Lent

A blessed Lenten season to you all.
I would commend to you a couple of special posts.
The first is from MereComments,excerpts from the Canon of St. Andrew, prayed this last Tuesday evening during Orthodox Compline:


Sin has stripped me of the robe that God once wove for me, and it has sewed for me garments of skin.

I am clothed with a raiment of shame as with fig leaves, in condemnation of my self-willed passions.

I have fallen beneath the painful burden of the passions and the corruption of material things; and I am hard pressed by the enemy.

Instead of freedom from possessions, O Savior, I have pursued a life in love with material things and now I wear a heavy yoke.

I have adorned the idol of my flesh with a many-colored coat of shameful thought, and I am condemned.

I have care only for the outward adornment, and neglected that which is within—the tabernacle fashioned by God.

I have discolored with the passions the first beauty of the image, O Savior. But seek me, as once Thou hast sought the lost coin, and find me.

Though I have sinned, O Savior, yet I know that Thou art full of loving-kindness. Thou dost chastise with mercy and art fervent in compassion. Thou dost see me weeping and dost run to meet me, like the Father calling back the Prodigal Son.


The second is a quote from A Trail of Flowers. A Lenten meditation to take you through Easter if you so desire:


"...before setting to work for God and to fight against the devil, first calculate your forces; and if you consider yourself well enough equipped to begin, you are a fool, because the tower to be built costs an outrageous price, and the enemy coming out to meet you is an angel, before whom you are of no account. Get to know yourself so well that you cannot contemplate yourself without flinching. Then there will be room for hope. In the sure knowledge that you are obliged to do the impossible in Him who strengthens you, then you are ready for a task which can be performed only through the Cross."

--Jacques Maritain, as quoted by Father Gerald Vann, O.P. in The Seven Swords