Great Lent will have begun by the time this appears (I will be in Robertson without easy internet access and so am setting it up now), but we have been singing “Open to me the doors of repentance,” for a few weeks now – okay, trying to sing it might be a better phrase for some of us! – and so I have had it going through my mind quite a bit recently. And yesterday it suddenly struck me that the gift of repentance is really something that we need to ask for, that the mystery of repentance is something I do not properly understand. It is more than simply a cerebral act of the will, or the saying of words, although both the will and words, and many other actions, are necessary. But it is also something more, and deeper, than that. Something that is beyond our power which we cannot manufacture, but need to ask for.
February 26, 2012
Open to me the doors of repentance
Posted by Macrina Walker under Repentance | Tags: Great Lent |1 Comment
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February 27, 2012 at 3:29 pm
May you have a blessed Lent, Macrina.
The refrain reminds me of Psalm 118: 19, “Open to me the gates of righteousness…”
And those gates open, I think (at least as far as my own experience is concerned) in response to God’s totally undeserved Mercy. (I also fear it may involve having strayed far, far from the path… so don’t follow my example, please!) But once given, God’s superabundant, unbelievable MERCY – in whatever form it may arrive (and honestly, Macrina, I am SURE you know of this or you would never have staked ALL, as you’ve done) becomes its own teaching moment, so to speak – a well that keeps on giving, you could say. As one digs deeper and deeper… (No matter how impoverished our daily attempts, I might add.)
I was thinking about these things on Ash Wednesday – a day which apparently “tugs” at my heart in some deep manner – though Orthodoxy does not celebrate it. But God pinned me there nonetheless. And my poor results can be read here:
http://wisdom4nothing.blogspot.com/2012/02/dust-and-ashes-and-transfiguration.html