I wish to share with you a poem I was introduced to recently.  It is called  ‘A Lenten Psalm of Awakening’ and is by Edward Hays.

 

Come O Life-giving Creator,

and rattle the door latch

of my slumbering heart.

Awaken me as you breathe upon

a winter-wrapped earth,

gently calling to life virgin Spring.

 

Awaken in these fortified days

of Lenten prayer and discipline

my youthful dream of holiness.

Call me forth from the prison camp

of my numerous past defeats

and my narrow patterns of being

to make my ordinary life extra-ordinarily alive,

through the passion of my love.

 

Show to me during these Lenten days

how to take the daily things of life

and by submerging them in the sacred,

to infuse them with a great love

for you, O God, and for others.

Guide me to perform simple acts of love and prayer,

the real works of reform and renewal

of this overture to the spring of the Spirit.

 

O Father of Jesus, Mother of Christ,

help me not to waste

these precious Lenten days

of my soul’s spiritual springtime.