Approaching Easter: Bethany (Chapter 12) (Saturday in the fifth week of Lent)

PAUSE
As I enter prayer now, I pause to be still; to breathe slowly to recenter my scattered senses upon the presence of God.

(pause)
I pray Psalm 27: 4, repeating the words slowly, several times:
“one thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple.”

REFLECT
Bible: As we enter the final week of this devotional, the countdown to Jesus’ death has begun: Six days before the Passover, Jesus cam to Bethany, where Lazarus lived, who Jesus had raised from the dead. Here a dinner was given in Jesus’ honor. Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him. Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus’ fee and wiped his fee with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. (John 12: 1-3)

Book passage: I hope you have a place like Bethany where you can go when you’re wrestling with unanswered prayer. It could be a place or a book or a piece of music that reminds you of all the good things God has done in the past. It could be a person like Lazarus whose very being makes the presence and power of God real to you even when life is at its worst … Bethany’s the kind of community or the kind of family or the kind of place where you can sometimes still smell the perfume of God’s presence. (p.186)

ASK
Ask myself: Where is my Bethany? Who is the person in my life that reminds me of God’s goodness? When did I last spend time in that place or with that person?

Ask the Lord: Jesus, I invite You to fill my home with Your fragrance today. Let my whole life testify to the goodness of Your presence.

YIELD
A prayer of joyful surrender by Mother Teresa of Calcutta:

Dear Jesus, help me to spread your fragrance everywhere I go. Flood my soul with your spirit and life. Penetrate and possess my whole being so utterly that my life may only be a radiance of yours. Shine through me and be so in me that every soul I come in contact with may feel your presence in my soul. Let them look up and see no longer me, but only Jesus. Amen.