Devotions Archive Archive: 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 Search Archive Print This Article Lent's new day dawns Wednesday, February 13, 2013 Joel 2:12 Even now, says the Lord, return to me with your whole heart. In her twentieth-first century commentary on the fifth century's Rule of Benedict, Joan Chittister quotes the twentieth century Jewish Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel: "What God gave Adam was not forgiveness from sin; what God gave Adam was the chance to begin again." Chittister goes on, "Life is made up of a series of opportunities to begin again. Benedictine spirituality builds that possibility and that obligation right into the Rule." This idea of starting over has great traction. It didn't start with Jesus; it began in the Garden. It doesn't end with Jesus; it shows itself as truth over and over through every century. This is an idea whose time has always come, whose time is always here. In biblical Greek there are two words for time, chronos for chronological time, and kairos for ordained or "right" time. The Lord's call today rings with both kairos and chronos. Even now. This joy that comes in the morning, Lord, it comes from you. Your encouragement and your patience precede the words within me, and my heart overflows. I notice that I am not afraid. "; Add      Edit    Delete