2026 Daily Lenten Journey Day 2

Yesterday I wrote to you about how strongly I felt the Prophet’s warning and call to repentance. Today I’m still pondering Genesis. I decided to continue where it started for me yesterday. Here’s are today’s readings.

Thus says the Lord: “If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good things of the land. But if you are unwilling and disobedient, you shall be devoured by the sword,” for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. How the faithful city of Zion has become a prostitute! It was full of judgment. Righteousness lodged in it, but now murderers. Your silver is worthless; your tavern-keepers mix wine with water. Your rulers are disobedient and companions of thieves. Everyone loves bribes and follows after rewards. They do not defend the orphans, nor do they regard the cause of the widow. Therefore says the Master, the Lord of hosts: “Woe to the mighty ones of Israel, for My anger against the adversaries will not cease; and I will execute judgment on My enemies. I will bring My hand upon you and purge you completely. I will destroy those who disobey and remove all the lawless from you; I will humble all the arrogant. I will establish your judges as at the first and your counselors as at the beginning. Afterward, you shall be called the city of righteousness, Zion, the faithful mother-city.” For her captives shall be saved with judgment and with mercy. The lawless and sinners shall be destroyed together. Those who forsake the Lord shall come to an end. For they shall be ashamed of the idols they desired and the gardens they longed for. For they shall be as a terebinth tree that has lost its leaves; like a garden with no water. Their strength shall be as broken fiber and their works as sparks of fire. The lawless and the sinners will burn together, and no one shall quench them. The word that came from the Lord to Isaiah the son of Amoz concerning Judah and Jerusalem. Now it shall come to pass in the last days, the mountain of the Lord and the house of God shall be visible on the tops of the mountains and exalted above the hills. All the Gentiles shall come to it. Many Gentiles shall travel and say, “Come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will proclaim His way to us, and we shall walk in it.” Isaiah 1.19-2.3

Then God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of heaven for illumination to divide day from night. Let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years. Let them be for illumination in the firmament of heaven to give light on the earth.” It was so. Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also. God set them in the firmament of heaven to give light on the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. God saw that it was good. So evening and morning were the fourth day. Then God said, “Let the waters bring forth creatures having life, and let birds fly above the earth across the face of heaven’s firmament.” It was so. Thus God made great sea creatures and every living thing that moves with which the waters abounded, according to their kind, and every winged bird according to its kind. God saw that it was good. God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on earth.” So evening and morning were the fifth day. Genesis 1.14-23

Wisdom sings in the streets; she moves boldly in the squares. She preaches on high city walls and sits at the gates of lords. At the gates of a city she boldly says, “So long a time as the simple hold fast to righteousness, they shall not be ashamed; but those without discernment, since they are desirous of arrogance, and are become ungodly, they hate perception, and are become subject to reproofs. Behold, I shall bring forth upon you the utterance of my breath, and I shall teach you my word. Since I called, but you did not obey, and spoke at length, but you paid no attention, but made my counsels invalid, and were not persuaded by my reproofs; consequently, I will laugh at your annihilation, and will exult when ruin comes to you, and when confusion reaches you unawares, and overthrow comes like a whirlwind, and when tribulation and anguish come to you, and when destruction comes to you. For it shall be, when you shall call upon me, I will not listen to you; evil men will seek me, but not find me, for they hate wisdom, and choose not the fear of the Lord. Neither do they wish to follow my counsels, but despise my reproofs. Therefore, they shall eat the fruits of their own way and be filled with their own ungodliness. For since they wrong the simple, they shall be killed, and a close examination shall destroy the ungodly. But he who obeys me shall dwell in hope, and shall be at rest without fear from every evil.” Proverbs 1.20-35

Continuing from what inspired me yesterday from Genesis, God is the Creator. Yesterday and today we ‘hear Him’ speaking creation into being. He spoke, and there was order. He spoke, and there was life. When God speaks, the entire Universe responds, expect humanity.

For some reason we seem to think God doesn’t mean what He says. He is the Creator. We are His creatures, even if we are created in His Image as human beings. What has been hovering over me since yesterday is the reality of just how much we ignore the Power of God.

I’m not talking about the power to flood the earth or pour fire from the heavens. Sure, He has the power, and we will hear about it in the coming days in our daily readings from Genesis. I’m talking more about His power to create life.

Great Lent is supposed to bring our hearts and souls back to communion with God, like we experienced in the Garden. This is what strikes me as the wisdom of the Church, of course guided by the Holy Spirit.

On the one hand, yesterday we were reminded of our rebellion. At the same time, we were reminded that God creates life, He doesn’t create death. Death is something foreign to God. We will hear about that too in the coming days and weeks.

For me today, it is enough to remind myself that God is the Creator of Life. If I can’t trust Him to rescue me, why bother with all this prayer and fasting. If I can’t put my life in His Hands, as the Creator of Life, nothing matters. I may as well just pack up and go home.

Great Lent, for me, is my annual reminder that it does matter. It does make a difference. I am being rescued. All I need to do is focus on my soul and repentance and learn to see God’s love for what it is. ‘All this’ prayer and fasting will help me focus my attention on God.

Have a Blessed a Lent.