Home > Lenten Blog 2025

Holy Discipline

March 10, 2025

Leviticus 19:1-2, 2:1-18 | Matt 25:31-46 | Psalm 19:14

Today’s first reading, the Collect (sort of our first solo step into Lent), grabbed me:

Almighty and everlasting God, mercifully increase on us your gifts of holy discipline, in almsgiving, prayer and fasting, that our lives may be directed to the fulfilling of your most gracious will, through Christ our Lord who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Discipline: can it be a holy gift, one we pray God gives us mercifully so that by almsgiving, prayer and fasting (why in that order?) our lives can be directed (passive voice: how? why? by whom?) to the fulfilling of your most gracious will… (‘Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven’)?

Let’s start with that word discipline. Do you too hear echoes of strict teachers—maybe one with a ruler in hand—getting kids in line?  Yet I remember too, on a visit to our kids’ local elementary school, a soft-voiced man who could get second graders to silence the hubbub simply by raising his teacherly hand. Then too, there’s that word disciple: did Christ’s early followers not basically just want to be with him, bringing their doubts and questions to him, learning his gentle ways of love and, yes, sometimes witnessing his angry response to religious hypocrites?  Maybe this Lent, thanks to Fr. Jarrett’s daily Examen notes, I can be with Christ more often. His love is, after all, contagious.

Can discipline be a holy gift?  The first line of today’s Old Testament reading tells us what God ordered Moses to say to his people first, i.e., the preface to his Ten Commandments: ‘You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.”  Yes, I too am a child of God: his love is in my DNA.

Can discipline be a holy gift we hope God will give us mercifully? That way sure beats fires, floods and a plague or two, to say nothing of the personal catastrophes that eventually challenge every family.

Almsgiving, prayer and fasting are the ways that we hope to acquire God’s holy and merciful discipline—why in that order? Experiencing the sheer joy of helping someone else—bringing in food or clothing for our Loaves and Fishes friends in Woonsocket or at the Greenwich Hotel; helping to set the tables or do the dishes for Lunch on the Hill or Christ’s Community Kitchen; bringing a casserole or sandwiches for your neighbor’s teenagers when she’s in the hospital and he’s in shock—that’s a good place to start acquiring and practicing Lent’s holy discipline. Consciously being in touch with God the Father, our Lord Jesus, and their Holy Spirit—especially via Jarrett’s daily Examen prompts—yes, prayer’s a perfect follow/up. And then try fasting, curbing your own appetite for pleasure. For me it’s giving up maybe dessert or the brandy in my tea at night, or building a bit of spiritual muscle by showing up at a State House rally or hearing for affordable healthcare or housing or public utilities, or banning weapons of war in our homes.

At St. Luke’s, I’m home and I’m led. Especially in Lent, I’m inspired to do what I can to discern God’s will so His kingdom of paradise can indeed be and grow here: on Peirce St. in EG, in RI, in our country, on our planet, in our universe. No wonder we need to spread the good news!           

Marie Hennedy