#lentenreflection

Day Five of our Lenten Journey – 21 February – The First Sunday of Lent – ‘.Christ remains forever, standing firmly with us to the end.’

Day Five of our Lenten Journey – 21 February – The First Sunday of Lent, Readings: Genesis 9:8-15, Psalms 25:4-5, 6-7,8-9, 1 Peter 3:18-22, Mark 1:12-15 Imitating Christ with Thomas à Kempis CRSA (1380-1471) In Your Light Lord, we see light “The kingdom of God is within you,” says the Lord (Luke 17:21). Turn, then, to God with all your heart. Forsake this wretched world and your soul shall…

Day Two of our Lenten Journey – 18 February – In the cross alone, is the hope of life

Day Two of our Lenten Journey – 18 February – Thursday after Ash Wednesday, Readings: Deuteronomy 30:15-20, Psalms 1:1-2, 3, 4 and 6, Luke 9:22-25 Imitating Christ with Thomas à Kempis CRSA (1380-1471) In Your Light Lord, we see light “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me” – Luke 9:23 To many the word seems harsh; “Deny yourself, take up your…

Lenten Reflection – 14 March – ‘…Whoever sticks by God, possesses everything in common with God!

Lenten Reflection – 14 March – Saturday of the Second Week of Lent, Readings: Micah 7:14-15, 18- 20, Psalm 103:1-4, 9-12, Luke 15:1-3, 11-32

“Lord, open my lips, and my mouth shall declare your praise.”

“Who is a God like you, who removes guilt and pardons sin for the remnant of his inheritance; Who does not persist in anger forever, but instead delights in mercy …” …Micah 7:18

Daily Meditation: “…

Lenten Reflection – 16 March – Saturday of the First week of Lent, Year C, Gospel: Matthew 5:43–48

Blessed Titus Brandsma (1881-1942) Martyr

“But I say to you… pray for those who persecute you”

You have often heard it said that we are living through a marvellous time, a time of great men… It is easy to understand why people long for a strong and capable leader to arise… This kind of neo-paganism [Nazism] believes all nature to be an emanation of the divine…; it admires a race that is nobler and purer than any other… From this comes the cult of race and blood, the cult of its own people’s heroes.

By starting out from so mistaken an idea, this view of things can lead to capital errors.   It is tragic to see how much enthusiasm, how many efforts are placed at the service of such an erroneous and baseless ideal!   However, we can learn from our enemy.   We can learn from his deceitful philosophy how to purify and improve our own ideal, we can learn how to develop great love for this ideal, how to arouse immense enthusiasm and even a readiness to live and die for it, how to strengthen our hearts to incarnate it in ourselves and in others…

When we talk about the coming of the Kingdom and pray for its coming, we are not thinking of a discrimination according to race or blood but of the brotherhood of all, for all men are our brothers – not excluding even those who hate and attack us – in a close bond with the One, who causes the sun to rise on the good and the bad alike (Mt 5:45).

Daily Meditation: Turn our hearts to You.

The Saturdays of Lent have a grateful and uplifting tone to them. Our lesson today reminds us of the covenant God made long ago: you be My people and I will be your God.

In the new covenant, without condition, God is faithful to us, even if we are not. Jesus calls us to a new way of being – loving others as we have been loved – which includes loving those who do not love us. We are to be as pure in our love, as God is pure in loving us.

You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. Matthew 5:48

Closing Prayer:

Loving God, Sometimes my heart turns in every direction except towards You. Please help me to turn my heart toward You, to gaze upon You in trust and to seek Your kingdom with all of my heart. Soften my hardened heart so that I might love others as a way to glorify and worship You. Grant me this with the ever-present guidance of Your spirit.

May the Lord bless us, protect us from all evil and bring us to everlasting life. Amen.

Christ’s martyrs feared neither death nor pain.   He triumphed in them who lived in them;  and they, who lived not for themselves but for Him, found in death itself the way to life.”

St Augustine – (354-430) – Father & Doctor of the Church

Lenten Reflection – 11 March – Monday of the First Week of Lent, Gospel: Matthew 25:31–46

“Come, you who are blessed by my Father” Homily attributed to Saint Hippolytus of Rome (c 170-c 235) Priest and Martyr

“Come, my Father’s blessed ones, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”   Come, you lovers of poor people and strangers.   Come, you who fostered My love, for I am love… Look, My kingdom is ready, paradise stands open, My immortality is displayed in all its beauty.   Come now, all of you, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

Then, astounded at so great a wonder – at being addressed as friends by Him whom the angelic hosts are unable clearly to behold – the righteous will reply, exclaiming:  “Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you?   Master, when did we see You thirsty and give You a drink?   When did we see You, whom we hold in awe, naked and clothe You? When did we see You, the immortal One, a stranger and welcome You?   When did we see You, lover of our race, sick or in prison and come to visit You?   You are the Eternal, without beginning like the Father, and co-eternal with the Spirit.   You are the One who created all things from nothing, You are the King of angels, You make the depths tremble, You are clothed in light as in a robe (Ps 104[103]:2), You are our maker who fashioned us from the earth (Gn 2:7), You are the creator of the world invisible.   The whole earth flies from Your presence (Rv 20:11).   How could we possibly have received Your lordship, Your royal majesty, as our guest?”

Then will the King of Kings say to them in reply:  “Inasmuch as you did this to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you did it to me.   Inasmuch as you received, clothed, fed and gave a drink to those members of mine (1Cor 12:12) about whom I have just spoken to you, that is, to the poor, you did it to me.   So come, enter the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world, enjoy forever the gifts of my heavenly Father and of the most holy and life-giving Spirit.”   What tongue can describe those blessings?   “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor human heart conceived what God has prepared for those who love him” (1Cor 2:9).

Daily Meditation: Bring us back to you. We repeat our desire that God bring us home from our wandering. We know that in the confusion that surrounds us and can fill us, we need the gift of Wisdom.

It is fitting that our very first “lesson” in our faith, is the last judgement scene that Jesus paints for us. We will be judged on whether we: fed the hungry welcomed the stranger clothed the naked comforted the sick visited the imprisoned. It is powerful to re-learn this wisdom – Jesus identifies with each of these “least” cared for.

Who might we feed, welcome, clothe, comfort or visit this week? As my heart might “resist” this mission, I might beg to be brought back, with all my heart.

Praise to Jesus, our Saviour, by his death He has opened for us the way of salvation. Let us ask Him: Lord, guide Your people to walk in Your ways.

God of mercy, You gave us new life through baptism, – make us grow day by day in Your likeness. May our generosity today bring joy to those in need, – in helping them may we find You. Help us to do what is good, right and true in Your sight, – and to seek You always with undivided hearts. Forgive our sins against the unity of Your family, – make us one in heart and spirit.

Closing Prayer: Loving God, You call us back to You with all of our hearts. I feel Your call for me deep in my heart and I know You want me back as much as I want to return. Please, Lord, give me the wisdom to know how to return. Make my journey back to You this Lent one of grace, forgiveness and gentle love.

May the Lord bless us, protect us from all evil and bring us to everlasting life. Amen.

LENTEN REFLECTION – Tuesday of the Fifth Week – 4 April 2017

Look at the cross of Christ – Blessed John Henry Newman

“Look around, and see what the world presents of high and low.    Go to the court of princes.    See the treasure and skill of all nations brought together to honour a child of man.    Observe the prostration of the many before the few.    Consider the form and ceremonial, the pomp, the state, the circumstance and the vainglory.    Do you wish to know the worth of it all? Look at the cross of Christ.

Go to the political world.    See nation jealous of nation, trade rivalling trade, armies and fleets matched against each other.    Survey the various ranks of the community, its parties and their contests, the strivings of the ambitious, the intrigues of the crafty.    What is the end of all this turmoil – the grave!    What is the measure – the cross.

Go, again, to the world of intellect and science.    Consider the wonderful discoveries which the human mind is making, the variety of arts to which its discoveries give rise, the all but miracles by which it shows its power.    And next, the pride and confidence of reason and the absorbing devotion of thought to transitory objects, which is the consequence.    Would you form a right judgment of all this?    Look at the cross.

Again, look at misery, look at poverty and destitution, look at oppression and captivity. Go where food is scanty, and lodging unhealthy.    Consider pain and suffering, diseases long or violent, all that is frightful and revolting.   Would you know how to rate all these? Gaze upon the cross.

Thus in the cross, and Him who hung upon it, all things meet.    All things subserve it, all things need it.    It is their centre and their interpretation.    For He was lifted up upon it, that He might draw all peoples and all things to himself.

………………..And so, too, as regards this world, with all its enjoyments, yet disappointments, let us not trust it.    Let us not give our hearts to it.    Let us not begin with it.    Let us begin with faith.    Let us begin with Christ.    Let us begin with His cross and the humiliation to which it leads.    Let us first be drawn to Him who is lifted up, that so He may, with Himself, freely give us all things.    Let us “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness,” and then all those things of this world “will be added to us.”

LENTEN REFLECTION – Friday of the First Week of Lent – 10 MARCH

Let us mortify our curiosity Blessed John Henry Newman

For example, in respect to curiosity.   What a deal of time is lost, to say nothing else, in this day by curiosity, about things which in no ways concern us.   I am not speaking against interest in the news of the day altogether, for the course of the world must ever be interesting to a Christian from its bearing upon the fortunes of the church but I speak of vain curiosity, love of scandal, love of idle tales, curious prying into the private history of people, curiosity about trials and offences, and personal matters, nay often what is much worse than this, curiosity into sin. What strange diseased curiosity is sometimes felt about the history of murders and of the malefactors themselves! Worse still, it is shocking to say, but there is so much evil curiosity to know about deeds of darkness, of which the Apostle [Paul] says that it is shameful to speak.   Many a person, who has no intention of doing the like, from an evil curiosity reads what he ought not to read.   This is in one shape or other very much the sin of boys and they suffer for it.   The knowledge of what is evil is the first step in their case to the commission of it.   Hence this is the way in which we are called upon, with this Lent we now begin, to mortify ourselves.   Let us mortify our curiosity.