SUNDAY, SECOND WEEK OF LENT

He was transfigured before their eyes and his clothes became dazzlingly white. (Mark 9:2-3)

Reflection.

"This is the remedy to fix my gaze on You, Incarnate Word, hanging on the Cross. As soon as You see a humble soul looking at You in this way, you are quickly moved to look at it, and the effect of Your divine glance is like that of a ray of sunshine on the earth; it warms it and prepares it to bring forth fruit. This is the way You act, O Divine Word, who by the light of Your glance, drain my soul of all its pride, and consume it in Your fire. No one acquires humility if he does not fix his gaze on You, O Word, on the Cross."

... St. Mary Magdalen dei Pazzi

Lenten Question.

Q: What about the use of holy water during Lent? Should the font be empty?

A: While the sacraments of initiation are more properly celebrated at Easter, in case of need both baptism and confirmation may be celebrated during Lent, especially on Sundays. The initiation sacraments are only prohibited during the first two days of the Triduum and discouraged during Holy Week.

Some parishes empty the baptismal font and holy water stoups during Lent to emphasize the anticipation of the Easter sacraments. Again, there is no liturgical requirement for this practice. Perhaps removing all water is an example of excessive literalism in the lenten liturgy, as though Jesus’ fast in the desert is the only lenten metaphor. Some lenten Scriptures do focus on water, for example, the Gospels of the Samaritan woman and the man born blind, the healing of Naaman the leper, the “rain and snow” passage from Isaiah 55, and the life-giving water streaming from the Temple in Ezekiel’s vision.

Rev. Paul J. Niemann

Lenten Fact.

During Bach's day, often the organ and choirs were silent during Lent.

Lenten Action.

Talk about today's scriptures with a friend after Mass.

Prayer.

Father of light, in you is found no shadow of change but only the fullness of life and limitless truth. Open our heart to the voice of Your Word, and free us from the original darkness that shadows our vision. Restore our sight that we may look upon your Son who calls us to repentance and a change of heart, for He lives and reigns with you forever and ever. Amen.

Source: Daily Meditations During Lent.

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MONDAY, SECOND WEEK OF LENT

"Be compassionate, as your Father is compassionate." (Luke 6:36)

Reflection.

LENT: A TIME FOR FORGIVENESS AND RECONCILIATION

By Jennifer Jordan

Lent is a time for forgiveness and reconciliation. An acquaintance of mine recently shared an experience that shows the beauty reconciliation can bring. Mrs. Winston's story begins with an automobile accident that nearly claimed the life of her 35-year-old son, Robert.

After seven weeks of daily visits to the hospital and many "life and death" complications, it looked as if Robert was going to survive. Despite the hardship, Mrs. Winston, a gentle, spiritual woman, was quick to be positive about her situation. She believed in the power of prayer and was confident God was healing her son. "The doctors, the nurses--they were the Lord's instruments, and they were good instruments," she said. "The people at the hospital were all as nice as they could be," she said. Then with hesitation, she added, "except for a problem I had with one nurse." She continued to explain the incident. Robert had been in the hospital a long time, and his mother was hoping he could leave to attend their family reunion. "Well, I asked this nurse about it, and she just blew up at me," she said. "The nurse called my request 'unreasonable,' and said there was 'no way' the doctors would approve it." Mrs. Winston, a soft-spoken woman in her 60s, was shocked and hurt by the woman's cold response. "I couldn't understand why she was so nasty," she said. Another nurse who witnessed the encounter added, "Ignore her, she's just temperamental."

When Mrs. Winston went home, she couldn't forget the incident. She returned to the hospital the next day and the same nurse was in her son's room. She called her aside and said to her, "I think a great deal of you and the other nurses here." She then went a step further. "I don't think I have ever done anything to hurt you or offend you. But, if I have, I apologize." She continued to tell the nurse that she didn't understand what provoked her angry tone. "I hugged her and told her how much we appreciated her work with Robert." "Well, she just melted," Mrs. Winston said in her soft southern voice. "It seems she was going through some hard times, and it hadn't been a good day." As I listened to her story, I thought about how others might respond to the rude nurse. Some might report the incident to the woman's supervisor; some might reply in the same tone the nurse used; and, some might vindictively walk away and wish the woman a flat tire on her way home. Then, there are rare souls--such as Mrs. Winston--people who inspire us to reach for the Christ within us and to treat others with love and compassion. I reflected on her wonderful example. She put aside her anger and pride and offered forgiveness. Christ invites each of us to reconcile with those who hurt or disappoint us. It is a call to forgive the stranger who cuts you off in traffic; the family member who has been a bit "too honest"; and, the ex-spouse who may continue to drive you crazy.

After Mrs. Winston left my home I wondered why this acquaintance had shared such a personal story. She had come to my home on business --to repair my washing machine. Then, as I reflected on it, I knew why our paths had crossed. She was bringing a wonderful example of how to deal with hurt in our lives. This Lent, take the big step. Surrender any "eye for an eye" notions and pray for help in learning to love and forgive the way our Lord taught us.

Lenten Question.

Q: Is the custom of giving up something for Lent mandatory?

A: No. However, it is a salutary custom, and parents or caretakers may choose to require it of their children to encourage their spiritual training, which is their prime responsibility in the raising of their children.

Lenten Action.

Wear a cross or other religious article; you will be surprised how many times this will start a conversation about your faith.

Prayer.

Father of light, in you is found no shadow of change but only the fullness of life and limitless truth. Open our heart to the voice of Your Word and free us from the original darkness that shadows our vision. Restore our sight that we may look upon your Son who calls us to repentance and a change of heart, for he lives and reigns with you forever and ever. Amen.

Source: Daily Meditations During Lent.

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TUESDAY, SECOND WEEK OF LENT

Come now, let us set things right, says the Lord. (Isaiah 1:18)

Reflection.

If most problems come from unforgiveness, we can understand why Jesus emphasizes forgiveness to an extreme degree. When Peter suggested to Jesus that we should forgive seven times, he was correct. (Mt 18:21) Seven in the Bible stands for an indefinite number of times, so Peter was saying we should forgive indefinitely. This is the correct answer but not the correct emphasis. Jesus proclaims we should forgive "seventy times seven," indefinitely times indefinitely. (Mt 18:22) Jesus further emphasizes forgiveness by saying God's kingdom is a matter of forgiveness and those who do not forgive are handed over to torturers. (Mt 18:23, 34)

And when the disciples asked Him to teach them how to pray, Jesus told them to pray they be forgiven as they forgive. (Mt 6:12) This means prayer will hurt rather than help us if we do not forgive. This is the only point in the Lord's Prayer on which Jesus commented. He reiterated: "If you forgive the faults of others, your heavenly Father will forgive you yours. If you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive you." (Mt 6:14-15) Jesus insists on forgiveness. We must pass on the forgiveness He has given us by the shedding of His blood on Calvary.

By Rev. Al Lauer

Lenten Question.

Q: Are acts of repentance appropriate on other days during Lent?

A: Yes. Thus the states: "All Fridays through the year and he time of Lent are penitential days and time throughout the universal Church" (CIC 1250).

Lenten Action.

Forgive someone who has wronged you; Ask for forgiveness from someone you wronged.

Prayer.

Forgive my sins against the unity of your family; make me love as you loved me. Amen.

Source: Daily Meditations During Lent.

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WEDNESDAY, SECOND WEEK OF LENT

"Anyone among you who aspires to greatness must serve the rest." (Matthew 20:27)

Reflection.

Deny oneself

Carry one's cross

To follow Jesus Christ

If you are ashamed of the Cross of Jesus Christ he will be ashamed of you before his Father

Love the Cross

Desire:

crosses

contempt

pain

abuse

insults

disgrace

persecution

humiliations

calumnies

illness

injuries

May Jesus prevail

May his Cross prevail

Divine love

Humility

Submission

Patience

Obedience:

complete

prompt

joyful

blind

persevering

.....St. Louis de Montfort

Lenten Question.

Q: Is the balance of fasting the same for all people?

A: No. For example, with the good of food, people who are by nature physically larger need more food than people who are physically smaller. Similarly, people who have higher metabolisms or who do manual labor for a living need more food than people with slower metabolisms or who have less active lifestyles. The same is true with regard to other goods than food. St. Paul speaks of this in regard to the good of married life: "I wish that all were as I myself am. But each has his own special gift from God, one of one kind and one of another. To the unmarried and the widows I say that it is well for them to remain single as I do. But if they cannot exercise self-control, they should marry. For it is better to marry than to be aflame with passion" (1 Corinthians 7:7-9). Thus some are given the gift of being able to live without the good of married life in order that they may pursue greater devotion to God (1 Cor. 7:32-34) or to pursue greater ministry for others (2 Timothy 2:3-4), as with priests, monks, and nuns. God gives these people special graces to live the life, which they have embraced, just as he gives special graces to the married to live the life they have embraced.

Lenten Action.

Read for 10 minutes from Scripture or an inspirational book.

Prayer.

Lord, watch over Your Church, and guide it with Your unfailing love. Protect us from what could harm us and lead us to what will save us. Help us always, for without You we are bound to fail. Amen.

Source: Daily Meditations During Lent.

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THURSDAY, SECOND WEEK OF LENT

"At his gate lay a beggar named Lazarus." (Luke 16:20)

Reflection.

Lent is a time for each of us to increase our knowledge of the "faith that is in us" in order that we can fulfill our vocation as Christians to extend this rich blessing of faith to others. We accomplish personal renewal and revitalization of our faith through penance, prayer and instruction.

Lenten Question.

Q: On what basis does the Church have the authority to establish days of fast and abstinence?

A: On the authority of Jesus Christ. Jesus told the leaders of his Church, "Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven" (Matthew 16:19, 18:18). The language of binding and loosing was a rabbinic way of referring to the ability to establish binding or rules of conduct for the faith community. It is thus especially appropriate that the references to binding and loosing occur in Matthew, the "Jewish Gospel."

Thus the states: "BINDING AND LOOSING (Hebrew, ...Rabbinical term for 'forbidding and permitting.' ..."The power of binding and loosing as always claimed by the Pharisees. Under Queen Alexandra the Pharisees, says Josephus (1:5:2), 'became the administrators of all public affairs so as to be empowered to banish and readmit whom they pleased, as well as to loose and to bind.' . . . The various schools had the power 'to bind and to loose'; that is, to forbid and to permit; and they could also bind any day by declaring it a fast-day. This power and authority, vested in the rabbinical body of each age of the Sanhedrin, received its ratification and final sanction from the celestial court of justice (9; 23b). "In this sense Jesus, when appointing his disciples to be his successors, used the familiar formula (Matt. 16:19, 18:18). By these words he virtually invested them with the same authority as that which he found belonging to the scribes and Pharisees who 'bind heavy burdens and lay them on men's shoulders, but will not move them with one of their fingers'; that is 'loose them,' as they have the power to do (Matt. 23:2-4). In the same sense the second epistle of Clement to James II ('Clementine Homilies,' Introduction [A.D. 221]), Peter is represented as having appointed Clement as his successor, saying: 'I communicate to him the power of binding and loosing so that, with respect to everything which he shall ordain in the earth, it shall be decreed in the heavens; for he shall bind what ought to be bound and loose what ought to be loosed as knowing the rule of the Church.'" ( 3:215). Thus Jesus invested the leaders of this Church with the power of making for the Christian community. This includes the setting of fast days (like Ash Wednesday). To approach the issue from another angle, every family has the authority to establish particular family devotions for its members. Thus if the parents decide that the family will engage in a particular devotion at a particular time (say, Bible reading after supper), it is a sin for the children to disobey and skip the devotion for no good reason. In the same way, the Church as the family of God has the authority to establish its own family devotion, and it is a sin for the members of the Church to disobey and skip the devotions for no good reason (though of course if the person has a good reason, the Church dispenses him immediately).

Lenten Action.

Pray for RCIA Catechumens and Candidates.

Prayer.

O Jesus, Divine Strength, I come to You to seek support for my weakness, and infirmity.

Source: Daily Meditations During Lent.

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FRIDAY, SECOND WEEK OF LENT

The Fridays of Lent are days of abstinence from meat.

Israel loved Joseph best of all his sons, for he was the child of his old age. (Genesis 37:3)

Reflection.

O Divine Word, You humbled Yourself even unto death and willed to be treated as the least of men by sinners, by demons, and even by the Holy Spirit and by Your Eternal Father. You did all this to glorify your Father, to make reparation for the offenses committed against Him by pride, to confound and destroy our arrogance and to teach us to detest vanity and to love humility. Oh! How truly can we see that pride dishonors God and is very displeasing to Him, since it is necessary for you, the Son of God, to be so humiliated in order to atone for such dishonor!

We can truly say also that vanity is a monstrous thing since in order to destroy it, You were willing to be reduced to such humiliation! Oh! How firmly must we believe that in the eyes of God humility is an infinitely precious treasure and a jewel most pleasing to Him, since You, His divine Son, willed to be so humiliated to make us love this virtue, and to urge us to imitate You in the practice of it, and thus merit the grace to perform its works.'

-- St. John Eudes.

Lenten Question.

Q: What kinds of decorations are appropriate for Lent?

A: Liturgy often suffers from historicizing, that is, re-enacting, mo­ments of the life of Christ. Lent has often been interpreted as the “last forty days of Christ’s life.”

Another problem is the tendency to project the mystery of the liturgy into external signs only. In other words, we focus our attention on the decoration of the building instead of on the renovation of our hearts. As the traditional practice of fasting has all but disappeared, we have turned to elaborate displays: cactus gardens, sackcloth and ashes, rough-hewn crosses complete with nails and crown of thorns. The liturgy calls for none of these.

Lent may be the ideal time to strip the church building of unneces­sary accessories and clutter. The essential furnishings for Christian worship—font, table, and cross—may then appear more clearly and may need only the most discreet adornment.

Other symbols such as those mentioned above are more fitting for home, meeting room, or classroom than for the sanctuary.

Rev. Paul J. Niemann

Lenten Action.

Give thanks to God for what you received.

Prayer.

Merciful Father, may our acts of penance bring us your forgiveness, open our hearts to your love, and prepare us for the coming feast of Your resurrection. Amen.

Source: Daily Meditations During Lent.

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SATURDAY, SECOND WEEK OF LENT

"Let us eat and celebrate because this son of mine was dead and has come back to life." (Luke 15:23-24)

Reflection.

St. Bonaventure once said that the day you no longer burn with love and concern for souls, many others will die of the cold. Where can we go to increase our love? To whom can we turn to find help? I am convinced that the Holy Spirit has raised up hopes in this century to focus our attention and to concentrate our devotion upon the Holy Family. Because in the Holy Family, we are going to find the source of strength. We are going to find the encouragement we need when we have distressful losses on all sides.

The Holy Family is the place where we go when we feel like weak nobodies, incapable of withstanding the onslaught of the enemies of the Church, because Christ has raised up the Holy Family as the model of the Christian home, to be sure, but as the nucleus of the New Covenant Church-family of God showing that through detachment, through renunciation, through poverty, through mortification, through trials and sufferings, the war will be won. The Savior will be born and salvation will spill out in all directions and cover the earth.

-- Scott Hahn

Lenten Question.

Q: What is the significance of forty days?

A: Forty is a biblical number signifying "enough" or "ample." Forty days is another way of saying "long enough" or "enough time." The various biblical stories involving forty days all include some significant change or development in the life of the person or commu­nity: the forty days of Noah's flood (Gen 7:12), Moses on Mount Sinai for forty days until the giving of the Law (Ex 24:18), Elijah's forty-day walk through the desert to Mount Horeb (1 Kings 19:8), and Jonah's forty-day warning to the people of Nineveh (Jon 3:4). The forty-year wandering of the Israelites in the desert allowed enough time to pass for an entire generation of people to come and go; hence, a new people was born from this experience.

St. Gregory the Great (ca. 540–604) considered the six weeks of lenten weekdays, thirty-six days, as a 10-percent tithe of the year. The forty-day fast of Christ between his baptism and public ministry (Mt 4:2, Mk 1:13, Lk 4:2) is most likely the inspiration for the forty days of Lent.

Q: Is there a rite for “burying the alleluia”?

A: In some places the word "alleluia" was written on a scroll or tablet and solemnly carried out of the church on the day before Ash Wednesday. The scroll was buried or at least hidden throughout Lent, then carried into church during the Easter Vigil. A local devotional custom, it was never taken into the official liturgy.

Rev. Paul J. Niemann

Prayer.

Forgive my sins against the unity of your family; make me love as you loved me. Amen.

Source: Daily Meditations During Lent.