Tuesday in the Third Week of Lent

Psalm 78:1-39 • Jeremiah 7:21-34 • Romans 4:13-25 • John 7:37-52

He [God] remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that passes and comes not again.                                                                                    — Psalm 78:39

Whoever believes in me . . . out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.

— John 7:38

It’s not Lent that I prepare for, but Ash

   Wednesday’s certainty that

I am but “ashes to ashes, dust to dust.”

Restless to plumb the Mystery, my mind wants

   to rest anyplace but in this certainty.

These molecules, I breathe: am I not part of

   Something larger, carbon recycled from the

   flesh of a whale, chloride from the salty

   bay?

In the end, I can follow my breath, pausing

   before the exhale.

This is something I can do.

But the waiting for faith. Not so easy.

My prayer for life (and death):

Please, dear God, let me rest in the peace of

   Your living waters.

— Leslie Middleton