Lectionary readings (Click the links to see the readings):
Jeremiah 11.18-20 | Psalm 7.6-12 | John 7.40-52

It is true that the materialistic society, the so-called culture that has evolved under the tender mercies of capitalism, has produced what seems to be the ultimate limit of this worldliness. And nowhere, except perhaps in the analogous society of pagan Rome, has there ever been such a flowering of cheap and petty and disgusting lusts and vanities as in the world of capitalism, where there is no evil that is not fostered and encouraged for the sake of making money. We live in a society whose whole policy is to excite every nerve in the human body and keep it at the highest pitch of artificial tension, to strain every human desire to the limit and to create as many new desires and synthetic passions as possible, in order to cater to them with the products of our factories and printing presses and movie studios and all the rest.

No matter what happens, I feel myself more and more closely united with those who, everywhere, devote themselves to the glory of God's truth, to the search for divine values hidden among the poor and the outcast, to the love of that cultural heritage without which man cannot be healthy. The air of the world is foul with lies, hypocrisy, falsity, and life is short, death approaches. We must devote ourselves with generosity and integrity to the real values: there is no time for falsity and compromise. But on the other hand we do not have to be greatly successful or even well known. It is enough for our integrity to be known to God. What we do that is pure in His sight will avail for the liberty, the enlightenment, and the salvation of His children everywhere.

—Thomas Merton. The seven story mountain. New York: Image, 1970, p. 166. / Thomas Merton. The courage for truth: letters to writers. New York, Harcourt Brace, 1993, p. 188.

Prayer

Lord Jesus, you taught the people in the temple of Jerusalem and instructed your disciples on the Mount of Olives. Grant us a ready mind at all times to learn what you would teach us, that your words may dwell in us richly in all wisdom, for the glory of your holy name.

Afternoon, Jamberoo Abbey

Open To Me the Doors of Repentance, a prayer sung during Lent in the Eastern Orthodox Church. St Vladimir's Orthodox Seminary Male Chorale, Crestwood, NY.