Lenten Devotion 2012
St. Matthias Episcopal Church
www.saint-matthias.org		 Lent : 2012
These daily devotions are written by Episcopalians throughout the Diocese of Colorado. An archive of prior devotions can be found on the Diocese of Colorado's Website, here. You can also get to St. Matthias' homepage here. 

The Sower and the Owl

by Meg Stern

 

For Your Reading: Mark 4:1-20

 

Today's reading contains a well-known and oft-cited parable, but it is usually interpreted as follows: "one person represents the rocky soil, another the thorny" and so on. I want to look at it from a different perspective in that one person's heart can represent all the aspects of the seed and soil. To fully receive God's word one has to really hear it and thence receive it into one's heart and life. But how often do we truly hear? To listen fully, we have to turn off the distractions of the world. Growing up, I remember a rhyme that you are probably familiar with also:

 

"The wise old owl sat in the oak. The more he heard the less he spoke. The less he spoke the more he heard - let's all be like that wise old bird."

 

Do you hear when you listen or is a part of your mind thinking about something else? We are all so busy these days and pulled in so many different directions that it is hard to stop and listen fully. When you are in church, do you fully hear the sermon--or the readings if you are preaching--or are you partly listening and partly thinking about whether you turned off the coffee pot, where you need to be after church, why is Bob's kid being so distracting, what WAS Suzie thinking when she got dressed this morning.....

 

It is hard to be "fertile ground" with the busy-ness of our lives. In his book Sanctuary of the Soul, Richard Foster quotes Roman Guardini regarding re-collecting ourselves to enter into meditation and truly be in God's presence: "Prayer must begin with this collectedness. As said before, it is not easy. How little of it we normally possess becomes painfully clear as soon as we make the first attempt." Foster then goes on to talk about allowing "inner distractions and frustrations to melt away as snow before sun." He says, "We allow God to calm the storms that rage within. We allow God's great silence to still our noisy heart."

 

As we read this story of the sower today, let's practice allowing God to still our noisy hearts so we can truly hear Him.

 

For Your Prayer: Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will direct your paths. Proverbs 3:5-6

 

For Your Reflection: Are you listening? Really? Try practicing the four movements of Lectio Divina each day during Lent: - Lectio: read; Meditatio: meditate; Oratio: pray; Contemplatio: contemplate

 

Meg Stern serves as the executive assistant to Bishop O'Neill.

 

Lent call us to the observance of a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God's holy Word.

 

 

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