Lent Day Sixteen

M. Scott Peck: Communal confession

Community requires the confession of brokenness. But how remarkable it is that in our culture brokenness must be "confessed." We think of confession as an act that should be carried out in secret, in the darkness of the confessional, with the guarantee of professional priestly or psychiatric confidentiality. Yet the reality is that every human being is broken and vulnerable.

How strange that we should ordinarily feel compelled to hide our wounds when we are all wounded! Community requires the ability to expose our wounds and weaknesses to our fellow creatures. It also requires the ability to be affected by the wounds of others. But even more important is the love that arises among us when we share, both ways, our woundedness. (The Different Drum, Touchstone)

Peck is a psychiatrist and the author of The Road Less Travelled (Simon and Schuster).

The Second Week of Lent ~ Saturday

God of infinite love,
you shower me with limitless gifts in my life.
In my every thought and action today
guide me to the bright and loving light of your kingdom.
Help me to be aware of
the many ways you allow me
to share in your life so intimately today.
Thank you for the gifts you have placed in my life.
Let me be grateful every moment of this day.