Ash Wednesday
Confession: Psalm 51:1?4
Be gracious to me, O God, according to your loyal love.
According to your abundant mercies,
blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
and from my sin cleanse me.
For I myself know my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me.
Against you, only you, I have sinned
and have done this evil in your eyes,
so that you are correct when you speak,
you are blameless when you judge.
Reading: Mark 8:27?33
And Jesus and his disciples went out to the villages of Caesarea Philippi, and on the way he asked his disciples, saying to them, ?Who do people say that I am?? And they told him, saying, ?John the Baptist, and others Elijah, and others that you are one of the prophets.? And he asked them, ?But who do you say that I am?? Peter answered and said to him, ?You are the Christ!? And he warned them that they should tell no one about him.
And he began to teach them that it was necessary for the Son of Man to suffer many things and to be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and to be killed, and after three days to rise. And he was speaking openly about the subject, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning around and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, ?Get behind me, Satan, because you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but the things of people!?
Reflection
If Peter ? was called a stumbling-block by Jesus?as not minding the things of God in what he said but the things of men?what is to be said about all those who profess to be made disciples of Jesus, but do not mind the things of God? [What is to be said about those who] do not look to things unseen and eternal, (but mind the things of man) and look to things seen and temporal? Would they be seen by Jesus as a stumbling block to Him, and because they are stumbling blocks to Him, as stumbling blocks to His followers also? In regard to them He says, ?I was thirsty and you gave me no drink,? so also He might say, ?When I was running you caused me to stumble.? Let us not therefore suppose that it is a trivial sin to mind the things of men?since we ought in everything to mind the things of God.
?Origen
Response
How are you mindful of the ?things of people?? Are you harboring mindsets, possessions, goals, and desires that are incompatible with God and His kingdom? Make a list of these things and pray about them.
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Adapted from today’s reading in 40 Days to the Cross: Reflections from Great Thinkers.?This devotional will guide you through a time of confession, reading, and reflection during the 40 days leading to Easter.
