Lent - Week Two 2010
By Pat Lee | March 2, 2010
Tuesday : March 2nd, 2010
Readings : Ezekiel 18:21-28; Matthew 5: 20-26
Scripture Verse : “Do I not rather rejoice, when he turns from his evil way that he might live?” Ezekiel 18:23
Reflection : At a social event, more than just a few years ago, a friend of mine was displaying her engagement ring for me to see. When I congratulated her, she then proceeded to tell me (and everyone else) the story of how the engagement had occurred. Then she went on to explain the proper protocol– whom she had told first, second and third. All the women at the party were nodding in agreement. I thought to myself, “There is a whole environment surrounding the engagement process about which men know nothing.”
In our first reading from Ezekiel, God tells Israel what their love will be like. The reading gives the impression that God knows all about the process of love and the people of Israel are in the dark. God has to teach them the proper protocol of love. Jesus also teaches the people what it means to love in the way that God wants.
In Lent we are invited to spend time each day in prayer before God, asking him to teach us his way of love and, through listening to and meditating on God’s Word, learning the way of God’s love. If we open our hearts and our minds and focus on God alone, the Lord will teach us, as he revealed to Israel, the contract of love. We remember the words of the Psalm “Happy are they who observe (God’s) decrees/ who seek (the Lord) with all their heart.” Psalm 119:2
Topics: Lent | No Comments »
Lent - Week Two 2010
By Pat Lee | March 1, 2010
Monday – March 1st, 2010
Readings: Esther 14: 1, 3-5 (found in Bibles which contain the Apocryphal books) Matthew 7:7-12
Scripture Verse: “Ask and you will receive. Seek and you will find. Knock and it will be opened to you” Matthew 7:7
Reflection : When some of us were younger, we may have had the experience of a mother or father opening the door of the house and calling you home for dinner. You could tell by the tone of your parent’s voice whether or not they wanted to have you come home at that very moment. As an old childhood friend once said, “My mother got very serious with the third call”.
Today Jesus gives us a look at his own prayer life. His style of prayer was the prayer of petition—asking the God he called Father to help him out. He gives us a second insight into his own prayer with his insistence on persistence. Petition plus persistence will eventually bend God’s ear. God gets serious after the third call.
Our readings today remind us of the possibilities in God’s intervention in our lives. Each of us has access to God as we make daily persistent prayer part of our daily lives. Of course prayer can be a bit frightening because many times God answers us in a way that may be different from what we thought we wanted. God sees much deeper and farther than do we. What we receive from God will be “good things” from God’s abundant wisdom rather than from our limited ideas.
We are reminded as well of the golden rule—to treat others as we would want to be treated. It is a good thing to check on how we are doing with that when we begin to pray.
Topics: Lent | No Comments »
Lent - Week One 2010
By Pat Lee | February 26, 2010
Friday: February 26, 2010
Readings: Isaiah 55: 10-11 Matthew 6:7-15
Scripture Verse: “This is how you are to pray…” Matthew 6: 9
Reflection: We know the prayer by heart and pray it often. It is precious to us because it comes to us from Jesus himself. This reflection is basically a meditation on the Lord’s Prayer by St. Cyprian (about 250 AD)
Our Father who art in heaven: One of the greatest truths of our faith is that we are adopted sons and daughters of God. And so we can call Him Father. “To his own he came. And yet his own did not accept him. Any who did accept him he empowered to become children of God” John 1:11-12. We are not instructed by Jesus to pray “My” Father because we do not pray for ourselves alone. We pray as members of Jesus’ church, the sons and daughters of God, and we pray for the good of all.
Hallowed be thy name: We ask that God’s name be made holy in us—in our hearts and our lives. We ask that we who live in relationship with Jesus through our baptism continue to become more like him, that his agenda become more our agenda, that through that God’s name be hallowed.
Thy Kingdom come: We pray that the God’s Kingdom proclaimed and begun by the Jesus who lived, died and was raised from death for it will continue towards fulfillment. That its values will shape our lives and, one day, reign in God’s world.
Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven: We pray that our lives may be shaped by God’s saving will for our lives and God’s world. All that Jesus taught and did was “the will of God.” We ask that in the face of obstacles and temptations to draw us from God’s will, we may have help and strength to do his will.
Give us this day our daily bread: This request has a literal and a spiritual component. Spiritually Jesus is “our daily bread”—our relationship with him nourishes us for our Christian journey. In addition, we believe that God knows our needs and we trust that, if we “strive first for the Kingdom of God” (Matthew 6:33), what we need will be provided.
And forgive us our trespasses: We acknowledge that we are sinners who fall short of being completely faithful but we recognise God’s great love, mercy and forgiveness and believe that God truly forgives us.
As we forgive those who trespass against us: There is a condition for our being forgiven. Jesus tells us that our sins are forgiven if we are prepared to forgive. Much of Jesus’ teaching emphasises this reality. If we want God to forgive us, we must be ready to forgive others.
And lead us not into temptation: Here we pray not out of fear that God himself will lead us astray, but rather to ask that God show us the way away from temptation. And that “he will not let you be tested beyond your strength” (1 Corinthians 10:13). Whether or not we use that strength to not walk down the way of temptation is, of course, up to us.
But deliver us from evil: We pray to be kept safe from the power of Satan, the Evil One, and all that he stands for. We pray that God will overcome evil in our lives.
Note: For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory for ever and ever . This doxology is not part of the prayer Jesus taught his disciples. It was added by the church later on as it is fitting to praise God at the end of our prayers and worship.
We pray with the psalmist “Proclaim with me the greatness of the Lord; let us exalt his name together. I sought the Lord and he answered me and delivered me out of all my terror. Psalm 34:4
Topics: Lent | No Comments »
Lent - Week One 2010
By Pat Lee | February 25, 2010
Thursday: February 25, 2010
Readings: Leviticus 19: 1-2, 11-18; Matthew 25:31-46
Scripture Verse: You shall love your neighbour as yourself (Lev. 19:18)
Reflection: When I worked in the Parish of Combermere in the early 1990’s, the church was left unlocked. Often I would go into the church and find a couple of people in there praying. One elderly lady, in particular, would be there almost every day. She was not a member of the church but over the years we began to chat occasionally. One day she told me that she really appreciated the church being unlocked because it allowed her the time and peace to pray for the people she knew in the village. As everyone knew everyone in Combermere, she had a lengthy list of people. To have someone who will pray for you in a sacred space is truly a gift.
Today’s readings give us a vision of how we are to come before God in the sacred space we call a church. Both suggest that we are to come before God having treated other people with kindness and love. A good Lenten practice is to pick someone in your life whom you will pray for each day. Place an image of that person in your mind and surround him or her with prayers of kindness and love.
We pray with the psalmist “Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart find favour before you” Psalm 19:15
Topics: Lent | No Comments »
Lent - Week One 2010
By Pat Lee | February 24, 2010
Wednesday: February 24, 2010
Readings: Isaiah 58: 9-14 Luke 5: 27-32
Scripture Verse: If you bestow your bread on the hungry and satisfy the afflicted; then light shall rise for you in the darkness Isaiah 58:10
Reflection: In today’s gospel, Jesus calls Levi, a tax collector, to become one of his followers. Levi holds a special place in our Christian tradition because he became St. Matthew. Jesus changes his name to Mattai, which means gift of God. Matthew wrote his gospel to a predominately Jewish-Christian community to lead the Jewish religious leaders (who rejected Matthew as a sinner—which he was) to Jesus.
Jesus’ call to follow him liberates us from the prejudices by which people are often classified in our culture. The religious leaders of Jesus’ time did not believe God’s forgiving love could be offered to tax collectors, foreigners and others deemed sinners. The religious elite classified these people as outcasts. Jesus, on the other hand, announces his intention to include sinners and outcasts as partners with him in his kingdom.
Jesus, in the gospels, made a sharp distinction between the self-righteous and sinners. Those who recognise themselves as sinners can receive God’s forgiveness. The self-righteous, on the other hand, believe they have earned and deserve God’s love and see no need to receive God’s forgiving love that Jesus came to offer us.
Lent reminds us to recognise ourselves as sinners. We accept Jesus’ invitation to turn from those things that seek to draw us from the love of God and to turn to God. We receive God’s forgiving, healing, renewing love, are reconciled with God and freed to follow Jesus as forgiven sinners. Prejudiced behaviour and attitudes towards others are impossible for forgiven sinners.
We pray with the psalmist: “Teach me your way, O Lord and I will walk in your truth” Psalm 58:11
Topics: Lent | No Comments »
« Previous Entries Next Entries »