As you sit, reading these words, open your own hands before you...
Open hands image well the three ancient exercises of Lent: prayer, fasting and almsgiving.
Lifting my open hands in prayer is a sign of praise... simply sitting with open hands, palms up, is a gesture of openness to receiving what God has to offer us in the prayer we offer to God...
Hands emptied of food and drink (and just plain stuff!) are the hands of one who fasts: hands emptied of tangible nourishment in the hope of feeding hungers deep in the soul...
Hands reaching out are helping hands, ready to serve the needs of neighbors, particularly the needs of the poor...
Empty, open, outstretched hands are the hands of a beggar...
and before our God, we are all beggars...
before our God, we open our hands
and seek the peace that only God can give...
Lent is a time for hands:
lifted in prayer,
emptied to be filled,
reaching to help...
Are these my hands this Lent?
