appear a mansion.

 

But for the American family of six who lives in an 800-square-foot siding-covered house, a home with three full bedrooms and two baths would be palatial.

 

From the eyes of a woman who picks coffee in the Nicaraguan mountains -- a single mother who does not earn enough from her hard labor to purchase adequate food for all three of her children each day -- being part of a nutrition project that teaches her to grow a tiny patch of vegetables to supplement her meals is wealth beyond telling.

 

What are the eyes through which you view the world?

 

Jesus saw with the eyes of our Creator. His gratitude for our precious life was reflected in the generosity which he shared with others - teaching, healing, witnessing God's presence in the faith and lives of the people around him.

 

This most holy of weeks we read again how Jesus taught us generosity when he washed the feet of his disciples. He assumed the role of the servant and modeled how one passes on gratitude for our lives to others. Gratitude becomes generous service.

 

Jesus humbly washed feet and taught us how to live. Mother Theresa followed his example, cleansing with love the terrible wounds of people found dying on the streets, witnessing that everyone is a beloved child of God. Read about a few more "everyday people" who are doing the same.

 

Erica helps empower women who make fairly-traded pottery in El Salvador. Matthew sells his crop of honey to support a nutrition project in Central America. Elizabeth collects furniture for an arriving refugee family. Brendan organizes a concert benefitting his church's St. Vincent de Paul Conference. Fausta leads a community in prayer for those killed violently in her city. Tim rides the city bus because of his commitment to caring for the air and Earth and for future generations. Fiona takes steps to make her high school a fair-trade-commitment school. Bart organizes a monthly community restaurant in an inner-city neighborhood. Jane Ann rocks newborn babies suffering withdrawal from their mother's addictions. Phyllis teaches young mothers practical skills to be good parents. Debbie serves coffee to homeless men in a day shelter.   Doris prays for her community every day.

 

This final week of Lent - which culminates in our most sacred holy day of Easter - let us all reflect upon how we can choose gratitude as our primary life attitude. Let us be grateful for the Earth, for the seas and skies and for all that are in them. And as we are grateful, may this become generous sharing in good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over.

THIS WEEK'S PRACTICE  

CHURCHES IN ACTION  

 

Catholic Church

Prayer from: The Roundtable Association of Diocesan Social Action Directors. Living God's Justice: Reflections and Prayers.Cincinnati, OH: St. Anthony Messenger Press, 2006. (p. 185)

 

The Lord's Prayer: An Adaptation by Jane Deren

 

Leader: Our God who is in heaven and in all of us here on earth:

the hungry, the oppressed, the excluded. Holy is your name.

All: May your reign come.

Reader: May your reign come and your will be done;

in our choice to struggle with the complexities of this world

and to confront greed and the desire for power in ourselves,

in our nation and in the global community.

All: May your reign come.

Reader: Give us this day our daily bread;

bread that we are called to share,

bread that you have given us abundantly

and that we must distribute fairly, ensuring security for all.

All: May your reign come.

Reader: Forgive us our trespasses;

times we have turned away from the struggles of other people and countries,

times we have thought only of our own security.

All: May your reign come.

Reader: Lead us not into temptation;

the temptation to close our minds, ears and eyes

to the unfair global systems that create larger and larger gaps between the rich and the poor;

the temptation to think it is too difficult to bring about more just alternatives.

All: May your reign come.

Reader: Deliver us from evil;

the evil of a world where violence happens in your name,

where wealth for a few is more important than economic rights for all,

where gates and barriers between people are so hard to bring down.

            All: May your reign come.

May your reign come, for yours is the kingdom,

the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen.

 

 Stories of hope