Relection & Meditation for Lent

Lent...should never be morose - an annual ordeal during which we begrudginly forgo a handful of pleasures. Instead, it ought to be approached as an opportunity. After all, it is meant to be the church's springtime, when our of the darkness of sin's winter, a repentant, empowered people emerges.
--Bread and Wine: Readings for Lent and Easter 

The prodigal son was resolved to come, yet he was half afraid. But we read that his father ran. Slow are the steps of repentance, but swift are the feet of forgiveness. God can run where we can scarcely limp, and if we are limping toward Him, He will run toward us. Thought the father was out of breath, He was not out of love.
--Charles Haddon Spurgeon

O Lord, who has mercy upon all, take away from me my sins, and mercifully kindle in me the fire of thy Holy Spirit. Take away from me the heart of stone, and give me a heart of flesh, a heart to love and adore You, a heart to delight in You, to follow and enjoy You, for Christ's sake. Amen.
--Ambrose of Milan, 4th century

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