In our collect for today (BCP, p.218), we ask God to "Be gracious to all who have gone astray from your ways." That is all of us, you and me, today and every day in failing to do what we ought to have done and doing those things we ought not to have done. As the Apostle Paul pointed out to the Romans, "all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." (3:23) "Everybody's doing it," every teenager's perennial excuse for everything, however, no longer suffices once we realize just how far we have strayed. It is time for us to turn from all that we have allowed to divert us from the way of Love, to repent and return to the Beloved, trusting the Holy One to take us by the hand and lead us deeper within, below the surface, day by day as we make our way through Lent.

The Lenten practice I am using this year is based on a calendar matrix developed by the Society of St. John the Evangelist and the Department of Lifelong Learning at Virginia Theological Seminary entitled "Signs of Life." The days of the week along the top (X axis) are based on the practices for a Jesus-Centered Life promoted by our Presiding Bishop Michael Curry called the "Way of Love" (www.episcopalchurch.org/wayoflove): Sunday focuses on the Worship aspect of the Way, Monday: Pray, Tuesday: Learn, Wednesday: Turn, Thursday: Bless, Friday: Go, Saturday: Rest. The "Signs of Life": Light, Water, Food, Shelter, and Community, are located on the Y axis with suggested daily activities specified for the five weeks leading up to Holy Week. For example: I am writing this meditation on Friday, February 28, two days after Ash Wednesday, which falls on "Go" in the Way of Love where we are urged to "Cross boundaries, listen deeply, and live like Jesus;" the suggested activity for today is to "Ask God to help you see the world as God sees the world." That prayer is especially helpful today with the world awash in fear of the coronavirus. I trust that this discipline will help me observe a holy Lent and return to the Beloved day by day.

Is your practice this year enabling you to look within, as well as without, lighting the path of return?