Anglican Mainstream

1 March  am: 56, 57, 58 pm: 64, 65     Gen 41:46-57 1 Cor 4:8-21 Mark 3:7-19a

LENT II – Saint David of Wales,,589 (Bishop and Monk)

LITURGICAL THEME FOR THE DAY: St. David is the only Welsh saint to be canonized in the Western Church. He has been the patron saint of Wales since the 12th century, but very little is known about his life. He died in 589 or 601 after founding a monastery in the area of Pembrokeshire which now bears his name, and living an austere life devoted to God. He is first to be found in an Irish Catalogue of Saints dating from around 730 and by 800 his feast day was determined as March 1st. What we know is that the aim of his work was to promote the independence of the Welsh church as we are told that St. David founded ten monasteries (including Glastonbury) where the regime included manual labor, study and worship.

MEDITATION OF THE DAY: The opening words of the Gospel for today talks about Jesus’ need to withdraw amidst all the great works he was doing in the Galilee region. It seems the crowds would not stand for that as they apparently tracked him down across to the place where he was seeking to be set apart. This is not simply about Jesus having “his space” but it was about those who deeply desired to find experience Jesus to seek him out. While there is much to be said about time alone during Lent, perhaps this passage reminds us that Lent is a time to be actively seeking out the Lord who we say we want to follow, we were reminded at the beginning of Lent that we are but to incline our hearts toward Him, if we wish to truly find Him. What does it look like to seek after him? What should our lives look like should we be chasing Jesus down like the crowd in Mark’s Gospel? Perhaps there is a good illustration from C.S. Lewis in The Screwtape Letters, where in letter XIV, we find a good person ( the patient) being actively recruited by Screwtape ( the Devil) and Wormwood (his apprentice). By this installment their charge is growing humble, and the Screwtape remarks that:

“This is very bad. Your patient has become humble; have you drawn his attention to the fact? All virtues are less formidable to us once the man is aware that he has them, but this is especially true of humility. Catch him at a moment when he is really poor in spirit and smuggle into his mind the gratifying reflection "By jove! I'm being humble," and almost immediately pride – pride at his own humility – will appear. If he awakes to the danger and tries to smother his new form of pride, make him proud of his attempt – and so on, through as many stages as you please. But don't try this for too long, for fear you awake his sense of humour and proportion, in which case he will merely laugh at you and go to bed.” 3

Our journey this Lent began with the humility of Ashes, let us not get caught up in our disciplines so much that we think we are gaining on the Lord whom we seek and lose our sense of proportion!

ANCIENT WISDOM/PRESENT GRACE: “Humility and love are precisely the graces which the men of the world can understand, if they do not comprehend doctrines. They are the graces about which there is no mystery, and they are within reach of all classes… The poorest Christian can every day find occasion for practicing love and humility. –J. C.

Ryle.

LENTEN DISCIPLINE – Today examine and measure every aspect of your life by taking an inventory including family, work, society, politics, economics, values, and desires— against the model of humility set forth by the life and teaching of Jesus Christ. What conclusions do you reach? Share those with a fellow traveler on the journey this Lent

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