* * * A Prayer for the Beginning of Lent * * *

Lord, at the beginning of this Lenten season,

I sense my need of you,
yet, I am not quite sure how to reach you.

I heard someone say, “Read your Bible.”
But too often the words are like
bullets that ricochet off my brain.

I heard someone say, “Pray.”

But my prayers, hurled heavenward,
Fall back to earth like lifeless stones.

I heard someone say, ‘Meditate.”

But my wandering mind was lost
in a desert of random thoughts.

Lord, speak to me through your Word,

and let it penetrate my mind and my heart.

Lord, speak to me through prayer,
And turn the lifeless stones to bread.

Lord, speak to me in my meditation,

That I may see, amid life’s wilderness,
The way, the truth and the life.

Robin E. Van Cleef

Alive now!, March/April 1980

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