Episcopal Relief & Development’s 2025 LENTEN Meditation Journey . . . A COMMONPLACE Lent

We carry ourselves wherever we go. —Matrona 1, The Forgotten Desert Mothers by Laura Swan

The psalms had never been my favorite. For years, I found most of them repetitive, overly dramatic and a bit whiny. I found the ones attributed to David particularly annoying. After all, it seemed to me that David’s predicaments were often the natural consequences of his actions. I began to understand the psalms in a new way when I joined a discernment process to become an Oblate with the Community of Saint Mary’s Southern Province. An Oblate is a lay member of the Community who seeks to follow the Rule of Saint Benedict out in the world, an extension of the faithful practices of the monks and nuns.

Each day in this year of discernment, I read the psalms within Morning and Evening Prayer and reflected in writing on a portion of at least one psalm. After three hundred and sixty-some-odd days of this, I began to wonder if the point of the psalms wasn’t really about the ranting and the wailing, the anger or the begging. Perhaps the point was that God was with and present to the psalmists, even if they had brought their situation upon themselves.

Perhaps the revelation of the psalms is the same as that of Lent: God may not rescue us from the wilderness of our making, but God is always present to us. God is present to us in despair, anger, doubt, tears and repentance, no matter how long it takes us to get there. God is present to us when things are taking too long and when they are going too fast. God is present when we cause the trouble—and when the problem happens for no discernable reason. What if the thing we are meant to learn from the psalms and the practices of fasting, repenting and simplicity in Lent is that God, love divine, is always with us, in the pit, in the wilderness, in the fog and in the consequences?

For REFLECTION:

People experience God’s presence differently. Some feel God’s presence as an emotion or physical sensation, and some hear or see God’s presence in nature, another person or a work of art. How do you experience God being present to you, especially in the wilderness? Do you experience it in the moment or upon reflection months or years later?

Click here to read the introduction to the 2025 Lenten Meditation “A Commonplace Lent.”

The Lenten Meditations prepared by Episcopal Relief & Development invite readers to deepen their spiritual practice during the season of Lent, the time of preparation leading to Easter. Our 2025 meditations explore the idea of “A Commonplace Lent.” This concept reflects Episcopal Relief & Development’s tagline: “Working Together for Lasting Change.” We share in common the work of advancing lasting change in communities impacted by injustice, poverty, disaster and climate change.

We also share in common spiritual practices that strengthen our faith—prayer, worship, love, grace, service and so much more. The author explores another meaning of common in the  meditations: finding God in the common and ordinary as well as in the extraordinary mountain-top moments. Each day begins with wisdom from desert mothers and fathers, monastics and other spiritual leaders who offer insight into our common path of faithful discipleship and service. Each meditation concludes with a question for deeper reflection.

Episcopal Relief & Development is the compassionate response of The Episcopal Church to human suffering in the world. Hearing God’s call to seek and serve Christ in all persons and to respect the dignity of every human being, Episcopal Relief & Development serves to bring together the generosity of Episcopalians and others with the needs of the world.

This Lenten Meditation Journey is provided courtesy of Episcopal Relief & Development and was authored by Jerusalem Jackson Greer, co-executive director and agrarian minister for the Procter Center, an Episcopal farm, camp and retreat center in the Episcopal Diocese of Southern Ohio. As former manager of evangelism and discipleship for The Episcopal Church under Presiding Bishop Michael Curry, she co-founded the Good News Garden movement and oversaw Way of Love and Evangelism initiatives for the wider church.