Lent Guide 2023Sample

Week 3: When I'm looking for connection... (to belong)

The Mass

What I say I don’t feel

What I feel I don’t show

What I show isn’t real

What is real, Lord-I don’t know

No, no, no I don’t know.

I don’t know why every time

I find a new love I wind up destroying it

I don’t know why I’m

So freaky-minded, keep on kind of enjoying

it-

Why I drift off to sleep

With pledges of deep resolve again,

Then along comes the day

And suddenly they dissolve again-

I don’t know…

What I need I don’t have

What I have I don’t own

What I own I don’t want

What I want, Lord, I don’t know.

-Extract from The Mass, by Leonard Bernstein

Sunday – Connection and Dialogue

So Moses went out to meet his father-in-law. He bowed low and kissed him. They asked about each other’s welfare and then went into Moses’ tent. Moses told his father-in-law everything the Lord had done to Pharaoh and Egypt on behalf of Israel. He also told about all the hardships they had experienced along the way and how the Lord had rescued his people from all their troubles. Jethro was delighted when he heard about all the good things the Lord had done for Israel as he rescued them from the hand of the Egyptians. When Moses’ father-in-law saw all that Moses was doing for the people, he asked, “What are you really accomplishing here? Why are you trying to do all this alone while everyone stands around you from morning till evening?” Moses replied, “Because the people come to me to get a ruling from God. When a dispute arises, they come to me, and I am the one who settles the case between the quarrelling parties. I inform the people of God’s decrees and give them his instructions.” “This is not good!” Moses’ father-in-law exclaimed. “You’re going to wear yourself out—and the people, too. This job is too heavy a burden for you to handle all by yourself. Now listen to me, and let me give you a word of advice, and may God be with you. You should continue to be the people’s representative before God, bringing their disputes to him.”

Exodus 18:7-9, 14-19

The wilderness is a place where we are threatened and run into trouble. To survive, we then often look to others. It is not only for physical reasons that we look to others but also for emotional, social, and spiritual reasons. Even though we can physically survive independently, it is not possible to survive emotionally, socially, and spiritually on our own.

From an evolutionary standpoint, connection was about physical survival, but today it’s more about meaning in life.

In Exodus 18 we find a story in which we can see ourselves with all the relationships we live in. We are introduced to the dynamic nature of connection and the dialogue a relationship can establish and maintain. The space between you and someone or something else isn’t static but keeps changing. We are able to establish good, life-giving relationships. I am not a victim if I am living in a relationship that brings only pain. I have a choice. We are invited to grow in the art of connection and dialogue to live in life-giving relationships.

Grace:

Lord, I ask for the grace of connection and dialogue in my relationships.