..even with me and my Lent Pinterest board and all…
Anyway, don’t think I am suggesting you read the Office everyday. It’s just a good thing to know about, I say Prime in the morning and sometimes I say Compline at night but usually I don’t. But anyway I like parts of my prayers to stay the same and part to change. So many prayer books are awful, but if you stick with the liturgy, you are safe. - Flannery O’Connor, to Betty Hester (“A”)
The truth of this struck me this morning (again) in praying (parts of) Morning Prayer and the Office of Readings, and reading the Mass readings…
..often my thoughts about “what I’m going to read (or do) for Lent” are guided by what I think I need – which can be a complex mix that might include its fair share of solipsism and rationalization. God? He needs to be led to me and my needs, right? But when I put the prayer of the Church front and center, the dynamic shifts just a little and I’m living and praying in way that trusts in God to lead me where I really need to go.
Absolutely and one of the reasons I tend not to do what I am ‘supposed’ to do as a Catholic, namely, map out my Lent. I go in with a general sense but then I ask God to show me. He does and often via the Office.
My pastor’s homily on Sunday was about Focus. He said we need to focus on God during Lent, not ourselves. Whatever we chose to do should lead us back to Jesus. It made me realize that some of my past Lenten choices made me focus on myself and my own suffering a little too much.