Day 370 | Wednesday, 24 March 2021

Day 370 - Audio Version

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Day 370 | Wednesday, 24 March 2021

 As of March 22nd, the total number of cases in the county were 8,019 with 173 still active, 425 in isolation and 141 deaths.  There have been 2,118 cases in the 14701 zip, 306 in Lakewood, 278 in Bemus, 251 in Frewsburg, 932 in Fredonia and 1,462 in Dunkirk.  To see the numbers for the whole county, go to the county website and look for the map.
 Our journey through Lent is winding down toward Holy Week.

 A Beginning:
“Walking on the path, following Jesus.  Sometimes there is joy in our step.  Sometimes we are not so sure – what may lie ahead?  Hosannas or angry crowds?  A prayerful garden or a stark cross?  A holy meal or an empty place at the table?  Journeying through Lent, please walk with us, Jesus.”

 A Prayer of Confession
“Awesome and challenging God hold us close for this moment, so that with your support we might look deep within and let your healing light purify our darkness. Only in your grasp can we face our struggles - our frantic pursuit of busyness; the ease with which we tolerate the troubles and inequities of our divided society; the acceptance of bottom-line thinking as the final word; the fear of differences that keeps us from receiving gifts of others; our reluctance to get involved.

Holy and disturbing God keep us close to the cross and let us experience your transforming love that turned a sorrowful Friday into an Easter hope.

Renew our hearts, refashion our lives, and revive our spirits. Amen.”

 A Lenten Prayer
          “Creator and Father God: In this penitential season, we acknowledge with respect the traditional discipline of fasting.  By fasting, our forbears in the faith strove to become more deeply, more tangibly aware of our Lord’s suffering.  Some of them, we recall, went to great, perhaps excessive lengths during these 40 days of Lent, half-starving themselves in order more vividly to experience the hunger and thirst which plagued him on the cross.

          Whether we fast or not, O God, we would remember with sorrow what our Lord endured at the hands of people very much like us.  But we would also be reminded, by the ancient discipline of fasting, that we have too much and that we can do with a lot less.  Our nation outranks all others in per capita consumption.  Our caloric intake far exceeds that of even moderately well-off peoples.  Our garbage disposals eat as much as many third World families.

          Gracious God help us to use this season as an opportunity to challenge critically our own lifestyles.  Help us to review our alleged needs.  Show us how to control our clamorous wants.  And give us courage to share more of what we have with others who have so much less – in the name of our merciful Lord, who did not need to be reminded of people in need, because he spent his life sharing himself with them.  Amen”

 Holy God, as we approach Palm Sunday, may we reflect on what our 2021 journey through Lent has meant to each one of us.  Because of a pandemic, Lent last year and this year have been different.  Continue the journey with us these last days.  Prepare us for the darkness of Holy Week and the joy of Easter morning.  Lord, Hear our prayers.  Amen
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 Today:  Prayers for the people of Boulder, Colorado who are grieving with heavy hearts.  Also for the families who weere displaced due to the fire in the city yesterday morning.