The Collect for Holy Monday mass says: "...that we who amidst so many adversities do fail by reason of our weakness; may be renewed through the pleading of the Passion of thy Only- Begotten Son." But the phrase in last night's collect rendered in English: "may be renewed..." is far more powerful and startling in the Latin. What it says in the original Latin is: "That we... may breathe in the suffering of your Only-Begotten Son."

The physical act of taking fresh clean air into our lungs, moment by moment, as a natural, life sustaining rhythm of assimilation is a very good metaphor for what this collect says we are to be doing, and this is how we avail ourselves of God's pardon, this is how it becomes real, and immediate in our life, prayer is breath.

Today in this very holy week, six days before the Passover we have a story of beauty. Not just any story of beauty, and there are many, but this is a beautiful story for the ages according to Jesus' own reckoning. This is one of His personal favorites and He immortalizes it with his prophetic Word, He sanctions this story of his anointing by Mary as the beautiful story which will be remembered and adored for all time. Thank you, Mary, for showing us how to love our Lord, how to be beautiful in the midst of ugliness.

Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem which we celebrate this day comes before His Passion- the great joy and triumph of this event replete with cries of hosanna and praise is going to be shortly followed by another journey of the greatest sorrow, suffering and death.

What happens today is a foreshadowing of His ultimate and final entry into the heavenly Jerusalem, which occurs at His bodily Ascension into heaven. This is the significance of our procession halting at the doors of the Church and the Subdeacon banking on the door with the cross. Lift up your heads oh ye gates, that the King of Glory may come in- who is this king of glory? The Lord strong and mighty- it is through the cross that the doors are opened to the heavenly kingdom.

Jesus rejected any semblance of individual autonomy, He never fought for himself as an independent individual, He never put himself forward to gain something for himself, never succumbed to the temptation to secure himself, even in his darkest hour when he felt alone.

Christ's perfection through suffering was, essentially, the reversal of the human attempt for autonomy. Christ took our humanity to subjugate the human will and person to the Heavenly Father- even in the midst of suffering, even unto death, especially unto death, it was a destruction of autonomous human will: a total burning and holocaust of our independence from God.

We have so many needs in this life, so many fears, so many insecurities, so many wants and desires, there's so much discontentment in our life, we're searching searching search. Trying to fill up something, running about, looking here, there... looking for some kind of satiety. Answers. And we forget about Jesus. We forget about him like he's not even there. Like he's an afterthought. We forget to pray. We forget to pray! We grab everything, except go talk to Him about it. We don't hound Heaven. We don't look to Him as our Source, as our Helper, for everything. For your headache! Pray, before you pop the asprin! Pray first. Seek him first. If you're happy, who are you going to go to first? Go tell Jesus you're happy! First! Before you tell anyone else! He should be, in Deacon David's words, your best friend.

I can think of no better representation of Satan in pop culture than King Théoden's counselor, Grima Wormtongue. If you've seen that movie, you can't get that image out of your head. Grima means "mask" in old english, and so Grima Wormtongue means a "masked deceiver". Théoden is trapped under this spell, he becomes a shell of a man. He's basically lost his marbles. He's held under this force of darkness, both his mind and his body is riddled with disease. This is a good depiction of the effects of how the devil works. Saint Paul writes in his epistle, "Let no one deceive you with empty words", and going on he says, "The wrath of God falls upon the sons of disobedience, do not be partakers with them". But the source of their power to enslave, is evil words, empty words, words that are not of the truth.

On this feast, we remember when a young girl was alone in her house in contemplation. She had, for many years, been fostering a spiritual state of preparedness, indifference. Her indifference was, she was ready to do whatever God asked of her. Her yes was critical to this event of God becoming man. But she was ready to obey, not knowing what it would mean for her. She was just prepared, prepared to say yes to God. No matter what that entailed. Her heart was in a condition for many years of being prepared. That was her only concern: that she would give herself, to God, without reservation. And that's why we look at her as a model, that's what we're trying to emulate.

Our life is full of choices. Full of choices. Moment by moment, we have choices: what we're going to think about, what we're going to do and not do. A good and holy life depends, largely, on making very deliberate and wise decisions. Not just the big long term decisions, but the immediate, little ones. One of the consequences of the fall, and our mortality (and really, the permeation of death in all creation, one of the most insideous consequences is really our lack of ability to focus. We are distracted. This is perennial for all of us. There is an inner dividedness, this aimless wandering, even in our thoughts. It's hard to know what we are to do.

This is the source of a lot of woe in this world. This problem is so serious, in fact, that the entire apparatus of the liturgical and devotional life (of which Lent is part) has been constructed by the Church, in the Spirit, to deal with it.

Episode Notes

What's our attitude as we charge off into this Holy Season of Lent? Are we, like our elder brother driven into the wilderness by the Spirit to fight the devil, with fasting, and penitence, prayer and sacrifice? Every day in Lauds I love saying verse 6 of Psalm 149: "Let the praises of God be in their mouth; and a two-edged sword in their hands." Praise God, and slay the enemy.

Remembering is always the first step in turning to God. Man's first step away from God was a failure to remember. It doesn't sound nearly as hideous as it is, but what really lies at the root of all our sin, and all our woe, is forgetfulness. It's not so much what we have done that is man's great failure, but what we have failed to do. The on-going power of sin, even in our lives, those of us who have come to chirst and been baptized, is simple neglect. And a Holy Lent for us will consist of attentiveness and remembrance.