Rejoice in the Lord always

Most Christians are familiar with Paul's rather counter-intuitive injunction to the Philippians, "Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice." At least, if you're my age you're familiar with it, because of the bouncy little tune it was set to back when we were all going to Vacation Bible School together.

But what I like about the Daily Office and the Lenten readings is the emphasis that is placed on joy throughout Lent, which I suspect the ordinary non-devout person would not at all expect to be a time of joy, what with all the fasting and penitence and all. And this morning's passage from Habakkuk struck me much more forcibly than it ever had before, for various personal reasons:

Though the fig tree does not bud
and there are no grapes on the vines,
though the olive crop fails
and the fields produce no food,
though there are no sheep in the pen
and no cattle in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the LORD,
I will be joyful in God my Savior.

My parents went to the Ash Wednesday service with me yesterday, by the way, and I was delighted that they got to hear this excellent hymn, with which they were unfamiliar (and which is my own Lenten theme song for the year):

"Forgive our sins as we forgive,"
You taught us, Lord, to pray;
But you alone can grant us grace
To live the words we say.

How can your pardon reach and bless
The unforgiving heart
That broods on wrongs and will not let
Old bitterness depart?

In blazing light your cross reveals
The truth we dimly knew,
How small the debts men owe to us,
How great our debt to you.

Lord, cleanse the depths within our souls,
And bid resentment cease;
Then, reconciled to God and man,
Our lives will spread your peace.
--Rosamond E. Herklots