Thursday, March 12, 2015


Thursday of the Third Week
Reflection
We are a willful people, stubborn and contrary.  God calls us as beloved children and we turn away at the sound of God’s voice. The Lord sends prophets to guide us and we reject them.  In His great love and mercy, the Lord sends a savior, His son Jesus, who reveals Himself in miracles, astonishing and beyond our understanding.  Still we challenge and scorn the author of such wonders because our hearts have turned to stone.  We are complicit in our own waywardness, trapped in trivial pursuits, and bewitched by the pleasures of this temporal world.  Like children who put fingers in their ears to shut out an unwelcome command or request, we pretend we do not hear. We are possessed by demons of our making, unclean spirits that thrive on our selfishness and pride, and seek to keep us from our Divine Creator.

Lent is a time to return to faithfulness, a time to wear down our hearts of stone with prayer, repentance, and tears of thanksgiving.  Lent is a time to listen with heart and mind to the voice of God calling us to the Divine Presence, to the voice of Jesus inviting us to follow His example of love, and to the voices of our human family who cry out in need for mercy, compassion, and justice.  The Lord is kind and merciful, patient and loving, and ever ready to welcome us home if we but listen.

Prayer
Dear Lord, in Your great love and mercy You watch over us always, even when we have turned away from You.  In sorrow and humility, we pray that You open our hearts to Your goodness and grant us Your forgiveness.

Chris Clary, Director of Career Development


Scripture
First Reading: Jeremiah 7:23-28
Psalm 95:1-2, 6-9
Gospel: Luke 11:14-23

Daily Scripture readings can be found online at the USCCB website

 

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