Read the Church Fathers - Day 1

For Lent this year, I am trying to do something different. Given that this is only my second year to practice Lent, that is not hard.
I have been thinking about what to do for Lent for a few days now and yesterday was challenged to try and "pray the hours" - e.g, do a liturgical reading with a morning, noon and night  section to it.

Another site led me to a whole bunch of Lent prayers and then a challenge to Read the church Fathers - a different reading for all 40 days. (All of the readings are available here).

So for day one, I headed over to the very nice little prayer chapel on our grounds at lunch. I had wanted to visit and this was a good excuse.  Here is a bit about the first day's reading from the Church Fathers.

Reading 1 - Didache - chapters 1-12. 

I didn't know what this was until I just looked it up. It is also known as the "teaching of the 12 apostles" and dates to the 1st or second century. It feels like someone has taken core parts of New Testament teaching and boiled them down. Or like someone has cut and pasted them together, from a translation that you are not quite familiar with.

The way of life, then, is this: First, you shall love God who made you; second, love your neighbor as yourself, and do not do to another what you would not want done to you. And of these sayings the teaching is this: Bless those who curse you, and pray for your
enemies, and fast for those who persecute you. For what reward is there for loving those who love you? Do not the Gentiles do the same? But love those who hate you, and you shall not have an enemy.

Compare with Matt 5:44:

But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,

In this particular passage, I liked the idea of not just praying for your enemies but FASTING for them.  And then the idea of loving those who hate you until you no longer had an enemy.

Another interesting tidbit: "Let your alms sweat in your hands, until you know to whom you should give."  Now there's an image. Have you ever tried to hold on to money in your hand, have it ready when needed? It's hard work not to lose it. I do this fairly frequently in Cameroon when I get in one of the taxis you share with 4 others. I get my money out before I get wedged in the seat and so I have it in my hand the whole trip. Today It was a bill and it DID get sweaty before we reached our destination.
i think the idea here is that you don't just get your alms out and give it quickly without thinking, but you hold on to it until you find the right person  who really needs it.

The reading for today is 12 chapters long with the chapters being on the order of short Bible chapters. Chapter 2 had a fairly traditional list of sins to avoid. I found it interesting that it specifically mentions abortion which is never mentioned overtly in the Bible: "You shall not murder a child by abortion nor kill that which is born.".

Some of the "sins to avoid" mention something worse they will lead to.

• Don't lust as it leads to adultery. 
• Lying and the love of money lead to theft. 
• Murmuring leads to blasphemy. 
• Being self-willed leads to blasphemy. 

These seem to parallel the things Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount, when he equates hating someone in your heart with murder. And lusting after someone with adultery.

The other chapters go on and have quite a lot of descriptions about church life: how to baptize, fast, have communion, etc.