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- Eleanor Rabnett, Lay Oblate on SUNDAY V LENT: I adore Him as he sighs and weeps outside Lazarus’s tomb
- Eleanor Rabnett, Lay Oblate on SOLEMNITY OF THE ANNUNCIATION
- Eleanor Rabnett, Lay Oblate on FRIDAY IV LENT: let me be surprised by the wonder of your love
- Eleanor Rabnett, Lay Oblate on THURSDAY IV LENT: when we ourselves had turned away from you
- Susan Brotherman on SOLEMNITY OF ST. JOSEPH
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THURSDAY III LENT: develop a listening heart
“Listen to my voice; then I will be your God and you shall be my people.
I keep my steps from every evil path, that I may observe your word. From your judgments I do not turn, for you have instructed me.
WEDNESDAY III LENT: Let our confidence not rest in our own understanding but in your guiding hand
“But whoever obeys and teaches these commandments will be called greatest in the Kingdom of heaven.” (Lk. 5:19)
All should be persuaded that it is easier to achieve this end by example than by words. Hence, we must convince ourselves that it is indispensable that we should practice all the virtues, and not be unacquainted with any of them.
Eugene de Mazenod’s 1818 Rule, Part 1, Chapter 3, §1 Preaching
REFLECTION
Grant us patience, O Lord, to follow the road you have taken.
Let our confidence not rest in our own understanding but in your guiding hand;
let our desires not be for our own comfort,
but for the joy of your kingdom;
for your cross is our hope and our joy now and unto the day of eternity. Amen.
https://prayer.forwardmovement.org/prayers_and_thanksgivings
TUESDAY III LENT: since my infancy you have led me as if by the hand
Do not let us be put to shame, but deal with us in your kindness and great mercy. Deliver us by your wonders…(Dn 3:42-43)
But no, you are my Father, it is you who since the most fragile days of my infancy have led me as if by the hand. Everything you have done for me in the course of my life is too present to my memory, I feel again still today too vividly the effects not to count on your infinite goodness, not to throw myself with total abandon into your paternal bosom, fully resolved to do this time and always everything you demand of me, were it to cost me my life.
Eugene de Mazenod’s Retreat journal before being consecrated bishop, 7-14 October 1832, EO XV n 166
REFLECTION
Lord Jesus,
You opened the eyes of the blind,
healed the sick,
forgave the sinful woman,
and after Peter’s denial confirmed him in your love.
Listen to my prayer:
forgive all my sins,
renew your love in my heart,
help me to live in perfect unity with my fellow Christians
that I may proclaim your saving power to all the world.
www.xavier.edu/jesuitresource/online-resources/prayer-index/forgiveness-prayers
MONDAY III LENT: let us always have the tenderness of a father towards all
“No prophet is accepted in his own native place.” (Lk. 4: 24)
We are the ministers of his mercy, and so let us always have the tenderness of a father towards all; let us easily forget the insults that are sometimes committed against us in the exercise of our ministry as the good Lord wishes to forget the offences continually being committed against him. The father of the prodigal son was not content with putting the best robe on him and having a ring put on his finger, he had the fatted calf killed as well.
Letter to Bruno Guigues, 20 February 1837, EO IX n 605
REFLECTION
Lord, make me a channel of Your peace,
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
O, Divine Master, grant that I may Lord, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love;
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
it is in dying that we are born again to Eternal Life.
(Prayer of St. Francis)
SUNDAY III LENT: regenerated in the saving waters of baptism
“Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again; but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst; the water I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (Jn. 4: 13-15)
It is then the mercies of the Lord I must proclaim… for he has quite exhausted the treasures of his grace for my sake…
Beginning with the happy moment when, regenerated in the saving waters of baptism, I was raised to the awesome dignity of child of God, filled with the gifts of my Saviour, I could more easily count the successive and rapid movements of my breathing than the number of the inestimable benefits that this adorable Master has poured out on me in generous measure.
Spiritual conference given by Eugene de Mazenod, 19 March 1809, EO XIV n 48
REFLECTION
We thank you and praise you, O God,
that however we may thirst,
whatever we may need to satisfy our souls,
you offer it freely and abundantly in Christ;
So we drink deep of the living water
and, as we draw from your wells,
we seek to pass the cup to others
who, like us, are thirsty for your grace.
Amen
Cf John van de Laar (https://re-worship.blogspot.com/2011/09/prayer-living-water)