Over the course of Lent, each post during the week will provide new material for us to bring to prayer, but weekends are dedicated to repetitions, to looking again at the material we have covered thus far during our Lenten journey towards the Cross and Easter Sunday.
The first week of that journey has so far concerned the greatness of a God who chooses to be mindful of us and who desires for us to know not only the smallest of our own sins but also the grandeur of His whole creation. Only God could be, as St. Augustine says,
most high, excellent, most powerful, omnipotent, supremely merciful and supremely just, most hidden and yet intimately present, infinitely beautiful and infinitely strong, steadfast yet elusive, unchanging yourself though you control the change in all things, never new, never old, renewing all things yet wearing down the proud though they know it not; ever active, ever at rest, gathering while knowing no need, supporting and filling and guarding, creating and nurturing and perfecting, seeking although you lack nothing. You love without frenzy, you are jealous yet secure, you regret without sadness, you grow angry yet remain tranquil, you alter your works but never your plan; you take back what you find although you never lost it; you are never in need yet you rejoice in your gains, never avaricious yet you demand profits. …You owe us nothing, yet you pay your debts; you write off our debts to you, yet you lose nothing thereby. (Confessions I.4)
It is this God who loves us each moment of our lives, who desires for us to know Him and grow closer to Him over the course of this Lenten season. Each meditation from this week has focused our attention on where we each are in our own relationship to God and our relationship to all that he continues to give to us. Perhaps this weekend, then, is an opportunity for us to return again to this theme of God’s goodness to each of us, that we might grow in the grace of gratitude for who He is and for what He has done.