How's your heart doing today?

The Prodigal Son is one of those well known parables that it can be very easy to read without looking for anything new in it as you think you know the story and its interpretations so well.  But today i've been given a little bit more of an insight into the older brother...the one who was left behind and feels so left out.

The character of the older brother seems to be a direct reply to the Pharisees and scribes, in response to whose criticism Jesus told the three lost-and-found stories.  The older brother is the upstanding but critical Pharisee who not only knew the religious rules but actually kept them all.  in our context, the older brother is the upright, devoutly religious person, the respected yet resentful churchgoer.  He is the ultimate insider someone who controls the committee meetings, holds the keys, keeps the books, reads the lesson, leads the intercessions.  But in the story it turns out that he is not inside at all, but outside, because even though we may live on the property, a cold heart removes us from God's presence into a darkness of our own making.  No matter how perfectly we keep our religion, it's our heart that places us inside or outside God's presence.

Maggi Dawn


This certainly made me think  -  How's your heart doing today??

Physical or Spiritual?

Today is my first full day fast this Lent.  I decided to fast a full day once a week and it's been going ok...so far!  But todays devotional reading was particulary appropriate!


...life is about more than physical appetites and desires...

...One of the purposes of the Lenten fast is to remind us daily that we are physical creatures and live a physical existence.  In a society that is both over indulgent and excessively body conscious, perhaps one of the challenges of Lent is to befriend our own bodies and find a good balance between taking care of ourselves and simply living comfortably in our own skins.  At the same time, Lent reminds us that we are more than mere animals: we have spiritual and moral capabilities.  We are governed not only by our appetites and needs but also by our will and our imagination.

Maggi Dawn

I'm not so sure about that last line about our will and imagination - are we governed by them in a spiritual sense just as our bodies can be governed by physical desires, and is one or the other easier to contain or control...now that's certainly something to think on!

But what do I need to do?

I'm trying to follow a devotional book throughout Lent to Easter Sunday, so any points that I find particularly thought provoking will most likely end up on here and will hopefully get you thinking too.....


Fasting in the Christian tradition is essentially about recognising that there's nothing we can do to improve ourselves...

In the end, Lent is about denying ourselves some of the essentials of everyday life in order to focus on the reality that we depend upon God for life itself...

If our Lenten fast is understood well, it will relieve us of the need to try harder, achieve more, feel more worthy.  It will ground us in the firm and unshakeable knowledge that we are human - we are but dust, and to dust we shall return - but that to be human is enough, under the loving gaze of God...

Maggi Dawn

Lent 2011

My prayer for this Lent...

Thanks be to thee, my Lord Jesus Christ,
For all the benefits thou hast won for me,
For all the pains and insults thou hast borne for me,
O most merciful, redeemer, Friend, and Brother,
May I know thee more clearly,
Love thee more dearly,
And follow thee more nearly,
Day by day.

St Richard of Chichester



Lent begins with a challenge to clear out the mental and spiritual clutter and so discover how to live life to the full...

Maggi Dawn