A Lectio Divina Approach to the Sunday and Weekday Liturgy
BREAKING THE BREAD OF THE WORD (Series 11, n. 14)
LENT WEEK 3: March 3-9, 2013 ***
(N.B. The pastoral tool BREAKING THE BREAD OF THE WORD: A LECTIO DIVINA APPROACH TO THE SUNDAY LITURGY includes a prayerful study of the Sunday liturgy of Year C from three perspectives. For reflections on the Sunday liturgy based on the Gospel reading, please scroll up to the “ARCHIVES” above and open Series 2. For reflections based on the Old Testament reading, open Series 5. For reflections based on the Second Reading, open Series 8. Please go to Series 10 and Series 11 for the back issues of the Weekday Lectio.
Below is a LECTIO DIVINA APPROACH TO THE SUNDAY - WEEKDAY LITURGY: March 3-9, 2013. The weekday reflections are based on the First Reading. For the weekday reflections based on the Gospel Reading, please open Series 10.)
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March 3, 2013: THIRD SUNDAY OF LENT
“JESUS SAVIOR: He Is God’s One More Chance”
BIBLE READINGS
Ex 3:1-8a, 13-15 // I Cor 10:1-6, 10-12 // Lk 13:1-9
I. BIBLICO-LITURGICAL REFLECTIONS: A Pastoral Tool for the LECTIO
In an article by Jerry Davis in GUIDEPOSTS magazine (February 2004), he tells us about a remarkable journey that led him on the right path. He was kicked out of school repeatedly as a teenager. One sleepless, cold evening in February 1963, while living on charity at the Salvation Army in Kentucky where he sought refuge, something clicked in his mind, as if everything had suddenly been put in focus for his 19-year-old eyes. Jerry narrated: “Somebody had to be looking out for me. Somebody who wouldn’t let me push him away no matter how hard I tried. In fact, the farther I ran from God, the closer he seemed to pull me. I slipped out of bed and knelt in a patch of moonlight. Lord, I prayed, the words finally coming. Thank you for your patience. Thank you for your love. I don’t know what’s good for me. Please, I need your guidance.” The runaway college dropout found work at a Kentucky hospital and enrolled at a nearby college. That was the beginning of a long road that led to graduate school and a Ph.D. Today he is the president of a college in Missouri – the College of the Ozarks. Indeed, Jerry Davis has given us a testimony of what it means to be given another chance and what it takes to respond to that chance. His was a beautiful story of a positive response to the patient mercy of God.
Today’s Gospel reading underlines the Christian call to metanoia, which means conversion, repentance, and inner change, and heartens us with the reality of God’s patient mercy. Jesus calls for decision and conversion by referring to two contemporary disasters and by narrating the parable of the barren fig tree. The first disaster was the Galilean massacre. Notorious for his harsh rule and insensitivity to Jewish religious beliefs, Pilate had caused the death of some Galileans while they were offering sacrifice, probably in the Jerusalem temple during the Passover. The other disaster involved what was probably a construction accident at the Siloam reservoir in Jerusalem. Jesus negates the popular speculations regarding the personal culpability of the victims of the Galilean massacre and the Siloam accident. At the same time he stresses the universal need for repentance. Unless all repent and respond positively to the Gospel, all will suffer the greater disaster of being alienated from God. The last section of the Gospel reading is Jesus’ parable of the barren fig tree which received a reprieve, or stay, from the impending punishment by the vineyard owner in response to the gardener’s compassionate plea. The parable reminds us of the long-suffering of God, but it is also a warning that those who persist in their sinful refusal to repent will suffer and eventually be cut down.
In the context of the Father’s saving plan, Jesus Christ, his beloved Son and Servant, is God’s “one more chance” - the ultimate chance. Jesus is the final opportunity, the culmination of God’s long history of opportunities. He is the means of reconciliation with our Father in heaven. The Christian community is urgently challenged to respond positively to this loving offer of salvation. As privileged recipients of God’s magnanimous love we need to embrace the ultimate chance in Jesus Christ, the true and faithful gardener of God’s vineyard.
II. POINTS FOR THE EXAMINATION OF THE HEART: A Pastoral Tool for the MEDITATIO
What is our response to Christ’ call to conversion and apostolic fruitfulness? How do we react to the local and universal disasters that impinge upon our senses day after day through the mass media? What personal lesson do we derive from the parable of the barren fig tree?
III. PRAYING WITH THE WORD: A Pastoral Tool for the ORATIO
Father of mercy and goodness,
you reveal to us your patient mercy
by offering us the ultimate chance,
Jesus Christ, your beloved Son.
He suffered for us
and irrigated our barren hearts
with the blood of his sacrifice
that we may bring forth a rich harvest
Do not let us suffer the fate of the unfruitful fig tree,
destined for ultimate destruction.
In our Lenten journey to the Easter glory,
help us to be responsive
to the “amazing grace” won for us by Jesus,
the compassionate gardener of our souls.
He lives and reigns, forever and ever.
Amen.
IV. INTERIORIZATION OF THE WORD: A Pastoral Tool for the CONTEMPLATIO
The following is the bread of the living Word that will nourish us throughout the day. Please memorize it.
“If you do not repent, you will all perish as they did.” (Lk 13:4, 5)
V. TOWARDS LIFE TRANSFORMATION: A Pastoral Tool for the ACTIO
Pray to the Lord for the gift of repentance and sincere conversion from sin, and for the gift of spiritual renewal. Pray for prisoners, especially those who have received the death penalty, and for all those who minister to their care.
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March 4, 2013: MONDAY – LENTEN WEEKDAY (3)
“JESUS SAVIOR: He Incarnates God’s Healing Love”
BIBLE READINGS
II Kgs 5:1-15b // Lk 4:24-30
I. BIBLICO-LITURGICAL REFLECTIONS: A Pastoral Tool for the LECTIO
Dr. Beth Baxter’s article, “Journey from a Dark Place” (cf. GUIDEPOSTS: Large Print Edition, October 1999, p. 28-42) tells of the anguish of her mental illness and her journey to healing and redemption. She studied medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical School and was accepted for residency in psychiatry at the University of Rochester in New York. Toward the end of her residency she was hospitalized twice for psychotic breaks and was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder. One winter evening in 1994 she decided to put an end to her failures, agony and despair. She tried to commit suicide by cutting her throat, but on account of some last minute intervention, she survived. Dr. Beth Baxter narrates her journey to healing.
My parents, grandparents, my whole extended family pooled their resources so I could be treated at a renowned mental hospital in Massachusetts. One morning I wandered into the greenhouse there. A power failure had caused a freeze, and most of the plants lay withered, un-revivable. Aimlessly, I was plucking away the brown leaves on a dead fern when at its base I spotted a tiny shoot of green. “There is life here after all,” I marveled, surprised at my own insight. It had been years since I felt the merest glimmer of hope. But I made little progress.
One afternoon, curled up in a chair in my room, I felt that old despair settle over me like a cold winter fog. I still hadn’t found a way to make sense of my illness, of the wreck that remained of my life. What was the use? The doctors were wasting their time. My family and friends were wasting their prayers. To me God seemed on the other side of an unbreachable gulf of darkness. “God, if you’re out there”, I pleaded, “give me a reason to live.” A short time later my mother called. I blurted out what was on my mind: “Mom, I just can’t find a reason not to end it all.” There was a long pause. Then my mom said softly, “Beth, I love you. Can’t you make that one reason?” “I’ll try, Mom,” I whispered. “For you, I’ll try.” Later that week Jeff and his wife Nikki called. “We miss you, Beth,” they said. “Everyone at our church is praying that you’ll come home soon. We love you.”
Love. Did I even know what it meant anymore? Was that, ultimately, the cruelest toll my disease had taken? Tearing me from the redemptive healing power of love. Blocking me from feeling my friend’s love, my family’s. God’s love … Love. Wasn’t that, ultimately, what God was giving me? Mental illness was a part of me, but so was the inner strength that had gotten me through medical school and residency despite it. So were the doctoring skills I’d learned, the understanding I’d developed of people’s suffering, the devotion of my friends, the support and prayers of my family. Above all, it was love that held the pieces together, through which God bridged the gulf of darkness with hope.
That was a beginning. Eventually, after continuing my treatment at two other hospitals, I went home to Nashville. I found a doctor who put me on a new medication that controlled my symptoms. I began going with Jeff and Nikki to their church. It became mine as well. I felt comfortable there because the people had been praying for me. Opening up about my illness and recovery, I grew closer to my friends and my family than ever before. I worked as a mental-health advocate for several years before I came to my current job as a psychiatrist at Nashville’s Mental Health Cooperative, a clinic for people with severe mental illnesses. Schizoaffective disorder, it turned out, started me on a journey, leading me to a place where I can achieve my goal of making people’s lives better, where I can do good, helping others see that they too can overcome the pain of mental illness and fulfill their true promise. That is the most powerful of all medicines – hope.
Like the story of Dr. Beth Baxter, today’s Old Testament reading presents us with a magnificent case of healing. Naaman experienced the healing power of God. The “leprous” Syrian general had embarked on a journey of healing that led him to embrace the love of God. It was a miraculous moment that filled him with hope, faith, and thanksgiving. The gift of healing he received involved returning to the living God and acknowledging the divine benevolent action in his life. Indeed, his conversion and transformation resulted from being “touched” by grace. The figure of Naaman, a beneficiary of God’s grace of healing, reminds us to trust God who can heal all our infirmities. The power of God’s healing does not have any limits. Jesus Christ is the incarnation of the divine healing power. In the Son of God, we are therefore challenged to journey towards healing and the wholeness of our person – a mysterious movement that leads into the bosom of God and his gift of eternal life.
II. POINTS FOR THE EXAMINATION OF THE HEART: A Pastoral Tool for the MEDITATIO
What are the afflictions and maladies that affect us? Do we turn to Jesus for healing? Do we acknowledge him as the channel of God’s mercy and healing? Are we willing to experience a journey from darkness and illness towards healing and love, towards praise and thanksgiving? Do we strive to be an instrument of God’s healing to a broken, fragmented world? Are we able to render praise and thanksgiving to God who heals us of all our brokenness and illnesses?
III. PRAYING WITH THE WORD: A Pastoral Tool for the ORATIO
Loving God,
you are the font of healing.
Heal us of our sins and infirmities.
Let your love restore us to health.
Free us from the evils that endanger our life.
Drive away the leprosy of sin and all physical and moral ills.
Let the healing word of Jesus Christ, your beloved Son,
cleanse us and vivify us.
We bless and praise you,
and we thank and glorify you,
now and forever.
Amen.
IV. INTERIORIZATION OF THE WORD: A Pastoral Tool for the CONTEMPLATIO
The following is the bread of the living Word that will nourish us throughout the day. Please memorize it.
“And he was clean.” (II Kgs 5:14)
V. TOWARDS LIFE TRANSFORMATION: A Pastoral Tool for the ACTIO
Pray to God for physical, moral, and spiritual healing. Endeavor to bring the healing power of God to the sick in your family and in the community, and to a wounded society in deep need of God’s healing.
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March 5, 2013: TUESDAY – LENTEN WEEKDAY (3)
“JESUS SAVIOR: He Incarnates God’s Forgiving Love”
BIBLE READINGS
Dn 3:25, 34-43 // Mt 18:21-35
I. BIBLICO-LITURGICAL REFLECTIONS: A Pastoral Tool for the LECTIO
The Old Testament reading presents the prayer of Azariah from the flaming furnace. Azariah, Hananiah and Mishael were three young provincial administrators of the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar who had defied the royal order to worship the king’s statue. They were willing to suffer death rather that worship a god other than the God of Israel. They were thrown into a fiery furnace, but God let them experience deliverance within the furnace. Accompanied by an angel of salvation, the three young men started walking around in the flames, singing hymns to God and praising him as Lord. In the midst of this saving event, Azariah then offered a beautiful prayer of deliverance for God’s covenant people, which includes a confession of the nation’s guilt. He avowed that God is always just and true and that the Jewish people were guilty of every sin. Their disobedience resulted in their being handed over to lawless, hateful, and defiant enemies. He pleaded to God not to break his covenant and not to withhold his mercy from his people. With repentant hearts and humble spirits, they were imploring God to miraculously rescue them and thus bring glory to his name. After surviving the ordeal of the blazing furnace, Azariah, Hananiah and Mishael were promoted by King Nebuchadnezzar to higher positions in the province of Babylon.
Jesus Christ incarnates God’s forgiving love. In light of this love, we are able to see the areas in our personal life and in the society that need to be redressed and healed. The following is an example of a sinful situation in today’s society that needs to be rectified (cf. ALIVE!, February 2013, p. 5). Like Azariah, we need to present it to God with humble and contrite hearts.
Canada’s official statistics has disclosed that an average of one baby per week survives an abortion attempt in the country, but is left uncared for until it dies. According to figures for the period 2000 to 2009 some 491 babies were born alive in abortions and left to die.
Lawyer Andre Schutten has pointed out that Canada recognizes the baby as a human being as soon as it emerges alive from its mother, and questioned why there have been no homicide investigations into the live births. “Why have there been no criminal persecutions? Why no outcry? And why are the provinces funding this explicitly criminal activity?” he asked.
A profile blogger wrote: “It’s bad enough that the babies are being killed in the womb, but now we learn that even those protected under Canadian law are apparently being left to die.
Jill Stanek, a former nurse in Chicago turned pro-life activist, has described witnessing babies being born alive after failed abortions, then being brought to a “soiled utility room” and left to die.
II. POINTS FOR THE EXAMINATION OF THE HEART: A Pastoral Tool for the MEDITATIO
Are we willing to suffer the trial of the “blazing furnace” as part of our promise to follow God unreservedly? Are we willing to recognize, confess, and rectify the sins of modern society and our national guilt?
III. PRAYING WITH THE WORD: A Pastoral Tool for the ORATIO
Loving Father,
we have sinned as a nation and as a people.
We have turned away from you
and rejected the gift of life.
We are guilty of every sin.
But we come to you
with repentant hearts and humble spirits.
Accept our repentance
as our sacrifice to you today.
Lead us on the narrow path
that leads to eternal life.
You live and reign,
forever and ever.
Amen.
IV. INTERIORIZATION OF THE WORD: A Pastoral Tool for the CONTEMPLATIO
The following is the bread of the living Word that will nourish us throughout the day. Please memorize it.
“But with contrite heart and humble spirit let us be received.” (Dn 3:37)
V. TOWARDS LIFE TRANSFORMATION: A Pastoral Tool for the ACTIO
By prayer and penance, by active participation in pro-life activities, protect the life of the unborn and the babies that are born.
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March 6, 2013: WEDNESDAY – LENTEN WEEKDAY (3)
“JESUS SAVIOR: He Teaches Us to Keep God’s Commands”
BIBLE READINGS
Dt 4:1, 5-9 // Mt 5:17-19
I. BIBLICO-LITURGICAL REFLECTIONS: A Pastoral Tool for the LECTIO
In the Old Testament reading, Moses exhorts the covenant people to keep the Lord’s commands that they may live and take possession of the land God was giving them. Moses underlines the fundamental loyalty that is essential to Israel’s unique relationship with God. Loyalty to God entails faithful observance of the life-giving laws that originate from him. No other nation has a god so near as the God of Israel. Moreover, no other nation has laws so just as those life-giving laws that God has stipulated for his people. The Lord God answers them whenever they call for help and blesses them for their obedience to his gracious will. To be faithful to God’s word entails ordering one’s life according to the commandments and transmitting these to the next generation. Jesus did not come to do away with the Law of Moses and the teachings of the prophets, but to make their meaning come true. Lent is a time of spiritual insight. The Lenten season is a privileged moment to delve into the Christian understanding of the Law, which is essentially a commandment of love and is life-giving.
The importance of the law for the life of God’s people makes us lament today’s tragedy of the perversion and rejection of the divine law. The following case is an example (cf. Mary Ann Gogniat Eidemiller, “Four Decades after Roe, the Fight for Life Continues” in Our Sunday Visitor, January 20, 2013, p. 10).
By her own later admission, Norma Leah McCorvey lied about getting raped as a ruse to comply with the Texas law permitting abortion in instances of rape. But she had no proof that her pregnancy had resulted from a crime, so she was unable to terminate her third child.
The year was 1969, and two Dallas attorneys took up her case to challenge the pro-life laws in Texas. The case ended up in U.S. Supreme Court with McCorvey as plaintiff, given the anonymous name of Jane Roe, with the defendant in the suit being District Attorney Henry Wade of Dallas County.
McCorvey gave birth to the baby in the meantime, so for her, the ensuing legal battle was no longer moot. But on January 22, 1973, Roe v. Wade became the landmark decision that gave women the constitutional right to abortion, based on an implied right to privacy in the Ninth and 14th Amendments.
Among other points, the court said that the fetus was a “potential life” but not a person, and, therefore, had no rights of its own.
The decision also defined the conditions permitting or prohibiting abortion during pregnancy. The woman’s right to privacy in the first trimester was so strong that it was unregulated, thereby establishing abortion on demand. In the second trimester, states could regulate abortion only to protect the loosely-defined health of the mother. In the third trimester, a state could regulate abortion to promote the interest of the viable or potentially viable fetus.
At the same time that Roe v. Wade was passed, the Doe v. Bolton decision defined maternal health (a cause for abortion) as “all factors – physical, emotional, psychological, familial, and the woman’s age – relevant to the well-being of the patient”. In other words, the right to abortion beyond the first trimester was expanded to include any vague definition of “maternal health”. (…)
As for McCorvey, she later claimed that two ambitious lawyers had used her as “a pawn” in Roe v. Wade. She changed her mind about abortion, was baptized a Christian in 1995 and in 1998 was received into the Catholic Church. She remains active in the pro-life movement.
II. POINTS FOR THE EXAMINATION OF THE HEART: A Pastoral Tool for the MEDITATIO
What is the meaning and personal implication of God’s law for me, for the life of the Church and for the life of society? What is my response to God’s commands?
III. PRAYING WITH THE WORD: A Pastoral Tool for the ORATIO
O loving God, your law is a light for my path and gives me new strength. Your laws are right and just. Those who obey them are blessed. Your commands are true and give wisdom to the humble. Let me live by your commands and keep me safe from willful sins. Let me walk in your ways and lead me on the path of life eternal. How marvelous you are! We give you glory and praise, now and forever.
Amen.
IV. INTERIORIZATION OF THE WORD: A Pastoral Tool for the CONTEMPLATIO
The following is the bread of the living Word that will nourish us throughout the day. Please memorize it.
“Now, Israel, hear the statutes and decrees which I am teaching you to observe.” (Dt 4:1)
V. TOWARDS LIFE TRANSFORMATION: A Pastoral Tool for the ACTIO
Make an effort to study the third part of the Catechism of the Catholic Church about the “Life in Christ”, i.e. about faith and morals.
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March 7, 2013: THURSDAY – LENTEN WEEKDAY (3)
“JESUS SAVIOR: He Encounters Their Hardened Hearts”
BIBLE READINGS
Jer 7:23-28 // Lk 11:14-23
I. BIBLICO-LITURGICAL REFLECTIONS: A Pastoral Tool for the LECTIO
Today’s Old Testament reading exposes the people’s disobedience and the absurdity of their false worship. Judah’s false worship is two sided: the worship of false gods and the meaningless worship of the one true God, with its misplaced emphasis on external cultic activity. God is not interested in their burnt offerings and animal sacrifices unless they live lives of justice as a covenant people. He did not command those false rituals. But he did command them, when he brought them out of Egypt, to obey him so that he would be their God and they would be his people. They were stubborn and refused to listen to God and the prophets he sent to them. God now commands Jeremiah to speak words of warning and threats of punishment to his people. They will most likely refuse to listen. Faithfulness had died and is no longer talked about.
Likewise in his ministry, Jesus encounters people with hardened hearts. The sad reality of sinful disobedience continues to be verified with full force even now (cf. Russel Shaw, “Disturbing Demographic Trends Finally Get Widespread Notice” in Our Sunday Visitor, January 27, 2013, p. 6).
The disruptive results for individuals and society spawned by the revolution in attitudes and behavior regarding sex, marriage, family and childbearing that erupted a half-century ago have become too obvious to ignore. These things were predictable – in fact, some people actually predicted from the start – but by now their impact has grown so painfully apparent that even secular voices are being raised in alarm.
The problems are increasingly visible in the United States. They include an aging population with fewer young workers to support the elderly, along with a disturbingly high incidence of disabilities among children born to parents who put off having them until their 30s and 40s and then, in many instances, resorted to drugs or reproductive technologies to achieve pregnancy. (…)
Religious sources, some of them anyway, began warning about such things a long time ago. In his 1968 encyclical condemning contraception, Humanae Vitae (“Of Human Life”), Pope Paul VI spoke of “insurmountable limits” to what people can rightly do to, and with their bodies, and of the personal and social imperatives requiring that those limits not be ignored. The pope was ignored when he wasn’t laughed at. But he was right. (…)
Jonathan Last sees two large explanations for what has happened in recent decades: “the waning of religion in American life” and the shattering of the “iron triangle” that previously linked sex, marriage and child-bearing.
No doubt that is so. As Pope Paul VI said back in 1968, “The innocent practice of regulation of birth demands that husband and wife acquire and possess solid convictions concerning the true values of life and of the family. That was necessary then, and it’s just as necessary today.
II. POINTS FOR THE EXAMINATION OF THE HEART: A Pastoral Tool for the MEDITATIO
Do I listen to the voice of the Lord and walk in his ways? What is the root cause of my disobedience and its consequence?
III. PRAYING WITH THE WORD: A Pastoral Tool for the ORATIO
O loving Father,
you commanded your covenant people
to listen to your voice
and to walk in your ways
that they may have life and prosper in the Promised Land.
But they refused to listen.
We too are disobedient
and have turned our backs to you.
Forgive our stubbornness and all our iniquities.
We are deeply sorry.
Give us the grace to return to you
and listen to your life-giving word.
We adore and praise you,
now and forever.
Amen.
IV. INTERIORIZATION OF THE WORD: A Pastoral Tool for the CONTEMPLATIO
The following is the bread of the living Word that will nourish us throughout the day. Please memorize it.
“But they obeyed not, nor did they pay heed.” (Jer 7:26)
V. TOWARDS LIFE TRANSFORMATION: A Pastoral Tool for the ACTIO
At the Sunday and weekday Mass, pay particular attention to the word of God proclaimed and prayed in the liturgy. Let it positively shape your daily life.
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March 8, 2013: FRIDAY – LENTEN WEEKDAY (3)
“JESUS SAVIOR: He Calls Us to Return to the Lord”
BIBLE READINGS
Hos 14:2-10 // Mt 12:28-34
I. BIBLICO-LITURGICAL REFLECTIONS: A Pastoral Tool for the LECTIO
Today’s Old Testament reading is a very beautiful passage composed of two parts: the plea to Israel to return to the Lord and God’s promise of new life for Israel. In the first part, the prophet Hosea exhorts the people to be converted and suggests a prayer of repentance to be presented to the Lord: “Forgive all our sins and accept our prayer, and we will praise you as we have promised.” The people resolve to reject idols and no longer to put confidence in political maneuvers and military alliances. In turn God declares his compassionate mercy for the repentant people. He will heal their infidelity and will let Israel flourish in beauty and plenty. He will bring his people back to him and love them with all his heart. He will answer their prayers and take care of them. Like an evergreen tree, God will shelter them and make them fruitful. Those who follow the divine ways will live, but the sinners will stumble and fall.
Like Hosea, and even more than him, Jesus Christ calls people to conversion and to experience the wonderful effect of divine forgiveness and grace. The conversion of the Italian actress Claudia Koll gives an insight into this (cf. ALIVE! February 2012, p. 16).
CLAUDIA KOLL: Born in Rome in May 1965, Koll was brought up a Catholic, but when she left home to become an actress she also left the Church, she said, doing as she pleased, in a spirit of rebellion. Her lifestyle and career in the movies, including a number of porn roles, left her psychologically vulnerable.
Then, one day in 2000, during a session of vaguely Buddhist meditation, she suddenly found herself overcome by a terrifying sense of being in the presence of evil. She began to recite the Our Father and felt the threat recede. It was the beginning of her conversion.
Having returned to faith, she went on to found an association, “The Works of the Father”, that is dedicated to missionary and caring work in Africa. She also heads the Academy of Arts that was founded on the principles set out in John Paul II’s Letter to Artists. Her aim here is to help young people live in the world of fame and glamour in a healthy Christian way. Since her conversion she has traveled all over Italy giving her testimony and inviting young people to return to prayer and to faith in God.
II. POINTS FOR THE EXAMINATION OF THE HEART: A Pastoral Tool for the MEDITATIO
How do we respond to God’s call to conversion offered to us in Jesus Christ?
III. PRAYING WITH THE WORD: A Pastoral Tool for the ORATIO
Loving Lord,
you call us back to you.
You love us with all your heart.
Forgive all our sins and accept our prayer.
Let our contrite hearts blossom with spring flowers
and let us rejoice in the shelter of your abiding protection.
We give you glory and praise,
now and forever.
Amen.
IV. INTERIORIZATION OF THE WORD: A Pastoral Tool for the CONTEMPLATIO
The following is the bread of the living Word that will nourish us throughout the week. Please memorize it.
“Return, O Israel, to the Lord, your God.” (Hos 14:2)
V. TOWARDS LIFE TRANSFORMATION: A Pastoral Tool for the ACTIO
Invite your friends and family members to participate in the Parish Rite of Reconciliation during the Lenten season.
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March 9, 2013: SATURDAY – LENTEN WEEKDAY (3); SAINT FRANCIS OF ROME, religious
“JESUS SAVIOR: In Him Is True Conversion”
BIBLE READINGS
Hos 6:1-6 // Lk 18:9-14
I. BIBLICO-LITURGICAL REFLECTIONS: A Pastoral Tool for the LECTIO
Today’s Old Testament reading contains some of the most evocative words of conversion in the Bible. Israel’s words, however, are false and deceptive. The beauty of their expression can not save their ugly and insincere heart. The people makes a discourse about returning to the Lord, trusting in his healing hand, trying to know his ways, and looking forward to the Lord who will surely come like the dawning day and the spring rain falling upon the earth. But the Lord is not impressed with their words. He sees through their hypocrisy and their failure to know him as a loving God. He chides them for their pretended conversion. Their love for God is as transitory as the morning mist that quickly disappears. The fidelity of Israel is as tenuous as the dew that disappears before the morning sun. Their purported conversion and their pious practices are therefore meaningless. The Lord God therefore tells them what he wants from them plainly and clearly: “I want your constant love, not your animal sacrifices. I would rather have my people know me than have them burn offerings for me.” Indeed, words and rituals have meaning and value only when they manifest the interior spirit of obedience and adoration before God.
In Jesus Savior is true conversion. His disciples are channels of conversion. Last February 22, God gave me an opportunity to see what true conversion means in the life of Papa Mike (Mike McGarvin), the founder of the Poverello House in Fresno. Sr. Francis Christine of the Holy Cross Center for Women in Fresno introduced me and my friends (Pat, Cecilia and Melissa) to Papa Mike, the founder of the Poverello House in Fresno. Witnessing the ministry of the Poverello House and the Holy Cross Center for Women to the poor and the marginalized was an intense spiritual experience. Listening to Papa Mike as he narrated his conversion was sheer grace. The following is a written account of his conversion (cf. Mike McGarvin, Papa Mike, Fresno: Poverello House, 2003, p. 119-120).
On June 8, 1994, my heart grieved while the angels sang anthems of praise. On that day, quietly, in the serene obscurity of a Franciscan hospice, Father Simon Scanlon departed from the fragile confinement of his earthly body and arrived in a better place. May he rest in peace.
Were it not for Father Simon, there would have been no Poverello House in Fresno, and I doubt that I would still be numbered among the living. Father Simon directed the Poverello in San Francisco’s Tenderloin. It was into his little storefront coffee house that I stumbled back in the late 1960s. I was a mess, to put it mildly. I was a raging, drug-abusing hippy who was full of hatred, especially toward myself.
For many years, I had been pursued by the Hound of Heaven, and He used a humble, loving Franciscan priest to finally free me. If there’s one word that best describes Father Simon, it is love: unconditional, unrelenting, penetrating. When I looked in a mirror back then, I saw a despicable failure. When Father Simon looked at me, he saw a child of God, hurt and confused by life’s turbulence. It was his acceptance, his warmth, and his glowing spirit that subtly began to turn me around. (…)
After spending so much time with Father Simon at the San Francisco Pov, it was second nature to give as he had given me. That’s how the Poverello House started in Fresno. In gratitude to Father Simon, I began, as best as I could, to imitate his actions, which were merely an outgrowth of his love-filled soul.
II. POINTS FOR THE EXAMINATION OF THE HEART: A Pastoral Tool for the MEDITATIO
What are my experiences of conversion? Have I been guilty of insincere or feigned conversion and of practicing empty rituals?
III. PRAYING WITH THE WORD: A Pastoral Tool for the ORATIO
O loving Jesus,
in you is God’s forgiveness and true conversion.
Teach us constant love and faithfulness.
Grant us a listening heart and an obedient spirit
that we may experience you
as the rising dawn and the dew from heaven.
You live and reign,
forever and ever.
Amen.
IV. INTERIORIZATION OF THE WORD: A Pastoral Tool for the CONTEMPLATIO
The following is the bread of the living Word that will nourish us throughout the day. Please memorize it.
“For it is love that I desire, not sacrifice.” (Hos 6:6)
V. TOWARDS LIFE TRANSFORMATION: A Pastoral Tool for the ACTIO
Be thankful for the grace of conversion. By your life-witnessing and concern for others, allow yourself to become God’s instrument of conversion for others.
***
Prepared by Sr. Mary Margaret Tapang PDDM
PIAE DISCIPULAE DIVINI MAGISTRI
SISTER DISCIPLES OF THE DIVINE MASTER
60 Sunset Ave., Staten Island, NY 10314
Tel. (718) 494-8597 // (718) 761-2323
Website: WWW.PDDM.US