Lenten Prayer

I waffled a bit as to whether or not I should post something about my lenten prayers. After all, isn't this supposed to be a time of repentance and humility? And couldn't this be seen as the type of boastful praying on the street corners that Jesus warned us about? But then I got embarrassed and didn't really want to share anyway. So now I am, because now it is an act of self-mortification.

I have recently taken to praying the rosary, tough in a slightly tailored fashion. Instead of saying the Hail Mary on the smaller beads I say the Jesus Prayer and I change the focus of some of the Mysteries (mainly just the last two Glorious Mysteries - I understand that the Catholic veneration of Mary is more nuanced that most people think and I believe we need to rediscover more female heroes of our Faith, but there are still some things I am just not comfortable with). If you are unfamiliar with the rosary and all I'm talking about, here is a good summary of the whole thing.

During Lent the Sorrowful Mysteries are said every day (the agony of Jesus in the garden, Jesus scourged on the pillar, Jesus crowned with thorns, Jesus carries his cross, the crucifixion of Jesus). The other day, while meditating on Jesus being crowned with thorns, I thought about how at this point, when the world was mocking his Lordship, he was more Lord than ever. He was as much Lord then as he is now at the right hand of the Father and as much as he will be at his second coming. At this stage, in this type of humiliation, we see what type of Lord rules the Kingdom we have been called to be a part of. Here, crowned with thorns, is our King; this crown of thorns is indeed a crown. He is a different kind of King, so we are to be a different kind of subjects.

This expanded what had been a pretty self-centered prayer time into the corporate realm. Almost without realizing what I was doing I changed the Christ Prayer on the following beads to "Lord have mercy on us."

Indeed he has.