Tag: Prayer

Tuesday of the First Week of Lent

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew

Jesus said to his disciples: “If you forgive men their transgressions, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you do not forgive men, neither will your Father forgive your transgressions.”

In today’s Gospel reading from Matthew, Jesus follows his teaching on almsgiving by showing the disciples how to pray. The Our Father, the perfect prayer that Jesus gives to us as a way to communicate with God, is a reaching out to Our Father, who knows what we need before we ask him. Jesus tells us: “In praying, do not babble like the pagans, who think that they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them.” In recognizing that God gives us everything we need every day and forgives our trespasses, the Our Father calls us to be merciful just as God is merciful: “Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.” The Catechism of the Catholic Church says this about forgiving others: “It is impossible to keep the Lord’s commandment by imitating the divine model from outside; there has to be a vital participation, coming from the depths of the heart, in the holiness and the mercy and the love of our God. Only the Spirit by whom we live can make ‘ours’ the same mind that was in Christ Jesus. Then the unity of forgiveness becomes possible and we find ourselves ‘forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave’ us.”

God, help me understand that imitation of your divine forgiveness comes from the heart through the grace and mercy you pour forth. I ask you for the grace to have the mind of Christ in praying the Our Father and in forgiving others. Your Son called us to be perfect just as you are perfect. Perfect in me the means to receive your love so that I can be a means of it to others in mercy and forgiveness.

Work with me today, Lord, and work through me. And let me say at the end of the day that I have known the Father’s embrace.

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.

Readings

Monday of the First Week of Lent

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew

Jesus said to his disciples: “Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.”

In today’s Gospel, Jesus shares with his disciples an image of the final judgment. When the Son of Man comes in his glory, he will separate the righteous from the unrighteous (the sheep and the goats) based on their treatment of others. Jesus recognizes the good deeds of the righteous—their kindness and compassion toward others—while he condemns the unrighteous saying of them: “And these will go off to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.” But of the righteous, Jesus says: “Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”

God, help me understand that how I treat others directly relates to my relationship with you. It is not that I daily encounter the physically hungry, or naked, or those who are ill or in prison. Where are the hungry, the naked, the ill, and those in prison who are closest to me? Help me satisfy even among my own family the hunger for compassion or the need for a burden to be lifted. I want to welcome those opportunities for the sake of your glory. But I first have to recognize when that opportunity to care for another is right before my eyes.

Thank you, Lord, for the gift of your presence! In that light, I have the hope of being merciful even as I trust in you to be completely merciful. Let me remember today to ask for your mercy so that I can be a means of it to others.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Readings

First Sunday of Lent

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew

The tempter approached and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become loaves of bread.” He said in reply, “It is written: One does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.”

In today’s Gospel, Jesus is led by the Spirit into the desert for the purpose of being tempted by the devil. Twice, Satan tempts Jesus beginning with the words “If you are the Son of God.” In Jesus’ many encounters with the evil spirits that he rebuked, the spirits recognize Jesus immediately by saying “I know who you are—the Holy One of God.” Satan knows well that Jesus is the Son of God; it is the Father of Lies who tries to weaken Jesus by questioning his divine identity. In the same way, the first reading from Genesis shows how Satan questioned Eve, weakening her reliance God’s word: “Did God really tell you not to eat from any of the trees in the garden?”

God, help me understand how to face temptations as Jesus did. He gives us the exact way to respond when tempted: not through argument buy by invoking your holy name. “One does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.” And “You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test.” Jesus says to him, “Get away, Satan! It is written: The Lord, your God, shall you worship and him alone shall you serve.” For every lie Satan presents to Jesus, he refutes it with truth, the word that comes forth from your mouth. By saying “Get away, Satan!” Jesus declares his divine authority as your Son. Just as you spoke light into existence, Jesus speaks and Satan leaves him.

When tempted, Lord, let me look to what follows as Jesus conquers temptation. “Then the devil left him,” Matthew says, “and, behold, angels came and ministered to him.” When I am tempted, Lord, and desire what I want when I want it, let your Spirit within me speak your name, my Lord and my God.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

https://youtu.be/2W-KSOPWWBY

Readings

Saturday after Ash Wednesday

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke

The Pharisees and their scribes complained to his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” Jesus said to them in reply, “Those who are healthy do not need a physician, but the sick do. I have not come to call the righteous to repentance but sinners.”

In today’s Gospel, Jesus calls Levi, a tax collector, to follow him, and Levi responds by giving a great banquet for Jesus. When criticized by the Pharisees for eating with sinners, Jesus says that he came to call sinners, not the righteous, to repentance. He says, “Those who are healthy do not need a physician, but the sick do.” It is nothing short of wholeness that Jesus invites Matthew into. Luke tells us that Matthew left everything behind. The result of that, as the first reading from Isaiah says, is renewed strength: “Then light shall rise for you in the darkness, and the gloom shall become for you like midday . . . He will renew your strength, and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring whose water never fails.”

God, help me understand what Matthew came to learn. In inviting Matthew to follow you, you brought him into healing and wholeness. Let me see in that an invitation for me as well and the conversion that results from recognizing my need for your Son, the Divine Physician. As in the Responsorial Psalm, I pray for this recognition. “Incline your ear, O LORD, answer me, for I am afflicted and poor.” Give me the grace today to put pride and self-reliance aside to receive your mercy. As French priest Father Jacques Philippe suggests, self-emptying allows you, Lord, space to work within me: “We have a hard time accepting that we are poor of heart. To receive everything from the mercy of God—to accept that God is our source of richness and not ourselves—requires a great poverty of heart.”

Lord, bestow on me the poverty of heart that makes room for you for me to follow you and do your will.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Readings

Friday after Ash Wednesday

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew

The disciples of John approached Jesus and said, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast much, but your disciples do not fast?” Jesus answered them, “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.”

Jesus responds to the disciples of John and to the Pharisees by comparing himself to the bridegroom. When the bridegroom is taken away, then the fasting will follow. Because Christ is the bridegroom, the Church is is bride. And when the Church fasts, she fasts in mourning because Christ has been taken away. The kind of fasting Christ calls us to the LORD makes known in the first reading from Isaiah: “This, rather, is the fasting that I wish: releasing those bound unjustly, untying the thongs of the yoke; Setting free the oppressed, breaking every yoke; Sharing your bread with the hungry, sheltering the oppressed and the homeless; Clothing the naked when you see them, and not turning your back on your own.”

God, help me understand the goodness that comes from a contrite, humbled heart. As the psalmist says, “My sacrifice, O God, is a contrite spirit; a heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.” In avoiding evil and doing good, I live so that you many be with me. Have mercy on me, O God, in your goodness.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

https://youtu.be/2W-KSOPWWBY

Readings

Thursday after Ash Wednesday

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke

Jesus said to his disciples: “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. What profit is there for one to gain the whole world yet lose or forfeit himself?”

In today’s Gospel, Jesus presents his disciples with a paradox—a seemingly contradictory teaching that describes a spiritual truth: to lose your life in following Christ is to save it. Another paradox: to deny yourself in taking up your cross is to find in Christ your true identity. Doing this daily can feel like driving on the wrong side of the street to reach a destination; it’s counterintuitive. What can I do today to drop a seemingly vital action for the sake of taking up my cross? And in taking up my cross daily, I have the hope of gaining new life in Christ. Do I hold that truth in my heart?

God, in recognizing that I easily become discouraged when clinging to my own ways, I want to understand how self-denial leads me on a path toward following you. What am I clutching in fear that would seem to spell disaster when letting go of it? If there is not one big thing I can think of, please give me the grace to identify something I can forgo that instinct seems to say is vital. God, let me desire not to gain a greater share of the world today but to lose that share for the sake of saving my life through Christ. Let me come to know the hope that springs from letting go and allowing you to lead me. Saint Polycarp, martyr of the faith, pray for us!

Thank you, Lord, for the gifts of intellect and will that lead me to know and choose you. Make yourself known to me today!

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

https://youtu.be/2W-KSOPWWBY

Readings

Ash Wednesday

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew

Jesus said to his disciples: “But when you pray, go to your inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you.”

In today’s Gospel reading for Ash Wednesday, Jesus tells his disciples three key things that are vital for Lent: give alms, pray, and fast. In giving alms, he says, give secretly so that God will repay you in secret. Do the same in prayer, Jesus says, not drawing attention to yourself. And in fasting, Jesus says, “anoint your head and wash your face, so that you may not appear to be fasting, except to your Father who is hidden. And your Father who sees what is hidden will repay you.” What is Jesus saying about a relationship with the Father that is brought about by prayer, fasting, and almsgiving?

God, help me hear the words that Jesus spoke to the disciples, recognizing that they are likewise spoken to me in the present day. In the first reading from Joel, the words “return to me with your whole heart” invite anyone who hears them into relationship with God, who is gracious and merciful and “slow to anger, rich in kindness, and relenting in punishment.” God, through prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, you give us a means to return wholeheartedly to your mercy, as Saint Paul says, to be reconciled to you.

During the distribution of the ashes, the priest or minister says, “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” They might say instead: “Repent and believe in the gospel.” Lord, help me think of this moment throughout the day as I prepare to receive the ashes and afterward. It is another opportunity to spend time with you in the inner room of the heart, your means of sustaining in me a willing spirit. From the Gospel acclamation: “If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.”

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

https://youtu.be/2W-KSOPWWBY

Readings

Tuesday of the Seventh Week in Ordinary Time

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Mark

Then he sat down, called the Twelve, and said to them, “If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all.”

After hearing Jesus tell them that “The Son of Man is to be handed over to men and they will kill him, the disciples discuss who is the greatest among them as they begin a journey through Galilee. Jesus’ response to them shows that to be the greatest means to be the servant of all, as will be fulfilled in his coming suffering and Passion. By placing a child in the midst of the disciples, Jesus elevates the place of childlike faith in receiving both him and the One who sent him, the Father. How can I trust the Father today in serving others in childlike faith?

God, help me understand the words of your Son, the servant of all. Jesus told the disciples, “The Son of Man is to be handed over to men and they will kill him, and three days after his death the Son of Man will rise.” Let me have no delusion about what it means to be the servant of all. It means laying down my life in small sacrifices and if necessary, the ultimate sacrifice. Let me trust in your mercy, God. As Sirach says in the first reading: “You who fear the LORD, wait for his mercy, turn not away lest you fall. You who fear the LORD, trust him, and your reward will not be lost.”

Lord, just as Jesus said he would be handed over and killed, he also said he would rise. “Where now are the world’s many powerful men?” asked Saint Peter Damian. “If you should examine their graves, would you not find that their entire body, before which the world was forced to tremble, scarcely weighs a single pound?” Lord, help me remember that in serving you I may be hated by all because of your name but that in the end, not a hair on my head will be destroyed. Saint Peter Damian, pray for us!

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Readings

Monday of the Seventh Week in Ordinary Time

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Mark

Jesus, on seeing a crowd rapidly gathering, rebuked the unclean spirit and said to it, “Mute and deaf spirit, I command you: come out of him and never enter him again!”

Today’s Gospel follows immediately after the Transfiguration and takes place as Jesus came down from the mountain with Peter, James, John. A man brings his possessed son to Jesus’ disciples, but they are unable to heal him. Jesus arrives and asks the father how long the boy has been possessed. The father responds that the possession has been ongoing since childhood and pleads with Jesus to help if he can. Jesus replies, “‘If you can!’ Everything is possible to one who has faith” to which the father responds with a request for help in his own faith, crying out, “I do believe, help my unbelief!” Jesus then commands the unclean spirit to leave the boy, and after throwing the boy into convulsions, he is healed. The disciples ask Jesus why they were unable to heal the boy, and he tells them that this kind of demon can only be driven out by prayer.

God, help me understand today’s Gospel in light of my own experiences. Although I have not been a witness to such a dramatic possession or healing as Mark describes, I can think of areas of my life that only prayer to the Father can heal. There are moments in life when, like the boy’s father, I cry out, “I do believe, help my unbelief.” God, when I feel hopeless and dead to your Spirit and goodness, help me with my unbelief and take me by the hand to raise me up.

Lord, thank you for the gift of your presence. Stay with me today and keep me from all that might separate me from you.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Readings

Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew

Jesus said to his disciples: “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.”

In this Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus continues to speak to the disciples about the Old Testament teachings, bringing to fulfillment each one beginning with the words “But I say to you.” What Jesus proclaims reveals his divine authority to bring about the New Covenant. “You have heard that it was said,” Jesus says, “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you, offer no resistance to one who is evil.” And he says: “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.” What is the aim of all of this? What is its end? Jesus says, “So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Alone, with self-reliance as the only ally, this is an impossible task. But God makes being perfect possible.

God, help me understand that along with the command to achieve perfection, your perfect mercy accompanies me along the way. The way to become your children, Jesus says, is to pray for those who persecute us. The rest is not up to me. It is you, God, who make your sun rise on the bad and the good; it is you who causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust. Thanks be to God, that task is out of my hands!

Lord, let me keep in mind today’s Gospel acclamation: “Whoever keeps the word of Christ, the love of God is truly perfected in him.”

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Readings