Today’s Sunday Psalm was inspired by Mary’s anointing of Jesus at Bethany in Mark 14:1-9, Matthew 26:6-13, John 12:1-8, and possibly Luke 7:36-50. My Lenten practice as I write here has been to do beautiful things toJesus. The prayer is a reflection of that. I am pouring my heart and mind out directly and personally to Jesus.
May it help you too, as Easter nears, to do a beautiful thing to Jesus.
Sunday Psalm: A Beautiful Thing To Jesus
Jesus:
I have no jar of nard
To anoint your hair and feet.
No table set for you to recline
A welcome to my life.
My tears are no salty torrent,
Though my sins equal hers.
I Confess:
You say you are always with me,
But my eyesight is poor.
And my soul numb to your touch.
Judas-like, I, too, have. . .
Sold myself to the lowest bidder,
Not two coins to rub together.
Rock-like, I pretend my trembling heart
Is unfissured, facing life’s blows,
Like Adam, I hide my fear and faithlessness
Behind laughing eyes and clever quips.
I, too, am a dark-hearted hoper for glory.
Living God:
Yet a sinner, Mary
“Did a beautiful thing to” you,
Not merely for you.
Her love no metaphor nor religious duty.
She braved your gaze,
Dared stroke hair and hands
Brushing against flesh-encased God.
Hers a towering act of faith,
An unintentional prophecy,
Preparing you for redemptive death.
In three days, you returned Mary’s gesture.
Yours a more beautiful thing,
Not preparing us for death.
Your tears and blood
Anointing us with permission to live.
Savior:
Receive my broken jar.
A gift to you,
My Love,
Nard poured out,
Wafting the air, a sweet burning
Of my life
A guttering candle in the dawn.
AMEN
You may find these Lenten writings helpful as well.
Sacrifice Misunderstood: The Main Reason People Avoid or Sacrifice so Little in Lent
Listening in Lent: How to Care Less but Actually Care More
although I had some abilities that might have made it seem that I could have become considered a bit “successful” in life, both as a female (long before the days when females were becoming obsessed with their own personal potential for “success”) and due to some “obstacles” that presented themselves along the way, I was basically waylaid from accomplishing any particularly noticeable “successful path” forward,… even to this day, I have “very successful brothers” who do not seem to be able to comprehend how I didn’t/couldn’t achieve the levels of success that they did,… ho hum, just feeling “blessed” to have managed to “survive”, I definitely give all the credit to God, and have no wish to try to defend or explain myself to my brothers,… all that water is “over the dam”, and here we are, such as we are, the way God has allowed things to grow and be,…
I’m saying “all that”, Eugene, because I think you managed to “carry on” successfully, serving God and family and friends in sincerity and truth, for a much longer stretch before encountering your recent Covid health difficulties, than I managed to do in my younger years,… one basic take-away from those “surviving” challenges (besides much gratitude for God’s love), has been that I must continually nurture and protect “my nervous system”,… just living this life is always going to be challenging, and there’s no way for anyone to “do” it perfectly,… we just do “the best that we can”, hopefully loving God and family and friends, in ways that are tangible and felt,…
so, I think that I “said all that to say this” ~ it has been for a very long time that I have known and definitely appreciated how much I need, love and appreciate God, and that there’s nothing I can do without His presence and help,… outwardly, I do seem to live a rather “humble and low key” life, but gradually over the years, we (God and I) have carved out a very meaningful ministry for me, that is even still growing in exciting ways even at this time, while I’ll soon enough be “pushing 80”!,… for the last 30 years or so, I’ve been doing music with the Spanish people who are coming to our Catholic Church (a church I first attended with H.S. friends almost 65 years ago!),…
so, I’m wondering if “the anointing of the feet of Jesus” in such personal love and gratitude, as you are describing, could be a very recognizable “state of being” that very likely occurs as our “outer (worldly/energetic?) strength” doesn’t “carry us through” in its formerly (and taken for granted) overcoming ways,… everything “in its time”,… God is Good,… we are Blessed,… & you are a Blessing!,… (-:
Georgie Ann: Good morning. Thank you. You seem to grow in wisdom and stature as you push 80. I am grateful for our interaction. You take my thoughts and writing to new depths. Yes, I believe anointing the feet of Jesus for us must be an attitude, a gifting of ourselves. As Jesus said to Thomas, blessed are those who believe who cannot touch him. I pray Holy Week is rich.
I love your reference of Jesus speaking to Thomas,… I looked it up, and found this one, that I also like ~
1 Peter 3-9:
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”
(-:
Love this. Thanks.
it is interesting, (and I have been noticing it, myself), that the closer that I become to “80” (but we’re not there yet!), the more my personal “inner reality” (i.e., the “real me”), seems to be asserting itself, and allowing me to dismiss many things that now appear to just be “external influences and situations” (and definitely “not the real me”),… because I’m a southern-born child, who was transplanted to the northeast as a pre-teen, it “all seems to make sense”, because I had to do my personal “growing up” development and understanding, in a very different cultural setting, from that which had “formed me”,… and it all ends up being a very “lo-o-o-ng story”,… lol,…
so, a lot of the “developmental contradictions” are dropping off, and I couldn’t be happier,… I read something recently that said that older people are often able to begin to enjoy their “personal space and time”, as something that they can savor,… I had never read that before, but I think I do agree,… (-:
Yes! I told someone the other day that I know better now who I am than I’ve ever known. But now I’m learning to be who I am in this new space called retirement and later life. May your Resurrection Sunday be beautiful and transformational.
Good Morning Eugene –
Thank you for a beautifully written Psalm. Lent for me has always been a meditative time – a time of reflection. Perhaps that is why I found your Psalm appealing. Meditation and reflection were what was focused on in the church in which I grew up. The concept of fasting, giving something up or just giving was not a part of my tradition. Giving something up still seems foreign to me, but I can grasp the concept of doing something beautiful for Jesus. Thank you for this. I have been waiting :).
Terry
Good morning, Terry. I hope all is well in the great north. Lent is tough for us late-comers. Let me know what you come up with.