Spiritual Quote of the Day (The Prophet Joel, With a Thought for Lent)

“ ‘Yet even now,” says the Lord,
    “return to me with all your heart,
with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;
     and rend your hearts and not your garments.’
Return to the Lord, your God,
    for he is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love,
    and repents of evil.”—Joel 2:12-13
 
The image of Joel accompanying this post is a detail from the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican, by the Italian Renaissance artist Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564).

Spiritual Quote of the Day (St. John Climacus, on Repentance, ‘The Daughter of Hope’)

“Repentance is the renewal of baptism. Repentance is a contract with God for a second life. A penitent is a buyer of humility. Repentance is constant distrust of bodily comfort. Repentance is self condemning reflection, and carefree self-care. Repentance is the daughter of hope and the renunciation of despair. A penitent is an undisgraced convict. Repentance is reconciliation with the Lord by the practice of good deeds contrary to the sins. Repentance is purification of conscience.”— Christian monk St. John Climacus (?-649 AD), The Ladder of Divine Ascent (ca. 600 AD), translated by Archimandrite Lazarus Moore (1959)

The image accompanying this post, The Return of the Prodigal Son, was created by Dutch Golden Age painter Rembrandt (1606-1669) from 1661 to 1668. That parable is one of the greatest biblical stories of repentance, and a useful one to keep in mind in this Lenten season.

Rembrandt's painting is one of the finest of his career. Interestingly, we never see the face of the prodigal, but of the forgiving father--and, off to the side, the son who never went away and is glowering now with resentment over his parent's perceived favoritism.

Spiritual Quote of the Day (Dorothy Day, on Working for ‘Joy and Peace in a Harried World’)

“What we would like to do is change the world—make it a little simpler for people to feed, clothe, and shelter themselves as God intended them to do. And, by fighting for better conditions, by crying out unceasingly for the rights of the workers, the poor, of the destitute—the rights of the worthy and the unworthy poor, in other words—we can, to a certain extent, change the world; we can work for the oasis, the little cell of joy and peace in a harried world. We can throw our pebble in the pond and be confident that its ever-widening circle will reach around the world. We repeat, there is nothing we can do but love, and, dear God, please enlarge our hearts to love each other, to love our neighbor, to love our enemy as our friend.” ― American journalist, social activist, and Catholic convert Dorothy Day (1897-1980), The Catholic Worker, 1946

Spiritual Quote of the Day (St. Pope John Paul II, on Lent)

“Lent is a time that makes us think about our relationship with ‘Our Father’; it re-establishes the order that should reign between brothers and sisters. Lent is a time that makes us jointly responsible for one another; it detaches us from our selfishness, small-mindedness, meanness and pride; it is a time that enlightens us and makes us understand better that we too, like Christ, must serve.” —St. Pope John Paul II (1920-2005), Message for Lent 1981

Quote of the Day (St. John, on the Passage From Death to Life)

“We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love each other. Anyone who does not love remains in death.”— 1 John 3:14

A thought for Ash Wednesday…

The image accompanying this post is St. John the Evangelist, by Domenichino (Domenico Zampieri), painted in the 1620s.

Quote of the Day (St. John Chrysostom, on Fasting and Good Works)

“The value of fasting consists not in abstinence from food, but in withdrawing from sinful practices; since he who limits his fasting only to an abstinence from meats, is one who especially disparages it. Do you fast? Give me proof of it by your works! Is it said by what kind of works? If you see a poor man, take pity on him! If you see an enemy, be reconciled to him! If you see a friend gaining honour, envy him not! If you see a handsome woman, pass her by! For let not the mouth only fast, but also the eye, and the ear, and the feet, and the hands, and all the members of our bodies.”— St. John Chrysostom (c. 349 – 407), Homily 3, On the Statues

Photo of the Day: Ash Wednesday at ‘The Actors' Chapel’

The formal name of this Roman Catholic Church in Times Square is St. Malachy's, but it has received its nickname from its proximity to the Broadway district and the consequent number of Roman Catholic entertainment figures who have worshipped there.

But the crowd today—and it was a crowd, with several rows deep of people in the back of the church who had to stand throughout Mass—consisted largely of people like me, I think—office workers in the area out during their lunch hour for Ash Wednesday. I took this photo just after leaving the 12:15 services.

Quote of the Day (C.S. Lewis, on God and ‘Our Chance to Choose the Right Side’)

"Now, today, this moment, is our chance to choose the right side. God is holding back to give us that chance. It will not last forever. We must take it or leave it." —C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (1952)