Note: As a personal, spiritual discipline, reviving my practice in the Lenten season of 2017, I revise the prayers I wrote then for each of the forty days of this Lent; each petition focusing on a theme, a concern weighing on my mind and heart or a care of my soul and spirit.
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On what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions, again (subtitle: Now)…
O Jesus, I love You, and, now, through the lens of this Lenten praying labor of my love for You, more clearly do I see You (and me!).
What is lacking in Your afflictions for my sake? Now, I see that it is my sharing in Your suffering for Your sake!
For oft, I do not.
For oft, despite my best intentions, I have been slow to repent (and some days and some moments of days, I confess, I do not).
For though I claim You as my way, truth, and life, I love to go my own way according to the truth as I perceive it, so to live my life in my own image.
O Jesus, now I pray that You bind my wandering mind, bend my wayward heart, bolster my wavering soul, break my willful spirit that I, at least, on some days and some moments of days, can and will sacrifice myself wholly unto You.
Amen.
occasional observations of mind and heart, soul and spirit 