Holy Mass
February 28 2021
2nd Sunday of Lent
A LENTEN PRAYER FOR SPIRITUAL COMMUNION
My Jesus,
As I journey through these 40 days
and meditate on Your sacrificial love for us all
I entrust my ways to Your mercy,
a mercy that seeks the healing of my heart,
and is loving me to the hidden wholeness
found only in You.
I love You, and want to grow ever closer to you.
I want to receive You into my soul.
I long to receive you at the table of the Eucharist,
where I believe you are truly present in the most holy sacrament.
But since I cannot at this moment receive You sacramentally,
come spiritually into my heart, where
I embrace You and I unite myself wholly to You.
Never let me to be separated from You.
Keep me close in your Sacred Heart.
Jesus, I trust in you.
Amen
You Belong to God
You are not what you do, although you do a lot. You are not what you have collected in terms of friendships and connections, although you might have many. You are not the popularity that you have received. You are not the success of your work. You are not what people say about you, whether they speak well or whether they speak poorly about you. All these things that keep you quite busy, quite occupied, and often quite preoccupied are not telling the truth about who you are. I am here to remind you in the name of God that you are the Beloved Daughters and Sons of God, and that God says to you, “I have called you from all eternity and you are engraved from all eternity in the palms of my hands. You are mine. You belong to me, and I love you with an everlasting love.”
-Henri Nouwen
“The Church has entered once again into the penitential season of Lent. The word “lent” comes from the Old English word for “Spring”. I used to consider that Lent got that name because it always comes around in the springtime, but now I realize that Lent is a springtime for our souls, a time of hope and new growth. That is why it is exciting and joyful.
In his Rule for Monks our father St. Benedict describes Lent in the terms of joy:
“During these days, therefore, let us increase somewhat the usual measure of our service,
as by private prayers and by abstinence in food and drink.
Thus everyone of his own will may offer God "with the joy of the Holy Spirit" (1 Thess. 1:6)
something above the measure required of him.
(RB 49)”
St. Benedict wants us to understand the disciplines we eagerly undertake are meant to be a road to the fulfillment of our holy desire: a deeper communion and love of God in Jesus and Resurrection with Him. We will always have encouragement and not go astray on our Lenten observance if we keep our “eyes on the prize”: our upward calling in Christ. From this point of view it is truly a joyful work!”
• Reflection from Brother Christopher, a Trappist monk at New Clairvaux Abbey in Vina, CA
Christ Jesus it is who died—
or, rather, was raised—
who also is at the right hand of God,
who indeed intercedes for us.
-Romans 8:34
#dailyingodsword
A LENTEN PRAYER FOR SPIRITUAL COMMUNION
My Jesus,
As I journey through these 40 days
and meditate on Your sacrificial love for us all
I entrust my ways to Your mercy,
a mercy that seeks the healing of my heart,
and is loving me to the hidden wholeness found only in You.
I love You, and want to grow ever closer to you.
I want to receive You into my soul.
I long to receive you at the table of the Eucharist,
where I believe you are truly present in the most holy sacrament.
But since I cannot at this moment receive You sacramentally,
come spiritually into my heart, where
I embrace You and I unite myself wholly to You.
Never let me to be separated from You.
Keep me close in your Sacred Heart.
Jesus, I trust in you.
Amen
Through recollection and silent prayer, hope is given to us as interior light, illuminating the challenges and choices we face in our mission. Hence the need to pray and, in secret, to encounter the Father of tender love (Mt 6:6).
@franciscus #lent
Saturday, Feb 27, 2021
LENTEN WEEKDAY
Agree to disagree
There is no more timely message for our divided age of partisan politics than “love your enemies.” But how is that even possible? One perspective that some find helpful is that “you don’t have to like someone to love them.” Love in this context is not a warm, fuzzy feeling but a decision to treat with respect, to “do unto others.” A tall order, but it does help to remove the expectation that we have to become fast friends with those we oppose. And maybe it will lead to a time when we can see difficult folks as people with whom we happen to disagree, rather than mortal enemies. Jesus was all about reconciliation. Let’s take up the mantle.
TODAY'S READINGS: Deuteronomy 26:16-19 Matthew 5:43-48.
“But I say to you, love your enemies.”
#takefiveforfaith
Gospel • Matthew 5:43-48
Jesus said to his disciples:
“You have heard that it was said,
You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.
But I say to you, love your enemies,
and pray for those who persecute you,
that you may be children of your heavenly Father,
for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good,
and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust.
For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have?
Do not the tax collectors do the same?
And if you greet your brothers and sisters only,
what is unusual about that?
Do not the pagans do the same?
So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
#dailyingodsword
Mary is a woman who loves… We see it in the delicacy with which she recognises the need of the spouses at Cana and makes it known to Jesus. We see it in the humility with which she recedes into the background during Jesus’ public life, knowing that the Son must establish a new family and that the Mother’s hour will come only with the Cross, which will be Jesus’ true hour (cf. Jn 2:4; 13:1). When the disciples flee, Mary will remain beneath the Cross (cf. Jn 19:25-27); later, at the hour of Pentecost, it will be they who gather around her as they wait for the Holy Spirit (cf. Acts 1:14).”
Pope Benedict the 16th, God is Love, 41
🎨‘Black Madonna with Dove of Peace’ by Sue Ellen Parkinson
#saturdayswithmary
