LENT:

MORE OR LESS?

Less noise, more quiet,

Less self, more prayer,

Less food, more fasting,

Less ignorance, more reading,

Less talking, more listening,

Less television, more family,

Less coldness, more warmth,

Less anger, more patience,

Less gossip, more reverence,

Less selfishness, more generosity,

Less blindness, more awareness,

Less envy, more complimenting,

Less jealousy, more acceptance,

Less sitting, more exercise,

Less fear, more trust,

Less hesitation, more courage,

Less me, more them, O Lord,

Less me, more You, O Lord. Amen.

©  Andy Costello, 

Markings  Prayers

Thomas More Association

LENTEN PRACTICES

Lord, this Lent,
let my good example be loud

and my ego soft and silent.

Let my sacrifices, prayer,

fasting and Lenten practices

be for your honor and glory,

as well as the lifting up

of the spirit and life

of my neighbor. Amen.

©  Andy Costello, 

Markings  Prayers

Thomas More Association

BENEATH

 THE ASHES

Ashes,

where once stood

a building tall,

now almost nothing,

just soft silt beneath our feet.

Then you, Lord, rising tall,

up from the dead,

giving all of us the dream
of rising again,

a rising building tall,

church

the hope of all for all,

beneath the ashes.

©  Andy Costello, 

Markings  Prayers

Thomas More Association

PRAYER FOR LENT

Come Holy Spirit
during these 40 Days of Lent,

lead me like you led Jesus,

into the wilderness, to the mountains,
to the temple, to those places within me

that I need to go to face those temptations

in my life that I need to face and overcome.
Give me words, Sacred Words,

like you gave to Jesus,

so that I might challenge and face

my hungers and my needs,

my demons and Satan, the tempter within.

Come Holy Spirit

during these 40 Days of Lent,

give me the strength you gave Jesus

to face the great temptations of life:

the temptation to take the easy way out,

like changing rocks into bread,

without working and sweating for our daily bread;

the temptation to reach for power and self glory,

Satan’s kind of power, not God’s power of humility;

the temptation to place myself in dangerous situations,

saying that God will watch over me,
and in the process stumbling,

because I said, “It’s all up to God”
without any decisions coming from me.

©  Andy Costello, 

Markings  Prayers

Thomas More Association

INNER TEMPLE  PRAYER

Lord, this Lent,

walk into this temple called me.

Walk around inside me.

Watch me. Warn me!

Show me the wisdom

of the sign of your cross within me.

Lord, this Lent,

walk into this temple called me.

Show me that sometimes

I spend too much time

buying and selling,

worrying and worshipping things.

I have become a marketplace and a mall,

instead of becoming a temple

filled with your Spirit.

Lord, this Lent,

walk into this temple called me.

Let the zeal for your house

drive out my sheep and my oxen.

Turn over my money tables.

During these days of Lent

challenge me to make better choices

in living your new life,

so that when Easter comes,

I will have become

what you have called all of us to be:

a house of prayer and the house of God.

©  Andy Costello, 

Markings  Prayers

Thomas More Association

ASH  WEDNESDAY 

Lord

of dirt and ashes,

Lord

of burnt and hurt,

enter into

my dark confessional this Lent.

Hear my secret sins --

the ones that really burn me.
See my smoldering resentments --

the ones I won’t let go of.

Then Lord, Easter me this Lent.

Come into my upper room.

Breathe into me your peace --

the peace that  flows from forgiveness --

the forgiveness of myself and others.

Then together we shall rise from the ashes.

©  Andy Costello, 

Markings  Prayers

Thomas More Association

FEBRUARY PRAYER

                    
February
brief and cold,

tilting slowly towards

the light ...

moving into Lent,
ashes once again.

The slow change of seasons

inside and out,

winter wanting spring,

death wanting resurrection ....

Lord, I’m changing,

but slowly,

slowly with the seasons,

February,

brief and cold,

tilting slowly towards

the Light ....

         ©  Andy Costello, 

Markings  Prayers

Thomas More Association