Lenten Reading: Saturday after Ash Wednesday
First Fruits, The Canon of St. Andrew, Chapter 2 (6-11)

At our Thursday meeting, Mason reminded us that Eastern-tradtion Christians repeat over and again that the real goal of our life in Christ is to be healed--to be found because we've lost our way. And that, as Frederica Matthewes-Green in her Introduction points out, "is a really long process" (xv).

While reading, praying, and reflecting on Chapter 2 in The Canon, I was struck how St. Andrew tells his Maker that he is wounded, lost as an outcast, a man who has fallen among thieves, and beaten. When he prays, St. Andrew asks for help and mercy. He wants the Savior to come and make him healthy before he gets worse.

Speaking personally and telling you more than you may know about me, in my own life I'm often lost and without a good sense of direction. Whole years have gone by while I lost my bearings. For a good part of my mid-life my headlights were on dim. Today I still drive down wrong streets. I have "fallings-out" with people, with friends, sometimes with strangers--yes, even with June. So this prayer hits home and urges me to examine my own spiritual confusion and illness, my own state of dis-repair. I find that praying The Canon is something like undergoing a spiritual examination, an MRI of my own heart and mental conditioning, making sure I know and get an accurate medical record of my interior life. After time spent in The Canon this morning, I'm aware that I need healing. I need moment-by-moment help and healing--someone to give me a sense of direction.