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| Lent - a time for Reflection & Reconciliation; Reflections and meditations | |
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| Topic Started: Thursday, 22. February 2007, 23:45 (333 Views) | |
| James | Thursday, 22. February 2007, 23:45 Post #1 |
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| Rose of York | Thursday, 1. March 2007, 20:23 Post #2 |
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Up to now I saw that passage as a message from Christ that He wants us all to be one, ie members of His Church. There is another way of looking at each other. All people need to try to be at one with (ie at peace with) each other in families, neighbourhoods, nations, throughout the world, and it includes being at one with each other in love and peace, whatever the colour, race or creed of others. |
  Catholic and proud of it! Talk to God before Mass. Talk to each other afterwards | |
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| KatyA | Wednesday, 6. February 2008, 20:21 Post #3 |
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LENT, A GREAT SPIRITUAL RETREAT LASTING FORTY DAYS VATICAN CITY, 6 FEB 2008 (VIS) - In this morning's general audience, held in the Paul VI Hall, the Pope dedicated his catechesis to the subject of Lent, which begins today with the rite of the imposition of the ashes and which, he observed, "is like a great spiritual retreat lasting 40 days". "Today, as every year, we recommence the Lenten journey, stimulated by a more intense spirit of prayer and reflection, of penance and fasting", he said. Lent, Benedict XVI continued, "helps us to rediscover the gift of faith we received at Baptism and encourages us to approach the Sacrament of Reconciliation, placing our commitment to inner conversion under the protection of divine mercy". In today's liturgy for Ash Wednesday, we are reminded that "we are limited creatures, sinners in constant need of penance and conversion. How important it is, in our own time, to listen to and accept this call! When he proclaims his complete autonomy from God, modern man becomes self-enslaved, and often finds himself tormented and alone. The call to conversion is, then, an encouragement to return to the arms of God the tender and merciful Father, to trust in Him, and to entrust ourselves to Him as adoptive children regenerated by His love". The Pope went on to ask whether "achievement of success, desire for prestige and pursuit of luxury, when they completely absorb a person's life to the point of excluding God from the horizon, truly lead to happiness. Can real happiness exist without God? Experience shows that satisfying material wants and needs does not lead to happiness, In truth, the only joy that fills the human heart is the joy that comes from God, because we have need of infinite happiness. Neither daily concerns nor the difficulties of life are able to extinguish the delight that comes from friendship with God". Jesus' invitation to take up the cross and follow Him may seem a "harsh" rule that "quashes our desire for personal fulfilment", said the Holy Father, going on to highlight that, in fact, "the witness of the saints shows how in the Cross of Christ - in love given as a gift, renouncing the possession of self - is a profound serenity that is the source of generous dedication to our brothers and sisters, especially the poor and needy. And this also brings joy to us". Echoing the Gospel, "the Church proposes a number of specific duties for the faithful on this itinerary of interior renewal: prayer, fasting, almsgiving", said Benedict XVI recalling how his own Message for Lent this year had focused on "the practice of almsgiving". "Like the disciples of Jesus Christ", he concluded, "we are called not to idolise worldly goods, but to use them as a means to live and to help others in need, ... in imitation of Jesus Who, as St. Paul says, 'was poor to enrich us with his poverty'". |
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| KatyA | Friday, 8. February 2008, 11:51 Post #4 |
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Benedict XVI proposes that Lent be a time to fast from words and images, and to create a space for silence. The Pope said this today in the Vatican upon receiving the parish priests of the Diocese of Rome, a meeting he said is organized to "mutually help each other," reported L'Osservatore Romano. When asked how to live Lent, the Pope answered: "It seems to me that the time of Lent should be a time of fasting from words and images, because we need a little silence, a little space, without being constantly bombarded with images. "We need to create spaces of silence [...] to open our hearts to the true image, to the true word." The Pontiff also underlined the importance of the clergy giving witness that "we can truly know God. That we can be his friends, and walk with him." Other themes that were discussed included interreligious dialogue, almsgiving and the loss of the sense of sin that characterizes society. ZENIT Couldn't possibly mean the telly, could he :) |
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| Derekap | Friday, 8. February 2008, 20:32 Post #5 |
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or the internet? (Present company excepted of course!) |
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| KatyA | Monday, 11. February 2008, 11:46 Post #6 |
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During Lent there's no escaping from sin. Sin is the stuff of Lent. And this means my sin. Lent is the time when we have to recognise and name the sin that is part of our life. This means facing up to our failures, our greed and our selfishness. During Lent we have to accept that sin is part of the way we live. There is no other starting point for Lent. When we begin to see and accept the face of sin in our lives then we begin to have the choice of turning away from it. Lent can help us to recognise where sin comes from, the damage that it does and the pathway away from it. Keeping Lent faithfully can be tough going.But this is the pathway of life. This is the pathway sketched out by the Holy Spirit, the "teacher of the interior life". From Walk with Me - A Lenten Journey of Prayer for 2008 |
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| KatyA | Saturday, 16. February 2008, 19:49 Post #7 |
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From Walk with Me - A Lenten Journey of Prayer for 2008 Faith is not easy going. In fact it is quite a struggle. St.Paul speaks about it as bearing hardships for the sake of the good news. During Lent we turn to the Holy Spirit to strengthen us and give us courage in continuing to follow the pathway of faith and doing what is right. The struggle we have here is often with sin and with the effects of sin. We struggle against our own waywardness, our selfishness and our inclination to self pity. We struggle with the lack of generosity in others, trying to maintain patience and peace. We do well to remember that sin is most often a conspiracy. Normally there is more than one person involved in a pattern of sin in our lives. We have to find,in the Holy Spirit, a new way of relating to those around us. We have to enter into new relationships which are centred on Christ. This is the way to overcome sin and build a life of virtue and peace between us. |
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| KatyA | Sunday, 24. February 2008, 22:24 Post #8 |
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From Walk with Me - A Lenten Journey of Prayer for 2008 Our Christian task is to enter into a state of grace and to maintain it. A state of grace means being right with God and therefore, as far as possible, right with one another. A state of grace is a relationship, first of all with the Lord and then flowing outwards towards others. In longing to live in this state of grace, we live with both hope and fear. We know that God is always faithful and will never withdraw his gift of grace; but we also know that we are weak and therefore rely entirely on the mercy and goodness of God. This week we turn again to God in prayer so that, in His goodness, He will strengthen the bonds that bind us to Him and make the hope that we have within us strong and unshakeable. |
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| KatyA | Sunday, 2. March 2008, 21:28 Post #9 |
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From Walk with Me - A Lenten Journey of Prayer for 2008 This week, St Paul teaches us that the faith and hope we have in Christ must flow into the way we live. Faith and action go hand in hand. As the teacher of our interior life, the Holy Spirit can shape our daily actions. The life of prayer, inspired by the Holy Spirit, is inseparable from the way we live. What we do flows from our interior life. There is no escaping this conection During Lent we try both to renew our interior life and to refashion our way of acting. Then we truly are witnesses to the truth of God and not like clowns with painted faces putting on a performance for others to see. |
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| KatyA | Thursday, 13. March 2008, 00:03 Post #10 |
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From Walk with Me - A Lenten Journey of Prayer for 2008 Lent brings us to the heart of life. Beyond the destructiveness of oour sins and beyond every good effort we make, lies a deeper truth. This is the truth of the Holy Spirit dwelling within us. This spiritual reality is the most important thing about us. When we grasp this truth then we know where our true life lies. When we fail to appreciate this truth then our life is without its true foundation. Facing up to ourselves honestly during lent and striving to open our inner life to the Holy Spirit, we seek this radical renewal from within. This gift comes to us through the death of Christ. This is the mystery that we are now approaching so steadily. |
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| KatyA | Sunday, 22. February 2009, 21:41 Post #11 |
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Biblical Reflection for Ash Wednesday By Father Thomas Rosica, CSB TORONTO, FEB. 22, 2009 (Zenit.org).- On Ash Wednesday, Feb. 25, the Church begins her great Lenten journey with Jesus on the road to Jerusalem. For centuries, Lent has been a very intense spiritual journey and experience for the followers of Jesus Christ. re 40 days in Lent? It took 40 days for sinfulness to drown in the flood before a new creation could inherit the earth. It took 40 years for the generation of slaves to die before the freeborn could enter the Promised Land. For 40 days Moses, Elijah and Jesus fasted and prayed to prepare themselves for a life's work. Lent invites us to turn from our own selves, from our sin, to come together in community. Self-denial is the way we express our repentance. Self-denial is threefold, advises Matthew's Gospel. We pray: "Go to your room, close your door, and pray to your Father in private." We fast: "No one must see you are fasting but your Father." We give alms: "Keep your deeds of mercy secret, and your Father who sees in secret will repay you." Through the Lenten exercise of prayer, fasting and almsgiving, we spring-clean our lives, sharpen our senses, put tomorrow in its place and treasure the day at hand. One of the three Lenten practices open to most misinterpretation today is that of fasting. Fasting has become an ambiguous practice. In antiquity, only religious fasting was known; today, political and social fasting exists (hunger strikes), health and ideological fasting (vegetarians), pathological fasting (anorexia), aesthetic fasting (the cult of the body -- believing that thinner is better). There is, above all, a fast imposed by necessity: that of millions of human beings who lack the indispensable minimum and die of hunger. These fasts in themselves have nothing to do with religious or aesthetic reasons. In aesthetic fasting at times one can even "mortify" the vice of gluttony only to obey another capital vice, that of pride or vanity. Fasting, in itself, is something good and advisable; it translates some fundamental religious attitudes: reverence before God, acknowledgment of one's sins, resistance to the desires of the flesh, concern for and solidarity with the poor. ... As with all human things, however, it can fall into "presumption of the flesh." Remember the words of the Pharisee in the temple: "I fast twice a week" (Luke 18:12). Lent is a time for us to discover the reasons for the pious practices, disciplines and devotions of our Catholic Christian tradition. What have we done with the important Lenten practice of fasting? If Jesus were here to speak to disciples of today, what would he stress most? We regard as more important the need to "share bread with the hungry and clothe the naked"; we are in fact ashamed to call ours a "fast," when what would be for us the height of austerity -- to be on bread and water -- for millions of people would already be an extraordinary luxury, especially if it is fresh bread and clean water. In his message for Lent 2009, Benedict XVI writes: "At the same time, fasting is an aid to open our eyes to the situation in which so many of our brothers and sisters live. In his First Letter, St. John admonishes: 'If anyone has the world's goods, and sees his brother in need, yet shuts up his bowels of compassion from him -- how does the love of God abide in him?' Voluntary fasting enables us to grow in the spirit of the Good Samaritan, who bends low and goes to the help of his suffering brother. "By freely embracing an act of self-denial for the sake of another, we make a statement that our brother or sister in need is not a stranger. It is precisely to keep alive this welcoming and attentive attitude towards our brothers and sisters that I encourage the parishes and every other community to intensify in Lent the custom of private and communal fasts, joined to the reading of the Word of God, prayer and almsgiving. From the beginning, this has been the hallmark of the Christian community, in which special collections were taken up, the faithful being invited to give to the poor what had been set aside from their fast. This practice needs to be rediscovered and encouraged again in our day, especially during the liturgical season of Lent." Fasting helps us not to be reduced to pure "consumers"; it helps us to acquire the precious "fruit of the Spirit," which is "self-control," it predisposes us to the encounter with God. We must empty ourselves in order to be filled by God. Fasting creates authentic solidarity with millions of hungry people throughout the world. But we must not forget that there are alternative forms of fasting and abstinence from food. We can practice fasting from smoking and drinking. This not only benefits the soul but also the body. There is fasting from violent and sexual pictures that television, movies, magazines and Internet bombard us with daily as they distort human dignity. There is the fasting from condemning and dismissing others -- a practice so prevalent in today's Church. "For now is the acceptable time! Now is the day of salvation!" We need Lent to help us recognize that our identity and mission are rooted in Jesus' dying and rising. Prayer, fasting and almsgiving are the pillars of the Lenten journey for Christians. Lent is a time to fast from certain things, but also a time to feast on others. Fast from discontent, anger, bitterness, self-concern, discouragement, laziness, suspicion, guilt. Feast on gratitude, patience, forgiveness, compassion for others, hope, commitment, truth, and the mercy of God. Lent is just such a time of fasting and feasting! [The readings for Ash Wednesday are Joel 2:12-18; 2 Corinthians 5:20-6:2; Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18.] On the Net: Lenten Reflection One: It Took 40 Days: Watch on You Tube Salt and Light Web site: http://www.saltandlighttv.org/prog_slprog_snl_presents_lenten_video1.html Zenit |
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| KatyA | Thursday, 26. February 2009, 09:47 Post #12 |
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The Ways of the Desert Biblical Reflection for 1st Sunday of Lent 2009 By Father Thomas Rosica, CSB TORONTO, Canada, FEB. 25, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Does anyone really look forward to Lent? What is it about Lent that excites us? What aspects of the Lenten journey test us? The Scriptural readings for this season are carefully chosen so as to replay salvation history before our very eyes. Let us begin with Jesus in the desert -- the Gospel for the first Sunday of Lent. The desert sun and the pangs of hunger and thirst conjured up the demon for him. Mark presents Jesus wrestling with the power of Satan, alone and silent in the desert wastes. Mark’s version of the temptations of Jesus does not mention three temptations, nor does it say that Jesus fasted. Mark's whole focus is on presenting the temptations of Jesus as part of the great struggle between good and evil, between God and Satan. Jesus' desert experience raises important questions for us. What are some of the "desert" experiences I have experienced in my life? What desert experience am I living through right now? When and how do I find moments of contemplation in the midst of a busy life? How have I lived in the midst of my own deserts? Have I been courageous and persistent in fighting with the demons? How have I resisted transforming my own deserts into places of abundant life? In Matthew and Luke there is an ongoing conversation, as the prince of evil attempts to turn Jesus aside from the faith and integrity at the heart of his messianic mission. But if Israel had failed in the desert, Jesus would not. His bond with his Father was too strong for even the demons of the desert to break. In the first temptation in the desert, Jesus responds to the evil one, not by denying human dependence on sustenance (food), but rather by putting human life and the human journey in perspective. Those who follow Jesus cannot become dependent on the things of this world. When we are so dependent on material things, and not on God, we give in to temptation and sin. God's in charge The second temptation deals with the adoration of the devil rather than God. Jesus once again reminds the evil one that God is in control. This is important for us to hear and believe, especially when our own temptations seem to overpower us, when everything around us might indicate failure, shadows, darkness and evil. It is God who is ultimately in charge of our destiny. In the third temptation, the devil asks for a revelation or manifestation of God’s love in favor of Jesus. Jesus answers the evil one by saying that he doesn’t have to prove to anyone that God loves him. Temptation is everything that makes us small, ugly, and mean. Temptation uses the trickiest moves that the evil one can think up. The more the devil has control of us, the less we want to acknowledge that he is fighting for every millimeter of this earth. Jesus didn’t let him get away with that. At the very beginning of his campaign for this world and for each one of us, Jesus openly confronted the enemy. He began his fight using the power of Scripture during a night of doubt, confusion and temptation. We must never forget Jesus’ example, so that we won’t be seduced by the devil's deception. From Jesus we learn that God is present and sustaining us in the midst of test, temptation and even sinfulness. We realize that we must have some spiritual space in our lives where we can strip away the false things that cling to us and breathe new life into our dreams and begin again. We come to believe that God can take the parched surface of our hope and make it bloom. These are the lessons of the desert. That is why we need – even in the activity of our daily lives and work, moments of prayer, of stillness, of listening to the voice of God. We meet God in the midst of our deserts of sinfulness, selfishness, jealousy, efficiency, isolation, cynicism and despair. And in the midst of the desert we hear what God will do if we open our hearts to him and allow him to make our own deserts bloom. The ways of the desert were deep within the heart of Jesus, and it must be the same for all who would follow him. [The readings for this Sunday are Genesis 9:8-15; 1 Peter 3:18-22 and Mark 1:12-15] Basilian Father Thomas Rosica is the chief executive officer of the Salt and Light Catholic Media Foundation and Television Network in Canada. He can be reached at: rosica@saltandlighttv.org On the Net: Lenten Reflection Two: The Ways of the Desert: www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOAA7TRh3wU Salt and Light Web site: www.saltandlighttv.org/prog_slprog_snl_presents_lenten_video2.html Zenit |
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| KatyA | Monday, 2. March 2009, 15:19 Post #13 |
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VATICAN CITY, MARCH 1, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Lent is a good time for self-discovery -- a season to live "without masks," says a Vatican spokesman. Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, director of the Vatican press office, made this proposal during the most recent edition of Vatican Television's "Octava Dies." He was drawing from a reflection made by Benedict XVI during his meeting with the clergy of Rome last week. On that occasion, the Pope considered how a pastor of souls has a special role, since people come to him "without masks," in their truth, without hiding behind the role they have in society. "[The Holy Father] insisted on the fact that the faith can be effectively proclaimed to men and women if it passes through the lived experience of the one who proclaims it, and if it is proclaimed in its essential simplicity, without weighing it down too much with erudite considerations," Father Lombardi explained. "Lent should be lived in this spirit," he stressed. "It is a time for presenting ourselves to God without masks, to try to put our relationship with him back at the centre of each of our lives and to simplify our interests and words, returning them to what is truly important." The spokesman recalled how on Ash Wednesday, the Pontiff said that "Jesus is in the depths of our heart. Our relationship with him is present even when we speak and act in our professional duties. ... This relationship sometimes becomes explicit prayer." And in his Lenten message, Father Lombardi added, the Bishop of Rome recalled the value of fasting, inviting the faithful to find appropriate forms for it in daily life, as an exercise of freeing ourselves from attachment to ourselves to open ourselves to the love of God and charity in solidarity with others. "Thus," Father Lombardi concluded, "this is a time to rediscover the right place for God and attention to others with the help of simple concrete and daily gestures: prayer, fasting, almsgiving. It is a time to rediscover ourselves too and our truth, without masks. Let us not miss these opportunities!" Zenit |
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| KatyA | Tuesday, 10. March 2009, 23:29 Post #14 |
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Pope thanks Cardinal Arinze Your Eminence, My Dear Venerable Brothers, Saying "thank you" is one of the wonderful tasks of the Pope. At this time I would like, in the name of all of us and all of you, to say thank you, Eminence, from the heart, for these meditations which you have given us. You have led, enlightened, helped and renewed us in our priesthood. Yours has not been a theological acrobatic act. You have not given us theological acrobatics, but you have given us sound doctrine, the good bread of our faith. Listening to your words, there came to my mind a prophecy of the prophet Ezekiel, on which St. Augustine comments. In the Book of Ezekiel the Lord, God the Shepherd, says to the people: I will lead my sheep upon the hills of Israel, to green pastures. And St. Augustine asks: Where are these hills of Israel? What are these green pastures? And he answers: the hills of Israel, the green pastures are the Sacred Scriptures, the Word of God that gives us true nourishment. Your preaching has been permeated with Sacred Scripture, with a great familiarity with the Word of God read in the context of the living Church, from the Fathers to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, always contextualized in the reading, in the liturgy. Precisely in this way Scripture has been presented in its complete relevance. Your theology, as you told us, was not an abstract theology but one marked by healthy realism. I admired and enjoyed this concrete experience of your 50 years in the priesthood that you spoke to us about and in the light of which you helped us concretize our faith. What you said to us was sound, concrete for our life, for our comportment as priests. I hope that many will read these words and take them to heart. You first began with this always fascinating and beautiful account of the first disciples who followed Jesus. Still a little uncertain and timid they ask: Master, where do you live? And the answer, which you commented on, is: "Come and see." To see we must come, we must walk with Jesus, who always precedes us. Only in walking with and following Jesus can we see. You have showed us where Jesus lives, where his dwelling is: in the Church, in his Word, in the most holy Eucharist. Thank you, Your Eminence, for this guidance. With a new spirit and new joy we will set out on the way to Easter. I wish everyone a good Lent and a good Easter. [Translation by Joseph G. Trabbic] |
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| KatyA | Wednesday, 11. March 2009, 18:26 Post #15 |
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Biblical Reflection for 3rd Sunday of Lent 2009 By Father Thomas Rosica, CSB TORONTO, MARCH 11, 2009 (Zenit.org).- In the Scripture readings for the Third Sunday of Lent (Year B), I would like to focus our reflection on two powerful images present in the texts: that of Jesus purifying Jerusalem's Temple, and St. Paul's message of the cross of Jesus Christ. Both the purifying action of Jesus and Paul's understanding of the cross can be of tremendous help to us as we grow in our knowledge and love of Jesus Christ this Lenten season. John's account of Jesus' cleansing of the temple is in sharp contrast to the other Gospel accounts of this dramatic story. In the Synoptic Gospels, this scene takes place at the end of the "Palm Sunday Procession" into the holy city. With the people shouting out in triumph, Jesus entered into the temple area, not to do homage but to challenge the temple and its leaders. He overturned the tables of the moneychangers and upset the stalls of those selling birds and animals for the sacrifice. What a teaching moment this was! Jesus quoted from the Scriptures: "My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations ... but you have made it a den of robbers" (Mark 11:17, Isaiah 56:6-7, Jeremiah 7:11). In the Fourth Gospel, the cleansing of the temple takes place at the beginning of Jesus' ministry and not at the beginning of the events of the last days of Jesus' life. The startling words and actions of Jesus in the temple, whether they are from the Synoptic accounts or John's account, took on new meaning for later generations of Christians. "Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father's house a marketplace!" The temple was not a commercial center or shopping mall but rather a holy place of the Father. Like the prophets before him, Jesus tried to awaken the hearts of his people. Jesus' disciples recall him saying in the temple the words of Psalm 68:10: "Zeal for your house will consume me." I have often understood this verse to mean: "I am filled with a burning love for your house." When the magnificent Temple of Jerusalem had been destroyed by the Romans, and both Jews and Christians grieved at its loss, the followers of Jesus recalled this incident in the temple. Now they could see new meaning in it; it was a sign that the old temple was finished but a new temple was to be built. This new temple would not be of stone and wood and gold. It would be a living temple of holy people (I Peter 2:4-6; Ephesians 2:19-22). One intriguing aspect of today's Gospel story is the portrait of an angry Jesus in the temple-cleansing scene that gives way to two extremes in our own image of the Lord. Some people wish to transform an otherwise passive Christ into a whip-cracking revolutionary. Others would like to excise any human qualities of Jesus and paint a very meek, bland character, who smiled, kept silent and never rocked the boat. The errors of the old extreme, however, do not justify a new extremism. Jesus was not exclusively, not even primarily, concerned with social reform. Rather, he was filled with a deep devotion and burning love for his Father and the things of his Father. He wanted to form new people, created in God's image, who are sustained by his love, and bring that love to others. Jesus' disciples and apostles recognized him as a passionate figure -- one who was committed to life and to losing it for the sake of truth and fidelity. Have we given in to these extremes in our own understanding of and relationship with Jesus? Are we passionate about anything in our lives today? Are we filled with a deep and burning love for the things of God and for his Son, Jesus? In writing to the people of Corinth, Paul was addressing numerous disorders and scandals that were present. True communion and unity were threatened by groups and internal divisions that seriously compromised the unity of the Body of Christ. Rather than appealing to complex theological or philosophical words of wisdom to resolve the difficulties, Paul announces Christ to this community: Christ crucified. Paul's strength is not found in persuasive language, but rather, paradoxically, in the weakness of one who trusts only in the "power of God" (I Corinthians 2:1-4). In St. Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians (1:18, 22-25), we hear about "the message of the cross that is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God." For St. Paul, the cross represents the center of his theology: To say cross means to say salvation as grace given to every creature. Paul's simple message of the cross is scandal and foolishness. He states this strongly with the words: "The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. It was the will of God through the foolishness of the proclamation to save those who have faith. For Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles." The "scandal" and the "foolishness" of the cross are precisely in the fact that where there seems to be only failure, sorrow and defeat, precisely there, is all the power of the boundless love of God. The cross is the expression of love and love is the true power that is revealed precisely in this seeming weakness. St. Paul has experienced this even in his own flesh, and he gives us testimony of this in various passages of his spiritual journey, which have become important points of departure for every disciple of Jesus: "He said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness'" (2 Corinthians 12:9); and even "God chose the lowly and despised of the world, those who count for nothing, to reduce to nothing those who are something" (1 Corinthians 1:28). The Apostle to the Gentiles identifies himself to such a degree with Christ that he also, even in the midst of so many trials, lives in the faith of the Son of God who loved him and gave himself up for his sins and those of everyone (cf. Galatians 1:4; 2:20). Today, as we contemplate Jesus' burning love for the things of his Father, and the saving mystery of his cross, let us pray these words: O God, whose foolishness is wise and whose weakness is strong, by the working of your grace in the disciplines of Lent cleanse the temple of your Church and purify the sanctuary of our hearts. May we be filled with a burning love for your house, and may obedience to your commandments absorb and surround us along this Lenten journey. We ask this through Jesus Christ, the man of the cross, your power and your wisdom, the Lord who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God for ever and ever. Amen. [The readings for this Sunday are Exodus 20:1-17 or 20:1-3, 7-8, 12-17; 1 Corinthians 1:22-25 and John 2:13-25. For use with RCIA, Exodus 17:3-7; Romans 5:1-2, 5-8 and John 4:5-42 or 4:5-15, 19b-26, 39a, 40-42] Basilian Father Thomas Rosica, chief executive officer of the Salt and Light Catholic Media Foundation and Television Network in Canada, is a consultor to the Pontifical Council for Social Communications. He can be reached at: rosica@saltandlighttv.org. For those using Year A Readings for the Catechumenate (RCIA), Lenten Reflection 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqiklxOVxhE&feature=related Salt and Light Catholic Television Network Web site: http://www.saltandlighttv.org |
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3:45 PM Nov 23