April 7

Part of the Ash Wednesday Service is the Litany of Penitence. We all kneel and recite a confession of our sins “by our own fault in thought, word, and deed; by what we have done, and by what we have left undone.” We ask for mercy for not loving God and our neighbors, and being “deaf to your call to serve.” We confess to “unfaithfulness: the pride, hypocrisy, and impatience of our lives.” We confess to self-indulgent appetites, exploitation of other people, anger at our own frustrations, and envy of those more fortunate. We recognize our intemperate love for worldly goods and comforts, and our dishonesty in daily life. We are negligent in prayer and worship, and fail to commend the faith within us. It seems apparent to me that I am asking for a large body of sinfulness to be released from my human burden. I watch the news daily and rail at the screen about other people who should be doing a Litany of their own penitence for sins committed. OOPS! There I go again judging others for which I may be judged. Each of us is willing to change for that which is an improvement of life, but we must also remember to have faith in God that what happened 2000 years ago meant something for the human race. It is during this Lenten season that I hope to understand even more clearly what my mission for God is and how I am to implement it. Part of the mission is to write this blog. It is not always easy to sit and create something from nothing, but so far I have met the basic goal of writing daily. I want to transfer this energy to my book writing, building a second career which hopefully lasts for many years (decades?) to come. Tomorrow, I will write about the second part of the Litany which is asking for repentance.