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Change my Heart O God
WEEK ONE
SUNDAY 26 FEBRUARY
Scripture: Mark 1: 12 - 15
Reflection
Temptation strikes at
the heart of every person. We all have a
personal experience of temptation and we have all given in to temptation in.
Temptation manifests
itself in many shapes and forms: that
internal gnawing from within ourselves, another person or group whom we allow
to influence our decisions, commercial advertising, society … and the list goes
on.
Perhaps in these first few days of Lent you have
already been seriously tempted especially with regard to the Lenten resolutions
you made and the things you have chosen to give up ~ I know that I have been –
seriously tempted!! If you can get
through these first few days of temptation then you will have a stronger
resistance for the remainder of Lent. We
have to be strong and resolute and come back to those things that strengthened
Jesus when he was so seriously tempted out in the wilderness: personal prayer, God’s Word and our union
with him through the Eucharist. In
addition there is the Sacrament of Reconciliation which enables us to make a
new beginning so that we do not have to carry the burdens of past sins during
our Lenten journey.
We began Lent a few days ago on Ash Wednesday with the
words “Repent and believe in the Gospel” as our foreheads were marked with
ashes. This is a call and invitation
from the Lord himself. Begin this Lenten
journey from a position of strength ~ not weakness! Let your reception of the Blessed Eucharist
today and the proclamationof the Word be the source of your strength. Experience the living presence of Jesus and
actively seek his presence throughout Lent.
Having struggled through temptation the Lord Jesus himself comes to us
in our battles and struggles and strengthens us to resist and stand firm.
Practical Suggestions:
1.
Attend a weekday Mass and receive the Eucharist;
2.
Attend weekly Stations of the Cross;
3.
Give up something non essential that you usually
enjoy and or something that will make you a better person by the end of the
Lenten Season;
4.
Make a decision to celebrate the Sacrament of
Reconciliation – preferably as soon as possible and again during Holy Week;
5.
Establish and maintain a daily routine of
prayer. Use this daily programme to read
God’s Word and to reflect on it;
6.
Pray a decade of the Rosary every day;
7.
Observe every Friday during Lent as a day of
Prayer, Fast and Abstinence. Make your intention for your fast and
abstinence the return of lapsed Catholics – especially those in your own
family.
8.
Make a weekly contribution to the Bishops’
Lenten Appeal;
9.
Encourage an inactive or lapsed Catholic to Come
Home to the Father’s House and to attend Holy Mass and/or Stations of the Cross
10.
Participate in a parish outreach project;
11.
Bring an item of food to Mass for the poor;
12.
Pray for the Catechumens and Candidates who will
be Baptised and/or Received into Full Communion with the Church at Easter. Find out who they are and offer them a few
words of encouragement and support.
13.
Create a Lenten prayer space in your home: a purple cloth, purple candle, bible,
crucifix and rosary.
Prayer
Father, guide me in my
Lenten journey. Strengthen me in my
moments of temptation. Help me to stand
firm in my commitments and renew the gift of your divine presence within
me. Amen.
Spend some time in prayer before the Lord.
Monday 27 February
Scripture: Lev 19:1-2; 11-18
“Be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am
holy.”
Matthew 25:31-46
Holiness is found in serving Christ in
others.
Reflection
Today
we enter the first full week of Lent. Lent is a time for getting back to the basics
of the spiritual life. Being holy, as
God is Holy is our task and our success is measured not so much by the
extra Lenten penances, but by the way we
treat others. Both the Old Testament and the Gospel point out very
down-to-earth areas where our basic orientation will reveal itself – for or
against others. The Gospel takes this even further: it is in the neighbour,
especially in the needy, the infirm and in the rejected that we find and serve
Christ.
The
Incarnation is realised today in the person of the other.
Practical suggestion
Get
to know your neighbour and their needs. It
is within your own neighbourhood that you can respond to the needs of others and
help if you can.
You
can also visit someone in a retirement place, take an old person shopping, or
for a drive.
Prayer
Lord
Jesus, as we enter the season of Lent, help me to show my love for you by
caring for others. Open my eyes to their needs, and my heart to recognize you
in them. Amen.
Make a special effort to attend Holy Mass at 6.00 p.m. today
to draw strength from the Eucharist.
TUESDAY 28 FEBRUARY
Scripture: Isaiah 55: 10-11
“The word that goes from my mouth does
not return to me empty , without carrying out my will and succedding in what it
was sent to do.”
Reflection
Here
we are, already a week into Lent – another year, another Lent – another
opportunity given to us by God to examine our lives and to see if we are
walking with Him, walking in covenant relationship with Him and His Son, Jesus.
God
says, through the prophet Isaiah, that His Word does not fail in what it was
intended to do. I am reminded of the
prophets who received the Word that was meant to start them on their missionary
work for God, and how many of them tried, in one way or another, to get out of
the job – to avoid taking up the task of proclaiming that Word.
Yet,
if one reads their stories in the Scriptures, all eventually do end up doing what God asks of them:
Jonah
tried to go to the opposite end of the territory to Nineveh, to escape being
God’s mouthpiece, but finally landed up there, preached the message to the
Ninevites as he was instructed to, and they, in turn, heard and believed in the Word and turned their lives around.
Jeremiah
said to God, “You have seduced me, Lord … I used to say, ‘I will not speak in
His name any more’, but there seemed to be a fire burning in my heart,
imprisoned in my bones. The effort to
restrain it wearied me.” Jeremiah
discovered that God’s Word would not leave him alone – he was compelled to carry
out the task of sharing it with others.
That
Word became flesh in the person of Jesus, who calls each of us, equally
insistently, to reflect on our lives, to “repent and believe in the Good News”
of God’s incredible love for each of us.
Once we have heard and believed, and turned our lives around, we are
asked to share that Good News with others.
Is
His Word sent to you succeeding in what it was sent to do?
Practical
Suggestion
Make
time to reflect on your life. What have
you heard God say to you through His Word – via the Scriptures, a message in a
sermon, or through the events in your life?
Are you acting on this?
How
has God’s Word affected you? Is there a
need for you to repent and make change?
Prayer
O
God, give me the grace of Your Spirit to take Your Word and internalize
it. Then give me the grace to be able to
share that Word with others. Amen.
Stations of the Cross at 10.00 a.m. tomorrow
Wednesday 29 February
Scripture: Luke 11
: 29 – 32
Reflection
The
story of Jonah (3: 1 - 10) reminds us of the scriptural origin of Lent; the
forty days of penance. Forty days is a
time of purification, a time when our close association with God makes us more
worthy of him and brings us spiritual growth.
Jonah
preached repentance with a message from God.
“Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed.” In the Gospel Jesus praises the citizens of
Nineveh for listening to Jonah. They
made use of the forty days which God gave them, forty days in which to repent
and save their sinful city.
Forty
days is a sacred tradition in Holy Scripture: The Lord asked Moses to come up
to him on the mountain to receive the Ten Commandments for instruction of his
people. Moses stayed on the mountain for
forty days.
Elijah
fled for his life from Jezabel, the jealous queen. He arrived exhausted in the desert and the
Lord sent him food and water and he survived the desert for forty days. Jesus began his ministry after spending forty
days in the wilderness where he fasted and prayed.
The
forty days of Lent that God has given us for prayer and repentance are precious
and sacred and full of meaning.
We
should thank God for giving us the forty days for our conversion – a chance to
repent and come personally to God, as Moses and Elijah did.
Practical suggestions
Make a genuine commitment to attend all the Stations
of the Cross as part of your forty days of repentance.
Prayer
Lord
Jesus, as you stood transfigured, changed and glorified before your apostles, Moses
and Elijah conversed with you as personal friends. May we be transfigured, changed, and renewed
this season of Lent, so that we too may converse with you as personal
friends. Amen.
Thursday 1 March
Scripture: Matthew 7: 7-12
“For the one who asks always receives; the one who searches
always finds; the one who knocks will always have the door opened to him.”
Reflection
Change
is often difficult. We need help to make
the decisions that will change the direction of our lives for the better. We need help to live these decisions
day-by-day. Where to find this help is
also difficult. Sometimes we look in
many different places in an attempt to find the right path.
Why
do we look in all these different places for help to change? Today’s Scripture tells us that we only need
to look to God for assistance.
Everything that we need to change our hearts and our lives will be given
to us from God. God is the answer, if
only we would ask.
Are
we prepared to ask God to help us change our hearts this Lent? Are we prepared to search for the way God has
planned for us? If we are, God says he
will help us, he will give us what we need and show us the way.
Practical Suggestion
Today
try to join in the celebration of the Eucharist. If you are unable to attend Mass, try to make
a visit to the Church and spend some time in the presence of the Lord.
Prayer
Father,
in your greatness you are humble enough to share with us your care and
love. Help me to seek you with all my
heart, sure in the hope that you will be found.
May I always trust you. Amen.
Friday 02 March
Scripture: Matthew 5: 20-26
Leave your
offering there at the altar and go and be reconciled with your brother first.
Reflection
“Jesus,
you always seem to stretch me…
You
have a way of touching the sensitive areas in my life. Why?
Is
it because you love me and want the best for me?
I’m
sure that it is because in spite of my sin, my many sins, you know my true
potential – you believe that I can be an agent of peace and reconciliation.”
Family
life, indeed all relationships have their ups and downs. Nowadays there appears to be a lot of
bickering going on between people … husbands and wives, parents and children,
brothers and sisters. Often unkind words
are said and nasty acts are exchanged in our homes. Yet seldom is there an apology or any genuine
attempt at reconciliation. Life just
carries on and the mindset that prevails is one of “Oh they will get over it”
or “They provoked me, so why must I apologize, why must I be the peacemaker?”.
Today
Jesus challenges us to move beyond this crazy approach to family life. He wants
peace and reconciliation in our homes more than he desires the gifts that we
place at the altar. Go and be reconciled
with your brother first!
Practical Suggestion
Make
time to pray the Lord’s Prayer today.
Reflect on the words “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those
who trespass against us.” Listen to what God is saying to your heart,
and forgive – be Reconciled.
Prayer
Father,
thank you for the many times that you have forgiven me. When I am finding it difficult to forgive,
help me to remember what a great sacrifice Jesus made so that I could have my
sins forgiven. Thank you Lord, for your
love, your peace, your forgiveness. Amen.
Stations of the Cross at 5.45 p.m. today
Saturday
3 March
Scripture: Matthew 5:43-48
Jesus, you must be joking!
Reflection
How can Jesus expect us to be nice to people who
won’t even return a smile or go out of our way to help people who don’t
appreciate what we do for them? How can
we love someone who irritates us or is always nasty towards us?
When you read St. Paul’s letters to the Corinthians, you find him
expressing both deep hurt and tender love for them. He was unjustly criticised, for some said,
“His letters are weighty and forceful, but in person he is unimpressive and his
speaking amounts to nothing” (2 Corinthians 10:10) yet he continued to
minister to them!
How was Paul able to do this? Not
by his own strength! In such situations
he relied on Jesus and allowed him to show his power at work in his life. “I
can do all things through Christ who gives me strength” (Philippians 4:13).
We are to do the same. It’s not easy but it is possible to treat our ‘enemies’ the way we would like them
to treat us (Luke 6:31). St. Paul
tells us how, “...because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the
Holy Spirit, whom he has given to us” (Romans 5:5). Try it and you may be pleasantly surprised
when some of them become your friends!
Practical
Suggestion
Perhaps you are not yet in the place where you can
forgive from the heart, that spouse, child, friend, colleague, or neighbour who
has wronged you, but you can take the first step towards forgiving them by asking
God for strength and praying for them.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, help me not to be easily angered and
hold a grudge against those who hurt me.
Grant that I may love them as you love me. Amen.
These
Lenten Reflections are written by Fr. Desmond Nair, Sr. Lucas Lenzen CPS, Irene
Helsdon, Deacon Peter Venter, Fr. Brett Williams, Fr. Grant Emmanuel and Deacon
Henry Blair.
Written
for the Glory of God so may be copied and distributed. Lent 2012.
