Friday Of The Second Week of Lent

And the Lord appeared unto him in the plains of Mamre: and he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day;

2 And he lift up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood by him: and when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself toward the ground,

3 And said, My Lord, if now I have found favour in thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant:

4 Let a little water, I pray you, be fetched, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree:

5 And I will fetch a morsel of bread, and comfort ye your hearts; after that ye shall pass on: for therefore are ye come to your servant. And they said, So do, as thou hast said.

6 And Abraham hastened into the tent unto Sarah, and said, Make ready quickly three measures of fine meal, knead it, and make cakes upon the hearth.

Genesis 18:1-6, KJV

27 These wait all upon thee; that thou mayest give them their meat in due season.

28 That thou givest them they gather: thou openest thine hand, they are filled with good.

Psalm 104:27-28, KJV

The pretzel is a very ancient bakery item, which traditionally was eaten only during Lent.  It appeared each year on Ash Wednesday and disappeared on Good Friday.  It goes back at least to the fifth century: there is a Roman manuscript in the Vatican library dating from that period which shows a lenten pretzel.  As to the shape: it is made in the form of two arms crossed in prayer. The word bracellae, "little arms," became in German Bretzel; then Pretzel.  These early Christians ate no dairy products in Lent, so the pretzel was made only of flour, salt and water.  It was as simple as it could be.

--Evelyn Birge Vitz

The home baker in me wants to point out that the French baguette (or boule, for that matter) is made with only flour, salt, water, and yeast.  And my pretzel recipe is made much like a bagel (the recipe I have for bagels is a French one so, again, a minimum of ingredients):  four ingredients, and then after it is shaped it's dropped in boiling water for a few minutes before it is baked.  I seldom make the connection to Lent, though.  But maybe I should retire to the kitchen today....

Such is life.  It is no cleaner than a kitchen; it reeks of a kitchen; and if you mean to cook your dinner, you must expect to soil your hands.

--Honore de Balzac

Jesus gaves us a new norm of greatness.  If you want to be important--wonderful.  If you want to be recognized--wonderful.  If you want to be great--wonderful.  But recognize that he who is great among you shall be your servant. That's your new definition of greatness.  And this morning, the thing that I like about it....by giving that definition of greatness, it means everybody can be great.  Because everybody can serve.  You don't have to have a college degree to serve.  You don't have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve. You don't have to know about Plato and Aristotle to serve.  You don't have to know Einstein's theory of relativity to serve. You don't have to know the second theor of thermo-dynamics in physic to serve.  You only need a heart full of grace.  A soul generated by love.  And you can be that servant.

--The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Each thing I have received, from thee it came,

Each thing for which I hope,

  from thy love it will come,

Each thing I enjoy, it is of thy bounty,

Each thing I ask comes of thy disposing.

--Celtic prayer