St. Nicolai Notes

EXCHANGES ON THE WAY: LENTEN PRAYERS
Day 19: Fourth Wednesday
Mark 10: 17-31 (especially verses 28-31)

     Jesus, most of us have not left everything to follow You, but as we do follow, You lead us toward a life of sharing that challenges our tendency to accumulate and hoard wealth for ourselves and our families. You invite us to a life of generous hospitality in which we enrich others and are enriched as we participate in a broad network of faithful care.
     Many of us have not been trained to think or act with the financial well-being of a whole community in mind. We find it difficult to think beyond the needs of our isolated family units, except in spasmodic ways, when some crisis or catastrophe strikes us with unusual emotional force. We need your help, need the guidance of your Spirit, in order to overcome our habits of accumulation that expand our isolation from our communities. We need your help to overcome the fears we have about having too little and to practice deeper trust in your faithful provision from the abundance of your creation. We need your help in order to think and act in creative ways that enrich our brothers and sisters in faith, but also the communities where we live.
     You instruct that as we live within this network of faithful care and sharing, following You in service of God's reign, that we will face persecutions. We don't want that. But we do want to be close to You and live as You lived. Give us courage to live in new ways that challenge old patterns, even with the risks that involves. Amen.