“Wash yourselves clean! Put awy your misdeeds from before my eyes; cease doing evil; learn to do good. Make justice your aim: redress the wronged, hear the orphan's plea, defend the widow.”

(From Isaiah 1:10, 16-20) 

After trying several daily planners, I finally settled on one and have been using it for almost a year now. Of all the planning systems I have used, this one is a great tool for helping me be effective in daily living. There is one thing, however, that it has in common with many of the others.  Most planners these days have a section at the top of each daily page entitled something like, “My Daily Top 3.”  Then beneath that, you see your schedule for the day and your task list.  I find this format particularly helpful, because it keeps before me that which needs to be done first.  This may sound silly, but each and every single day, the number one of “My Top 3” simply reads, “Prayer Routine.”  This practice keeps before me (visually) the most important part of my day and helps me to remain focused and going in the right direction. 

When you get up each day, what are your first priorities?  Have you considered that question lately?  When you woke up this morning, what did you identify as your most important thing to do?  Scripture for today’s Mass, specifically, the first reading from Isaiah, urges us to reorient our lives toward holiness and also toward those who experience injustice.  “Make justice your aim,” are the exact words. While Lent is indeed a time during which we are called to sincere repentance and change, it is also a time to increase our awareness of those in need.  What is our level of awareness?  More importantly, how evident is that awareness in my manner of living.  Several years ago, when I was in seminary, one of our teachers suggested to us that our lives each day should in some way minister to the needs of those less fortunate than us.  Do our lives do that?  Serving the poor is not just for our St. Vincent de Paul Society.  Feeding the hungry means more than dropping off a few canned goods.  Isaiah speaks of “…the wronged, the orphan, the widow.”  Who are these in our lives. Begin, perhaps, within your own home or place of work.  Someone there, I guarantee you, needs you and some comfort that you can uniquely provide.  Do not miss this opportunity.  Say hello to someone to whom you normally may not.  Ask them how their day is going.  Offer them a cup of coffee, bottle of water, or something simple like that.  Then, in your prayer, consider the big picture.  How can you and I be better at going beyond the home and workplace?  How can we do that which scripture today calls us to; namely, “hear the plea” of those in need and minister to them too?