Lenten Thoughts

I've been far too busy of late to actually do much writing. However, I have still been reading, and so I'll share a few things that struch me during this season of Lent:

"If is fitting that it be recorded that the first Adam was cast out of Paradise into the desert (Gen 3), that you may observe how the second Adam returned from the desert to Paradise....Adam brought death through the tree. Christ brought life through the cross. Adam, naked of spiritual things, covered himself with the foliage of a tree. Christ, naked of worldly things, did not desire the trappings of the body. Adam lived in the desert. Christ lived in the desert, for he knew where he could find the lost. With their error canceled, he could recall them to Paradise...So Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, is led into the desert for a purpose, on order the challenge the devil. If he had not fought, he would not have conquered him for me." - St. Ambrose, bishop of Milan - Exposition of the Gospel of Luke 4:7,14

The next one, from the Philokalia, struck me and at first I thought it was rather 2-dimensional, if not entirely wrong, but as I have considered it I think there may be much truth here:

"This life has been given you for repentance. Do not waste it on other things." - St. Isaac of Syria

"Now incline me to repent, let me now my sins lament,
now my foul revolt deplore, see, believe, and sin no more." -Charles Wesley (United Methodist Hymnal #355, v.5)