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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
When we persevere with the help of a gentle discipline, we slowly come to hear the still, small voice and to feel the delicate breeze, and so to come to know the presence of Love.
HENRI NOUWEN
Friday, Feb 26, 2021
LENTEN WEEKDAY DAY OF ABSTINENCE
The low rumble within
Anger is one of our human “passions,” the Catechism of the Catholic Church instructs, neither good nor bad in and of itself. Anger can provide us with helpful information that we feel wronged by someone or something. It may be intense or a low rumble within. Lent is an opportunity to become still, listen to our anger, and examine its source. How might we invite God into these rough spaces for healing? Desiring healing does not disregard hurt or suffering rather we seek to “unhook” from anger to live in peace. Unhooking might mean talking with a loved one who hurt us. It might mean protesting against injustice. It might mean forgiving ourselves. What might be rumbling within your heart?
TODAY'S READINGS: Ezekiel 18:21-28 Matthew 5:20-26.
“Go first and be reconciled.”
#takefiveforfaith
Got some friends, Lord,
who are carrying some heavy loads,
their plates full of cares and concerns,
troubles and fear, loneliness and doubt...
So, I was wondering...
Could you slow things down for them,
even just a little, in the days ahead?
Could you fill in the potholes and smooth the bumps
on the road they're traveling?
Could you make their lives a little less complicated
and a whole lot simpler?
Could you spare them the curve balls
and throw a couple right down Broadway?
Could you gently touch their grief
and mend their broken hearts?
Could you give them a break
from bad news, discouragement and distress?
Could you take at least a few things off
their already full and overflowing plates of problems?
Could you let them catch a glimpse of you
standing close by their side?
Could you give them the time and space they need
to sit back, relax and find a little peace?
Could you relieve their doubts
and refresh their faith in you?
Could you bless their tender hearts,
their ailing bodies and their broken spirits
with your healing and compassion?
And we'd all be grateful, Lord,
if you'd give us some hints
on how best to help one another
when we we feel so helpless, so powerless
over what others are facing...
We're all so powerless in so many ways
and need to trust in you, Lord,
to lean on you, to ask you to be:
our strength in our weakness,
our wisdom in our doubts,
and our hope
through the darkest of lonely nights...
Got some friends, Lord,
who are carrying heavy loads, their plates overflowing
with cares and concerns, with troubles and fears:
help them know and see and feel your presence,
your love, your strength, your mercy and your peace...
Amen.
🎨 ‘Burdens Seen and Unseen’
Brian Kershishnik
Wow. Love ❤️
AMEN! 😘 So true and beautiful!❤
If you bring your gift to the altar,
and there recall that your brother
has anything against you,
leave your gift there at the altar,
go first and be reconciled with your brother,
and then come and offer your gift. Matthew 5:24
📷 Reconciliation (Josefina de Vasconcellos sculpture)
#dailyingodsword
To add a few to the list...
•
Going to work, folding laundry, doing the dishes, grocery shopping, cutting the grass, changing diapers, cooking dinner...
•
When you look at all these mundane chores and responsibilities as opportunities to glorify God and prayerfully connect your soul to His endless Grace... they instantly become tiny, joyful, achievable little tasks in the quest of holiness and sanctity!
•
What if our Lenten observance was simply to use our daily work as prayers offered in service and love of God??
•
Amen to all those little opportunities today!!
•
☕️🙏🏻 #coffeewithsaints
St Martin de Porres, pray for us
