This is a service of morning prayer from the National Cathedral on March 4, 2022. Rev. Patrick Keyser gives a brief, yet excellent message that can serve as good reminder for us as we continue our Lenten journey. Lent is NOT meant to make us feel bad or to just keep being reminded that we are sinners. It is to remind us to be merciful and compassionate towards one another. Some suggestions for conversation and reflection are below the video.

Discussion and Reflection Ideas

Lent is About Mercy, Not Sacrifice

This is a great brief service about what Lent is NOT. It gives us a chance to pause and remember the true meaning of the Lenten season: Lent is about God’s mercy and forgiveness towards us. It is not a season to feel bad and guilty, but to celebrate and share love.  

Te text discussed in the service is, Matthew 9:10-17 (New Revised Standard Version).

¹⁰ And as [Jesus] sat at dinner in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came and were sitting with him and his disciples. ¹¹ When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” ¹² But when he heard this, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. ¹³ Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.”

¹⁴ Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?” ¹⁵ And Jesus said to them, “The wedding guests cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them, can they? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast. ¹⁶ No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old cloak, for the patch pulls away from the cloak, and a worse tear is made. ¹⁷ Neither is new wine put into old wineskins; otherwise, the skins burst, and the wine is spilled, and the skins are destroyed; but new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved.”

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For both discussion ideas below, the key verse is Matthew 10:13 (in Italic in the text above) “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.”  

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Discussion ideas:

1) What does mercy mean to you?

( From Merriam-Webster; Some common synonyms of mercy are charity, clemency, grace, and leniency. While all these words mean “a disposition to show kindness or compassion,” mercy implies compassion that forbears punishing even when justice demands it.)

      How can we show these qualities of mercy to others?

2) What’s Fasting/giving things up for Lent really for?

How does giving something up for Lent help you?

Does it help you be more Compassionate?

Remember: The fast, giving things up, can help remind us about people who are suffering and in need. It can help remind us to be charitable toward others.