Daily Lent Prayer
"Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth shall declare your praise."

Collect:
Grant, O Lord, that we may begin with holy fasting
this campaign of Christian service,
so that, as we take up battle against spiritual evils,
we may be armed with weapons of self-restraint.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever. *

The Readings
Joel 2:12-18; Psalms 51: 3-4, 5-6AB, 12-13, 14 and 17; 2 Corinthians 5:20 - 6:2; Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18

Daily Meditation:
A very special day.

The ashes we use are the burnt palms from last year's celebration of Passion Sunday.
We begin our Lenten journey aware of where we are going.
We want to enter into the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Jesus for us more fully.
That is the purpose of our journey.  It is why we mark our heads with his cross.
It is why we fast today and abstain from meat.

Our Lenten program is not an effort to save ourselves.
We have been saved by his sacrifice.
Our self-denial helps us, in the darkness that surrounds us,
to prepare ourselves to receive his light.
For this is a journey to the Easter font,
where we will renew the promises of our Baptism,
remembering that in dying with him in the waters of Baptism,
we are re-born with him to everlasting life.

This year's journey begins today.

Yet even now, says the LORD,
return to me with your whole heart,
with fasting, and weeping, and mourning;

Rend your hearts, not your garments,
and return to the LORD, your God.
For gracious and merciful is he,
slow to anger, rich in kindness,
and relenting in punishment.
-  Joel 2:12-13

Prayer Over the Gifts:
Lord, help us to resist temptation
by our Lenten works
of charity and penance.

By this sacrifice
may we be prepared
to celebrate the death and resurrection
of Christ our Savior
and be cleansed from sin
and renewed in spirit.

We ask this through Christ Our Lord.

Today's Daily Reflection

Intercessions:
Today God our Father brings us to the beginning of Lent. 
We pray that in this time of salvation
he will fill us with the Holy Spirit, purify our hearts,
and strengthen us in love. 
Let us humbly ask him:  
Lord, give us your Holy Spirit.

May we be filled and satisfied,
 - by the word which you give us.
Teach us to be loving not only in great and exceptional moments,
 - but above all in the ordinary events of daily life.
May we abstain from what we do not really need,
 - and help our brothers and sisters in distress.
May we bear the wounds of your Son in our bodies,
 - for through his body he gave us life.

Closing Prayer:
Lord,
it feels like we are embarking on a Lenten journey together, you and I.
Today we are invited to let the Holy Spirit
purify our hearts, and strengthen us in love.
That feels like what I am looking for -
or what you are looking for in me.
I want to remember how much I need you in my life
and how much my life needs redemption.
I want to remember it clearly and
in the background of my day today and all through Lent.

On this special day, Ash Wednesday,
may my small sacrifices in fasting be a way to clear away
the clutter in my life to see you more clearly.
May my longing for meat and other food,
help me to focus my life today more outside myself.
Let me be aware of those who are in so much more suffering than I am
and may I be aware of them as the brothers and sisters you have placed in my life.

Lord, I know there is darkness within me and around me.
Bless these days with your Word.
Let your Light shine in the darkness.
Help me long for that Light
until we celebrate it at the Vigil six weeks from now.

And most of all Lord,
help me to honor this day with the ashes on my forehead.
They help me remember where I have come from and where I am going.
May I acknowledge to you my sins
and my deep need for your loving forgiveness and grace.
I pray that this Lenten season will make me so much more aware
of how much I need your healing in my life.

May the Lord bless us,
protect us from all evil
and bring us to everlasting life.
Amen.

Collect:
Prompt our actions with your inspiration, we pray, O Lord,
and further them with your constant help,
that all we do may always begin from you
and by you be brought to completion.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever. *

The Readings
Deuteronomy 30:15-20; Psalms 1:1-2, 3, 4 and 6; Luke 9:22-25

Daily Meditation:
The Journey Begins
There are so many lessons for our journey in this prayer.
It starts with God's inspiration.
We are reminded of the breath of life that God breathed at the beginning of creation
and the driving wind of the Holy Spirit's coming at Pentecost.
The grace for all we are about to do comes from God.
Today we pray to be open to it.
Today we also acknowledge that for us to what we need to do these six weeks,
we need God's continuing help.
Each day, with every prayer, every sacrifice, every act of generosity
we will need help which can only come from God.
And, finally, we need God's guidance to persevere to the end.
There will be tough choices, not only between good and evil,
but choices about what is the greater good.
We may even be called to do something quite heroic and self-sacrificing.
A wonderful prayer.  Easy to remember, even memorize.
It is possible to say it every day.

Today's Daily Reflection

Intercessions:
God has revealed himself in Christ. Let us praise his goodness, and ask him from our hearts:
  Remember us, Lord, for we are your children.

Teach us to enter more deeply into the mystery of the Church,
 - that it may be more effective for ourselves and for the world as the sacrament of salvation.
Lover of mankind, inspire us to work for human progress,
 - seeking to spread your kingdom in all we do.
May our hearts thirst for Christ,
 - the fountain of living water.
Forgive us our sins,
 - and direct our steps into the ways of justice and sincerity.

Closing Prayer:
Lord, 
Let everything I do this day and in this season of Lent
come from you, be inspired by you.

I long to be closer to you.
Help me to remember that nothing is important in my life
unless it glorifies you in some way.

It's so easy to get caught up in the day to day of my life and keep saying,
"Tomorrow, I will spend more time in prayer,"
but now my longing meets your love and I want to do it now. 
Help me to rely on you for help.

The prayer asks you that I reach perfection.
Please, Lord, remind me that "perfection"
isn't the crazy, "successful" way I try to live my life,
but a perfection of my most authentic, real self.
My "perfection" might be holding my many flaws in my open hands,
asking you to help me accept them.

Heal me, Lord, and help me to find you in the darkness of my life. 
Let me reach out in this darkness and feel your hand and love there to guide me.

May the Lord bless us,
protect us from all evil
and bring us to everlasting life.
Amen.

Collect:
Show gracious favor, O Lord, we pray,
to the works of penance we have begun
that we have strength to accomplish with sincerity
the bodily observances we undertake.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever. *

The Readings
Isaiah 58:1-9A; Psalms 51:3-4, 5-6AB, 18-19; Matthew 9:14-15

Daily Meditation:
A Friday of Lent
and an introduction to "True Fasting."
We are still in the first four days of Lent.
Today and tomorrow we read the 58th Chapter
of the book of the prophet Isaiah.
These powerful words have such a contemporary message.
True fasting will lead us to act justly and caring
for those who are most in need.

On every Friday of Lent we abstain from meat
as a sign of our common penance.
It represents our efforts to abstain from
- do without - so many other patterns
that get in the way of our happiness and wholeness.

Today's Daily Reflection

Intercessions:
Let us pray to Christ our Savior, who redeemed us by  his death and resurrection:
   Lord, have mercy on us.

You went up to Jerusalem to suffer and so enter into your glory,
 - bring your Church to the Passover feast of heaven.
You were lifted high on the cross and pierced by the soldier's lance,
 - heal our wounds.
You made the cross the tree of life,
 - give its fruit to those reborn in baptism.
On the cross you forgave the repentant thief,
 - forgive us our sins.

Closing Prayer:
Lord,
I know how much you love me.
It’s hard for me to feel it sometimes,
but I know your love is always with me.

Help me to use your love as a way
to persevere in my Lenten intentions.
I am weak, but I know with your help,
I can use these small sacrifices in my life to draw closer to you.