First Sunday in Lent – Year B
February 18 - March 1
Gospel Lectionary Text
Mark 1:9-15
1:9 In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan.
1:10 And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him.
1:11 And a voice came from heaven, "You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased."
1:12 And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness.
1:13 He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.
1:14 Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God,
1:15 and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news."
CONTEXT
This Ash Wednesday, we step into Lent, commemorating Jesus’ 40 days of fasting in the desert before he began his public ministry. Lent is a time of preparation for the coming Easter celebration. It begins with the smearing of ashes on our forehead — a graphic sign of our mortality and the condition of our need for mercy. Morbid? Maybe.
But it’s also one of the most honest Church traditions. A faith that doesn’t deal honestly with the reality of mortality, sin and death sets up the conditions for greater pain, suffering and violence. Lent provides the much needed spirituality of subtraction (fasting) designed to help us limit distractions and get honest about what’s really going on. This truth-telling is made possible by the baptismal blessing in this week’s text, which is the mercy of God poured out on all flesh.
Question
In the silence and stillness of your Lenten wilderness journey, consider: Does your view of God lean towards fear and condemnation, or love and forgiveness?
Prayer
Be still and know that I am God.
Be still and know that I am
Be still and know
Be still
Be
See the complete prayer
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