Readings here

Jesus said to his disciples:”Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find;knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. Which one of you would hand his son a stone when he asked for a loaf of bread,or a snake when he asked for a fish? If you then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good things to those who ask him.( Matthew 7, 7-12)

Our readings in the 1st week of Lent, most from the Gospel of Matthew, are devoted to prayer. Today’s reading faces the question– Does God answer prayer? For some, God–if there is one–doesn’t pay attention to us at all. We’re on our own. No one’s listening and no one cares.

Jesus knew his Father listens and cares. He asked for things in prayer and teaches us to pray as he did. In the Garden of Gethsemane he asked over and over that his life be spared. “Father, let this cup pass from me.” As he knocked the door opened, the answer came, yet not as he willed, but as God willed.  “An angel came to strengthen him.” He went on to do God’s will. He suffered and died, and rose from the dead.

In our 1st reading from the Book of Esther, Esther and her servants “ lay prostrate on the ground, from morning until evening” praying for deliverance from their enemies. Their prayer is similar to Jesus’ prayer in the garden. They’re filled with fear, without resources, humbled, but they get what they ask, and more than they ask– an immediate, surprising victory over their enemies.  

From Jesus and Esther, we learn that God hears prayers and is never deaf to them. God’s answer is more than we ask–but according to his will. He gave his only Son the gift of new life after he passed through a trial of suffering and death. God’s answer to Esther was more immediate.

From Jesus and Esther we learn too that humility leads to prayer. Both are stretched out on the ground, humble before God, and their humility leads them to cry out to the One who hears them.

Our prayers are answered in different ways, but there’s always answer and the answer comes from love.

St. Paul of the Cross recognized the mystery surrounding petitionary prayer. In a letter he responds to someone who remarks that God’s playing games; we’re not sure of the outcome. Our faith is tested when we pray for things.

“I thank the Father of Mercies that you are improved in health, and you say well that the Lord seems to be playing games. That’s what Scripture says: ‘God plays on the earth,’ and ‘My delights are to be with the children of men.’  How fortunate is the soul that silently in faith allows the games of love the Sovereign Good plays and abandons itself to his good pleasure, whether in health or sickness, in life or in death!”

(Letter 920)

Lord,

I ask, I seek, I knock.

Hear my prayer 

and let it be done

according to your will. Amen

We think of lent in personal terms. It’s my time to turn to God, to repent. But is lent a time for the whole world, like Nineveh, to repent? That’s what St. Clement of Rome, an early pope hopes for. Can we hope for it too?

Lord, help our world turn to you!

 ” If we review the various ages of history, we will see that in every generation the Lord has offered the opportunity of repentance to any who were willing to turn to him. When Noah preached God’s message of repentance, all who listened to him were saved. Jonah told the Ninevites they were going to be destroyed, but when they repented, their prayers gained God’s forgiveness for their sins, and they were saved, even though they were not of God’s people.

  Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the ministers of God’s grace have spoken of repentance; indeed, the Master of the whole universe himself spoke of repentance with an oath: As I live,says the Lord, I do not wish the death of the sinner but his repentance. He added this evidence of his goodness: House of Israel, repent of your wickedness. Tell the sons of my people: If their sins should reach from earth to heaven, if they are brighter than scarlet and blacker than sackcloth, you need only turn to me with your whole heart and say, “Father,” and I will listen to you as a holy people.

  In other words, God wanted all his beloved ones to have the opportunity to repent and he confirmed this desire by his own almighty will. That is why we should obey his sovereign and glorious will and prayerfully entreat his mercy and kindness. We should be suppliant before him and turn to his compassion, rejecting empty works and quarrelling and jealousy which only lead to death.

  Brothers and sisters,, we should be humble in mind, putting aside all arrogance, pride and foolish anger. Rather, we should act in accordance with the Scriptures, as the Holy Spirit says: The wise man must not glory in his wisdom nor the strong man in his strength nor the rich man in his riches. Rather, let him who glories glory in the Lord by seeking him and doing what is right and just. Recall especially what the Lord Jesus said when he taught gentleness and forbearance. Be merciful,he said, so that you may have mercy shown to you. Forgive, so that you may be forgiven. As you treat others, so you will be treated. As you give, so you will receive. As you judge, so you will be judged. As you are kind to others, so you will be treated kindly. The measure of your giving will be the measure of your receiving.

The highest good is prayer and conversation with God, because we are in God’s company and in union with him. When light enters our bodily eyes our eyesight is sharpened. When a soul is intent on God, God’s inextinguishable light shines into it and makes it bright and clear. I am talking, of course, of prayer that comes from the heart and not from routine: not the prayer that is assigned to particular days or particular moments in time, but the prayer that happens continuously by day and by night.

  Indeed the soul should not only turn to God at times of explicit prayer. Whatever we are engaged in, whether it is care for the poor, or some other duty, or some act of generosity, we should remember God and long for God. The love of God will be as salt is to food, making our actions into a perfect dish to set before the Lord of all things.

 Prayer is the light of the soul, true knowledge of God, a mediator between God and men. Prayer lifts the soul into the heavens where it hugs God in an indescribable embrace. The soul seeks the milk of God like a baby crying for the breast. It fulfils its own vows and receives in exchange gifts better than anything that can be seen or imagined.

  Prayer is a go-between linking us to God. It gives joy to the soul and calms its emotions. I warn you, though: do not imagine that prayer is simply words. Prayer is the desire for God, an indescribable devotion, not given by man but brought about by God’s grace. As St Paul says: though we cannot choose words in order to pray properly, the Spirit himself intercedes for us in a way that could never be put into words.

  If God gives to someone the gift of such prayer, it is a gift of imperishable riches, a heavenly food that satisfies the spirit. Whoever tastes that food catches fire and his soul burns for ever with desire for the Lord.

Pseudo-Chrysostom,,,

The scripture readings at daily Mass during Lent are arranged differently than they are for the most of the year. For most of the year the readings are consecutive. There is no attempt to harmonize the first readings and the gospel readings.  

In Lent the first reading and the gospel complement each other. Our first reading today from Isaiah is a commentary on Matthew’s gospel where Jesus teaches his disciples the Our Father. (Matthew 5: 14-17) In this 1st week of Lent our readings contain Jesus teaching on prayer.

Isaiah adds an interesting dimension to Jesus’ teaching on prayer.

Thus says the LORD: Just as from the heavens the rain and snow come down and do not return there till they have watered the earth, making it fertile and fruitful, giving seed to the one who sows and bread to the one who eats, so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth;

It shall not return to me void, but shall do my will, achieving the end for which I sent it. (Isaiah 55:10-11)

Isaiah says that God’s word comes from the heavens like rain and snow, watering the earth, making it fruitful, giving seed to the sower and bread to the one who eats. “It shall not return to me void, but shall do my will, achieving the end for which I sent it.”

Prayer is a gift from God in  heaven, whom Jesus tells us to pray to. God wishes to speak to us, to communicate with us, to share divine life with us his children, as “our Father.”  The gift is like rain and snow, mysteriously given,, yet in some way sure to come and effective. Prayer begins, not with us, but with God desiring friendship with us. 

It’s a gift that, like rain and snow, falls upon the whole earth. It falls on all people, on the publican who wonders if he belongs in the temple at all, on Queen Esther, the fallen-away Jewess whom we remember in Thursday’s reading this week, or the people of Nineveh who we remember on Wednesday. It falls on the just and the unjust. Prayer is a gift given to all.

Lent is a time for renewing our intimacy with God in prayer. It’s an intimacy drawing us to be like him. It’s a seed we’re given to cultivate, a valuable gift of God, our Father in heaven. Let’s care for it:

Our Father who art in heaven. ,hallowed be thy name, thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven .Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

“What prayer could be more a prayer in the spirit than the one given us by Christ, by whom the Holy Spirit was sent upon us? What prayer could be more a prayer in the truth than the one spoken by the lips of the Son, who is truth himself? It follows that to pray in any other way than the Son has taught us is not only the result of ignorance but of sin. He himself has commanded it, and has said: You reject the command of God, to set up your own tradition. 

 So, my brothers and sisters, , let us pray as God our master has taught us. To ask the Father in words his Son has given us, to let him hear the prayer of Christ ringing in his ears, is to make our prayer one of friendship, a family prayer. Let the Father recognise the words of his Son. Let the Son who lives in our hearts be also on our lips. We have him as an advocate for sinners before the Father; when we ask forgiveness for our sins, let us use the words given by our advocate. He tells us: Whatever you ask the Father in my name, he will give you. What more effective prayer could we then make in the name of Christ than in the words of his own prayer?” St. Cyprian, On the Lord’s Prayer

Reaadings: http://www.usccb.org

More: http://www.PassionistsPray.org

“’Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you?  When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you?’…Amen I say to you as long as you did it for one of the least, you did it for me.” Matthew 25, 31-46 Readings

Jesus was tempted to be a messiah of another kind, a messiah marked by ” power, success, and dominion and not by the total gift on the Cross, not by the messianism of gift and selfless love.” (Benedict XVI)

You don’t need to be hungry, thirsty, or sick; you don’t have to die. You can be above all that, Satan said to him. You can have all the kingdoms of this world. You can be a privileged religious leader who tells God what to do. One who receives instead of gives.

“Away with you, Satan,” Jesus says and he leaves the Jordan Valley. He goes, not to Jerusalem, center of religious and political power, but fo Galilee to give to those who “live in darkness and the shadow of death.”, to those described in today’s gospel as “the least:” the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, the stranger, the sick, the prisoner. Jesus identifies with them.

“You shall love your neighbor as youself,” Moses teaches in today’s first reading. We must follow him. How? The readings this week tell us–by prayer.  “When did we see you?…” they say. Prayer helps us to see. Remember how much prayer was a part of Mother Teresa’s ministry to the poor. She saw in “the least” “Christ in disguise.” She saw because she was a woman of prayer which gave her eyes to see. Duk Soon Fwang in her painting of the saint befow has tears from her eyes giving life to an abandoned child.

There’s a grace in this season for seeing the least this way. Let’s ask for it

Lord Jesus Christ, may I see you in my neighbor, especially those “in disguise.” those in need who may seem unlike you.

May I love you in my neighbors, and find you in the least of them. Amen.

I ask myself who gave me the gift of life? I breathe, I know things, above all I know God and can hope for the kingdom of heaven and the sight of glory, however darkly as in a mirror I see it now.

I’m a child of God, one with Christ. Where did I get this; who gave it to me? I look at the world around me. Who gave me eyes to see the beauty of the sky, the sunlit universe,  the countless stars, the harmony of living things?

I feel the rain nourishing the earth bringing food to us all. I have family, friends. Who gave them to me? Can I see how generous God is to me and not be generous to all creation? How can I misuse the gifts I have been given?

God sends down rain on the just and the unjust. The sun rises on all creation. Birds have the air; fish have water. God gives abundantly. How can I say it’s only mine that’s meant for all?

Adapted from a reading from St. Gregory Nazienzen

For Today’s readings; http://www.usccb.org

For more: http://www.passionistspray.org

For this week’s homily please watch the video below.

Our pilgrimage on earth cannot be exempt from trial. We progress by means of trial. No one knows himself except through trial, or receives a crown except after victory, or strives except against an enemy or temptations.

But we are not left on our own. Christ chose to foreshadow us, who are his body, by means of his body, in which he has died, risen and ascended into heaven, so that the members of his body may hope to follow where their head has gone before.

  He made us one with him when he chose to be tempted by Satan. We have heard in the gospel how the Lord Jesus Christ was tempted by the devil in the wilderness. Certainly Christ was tempted by the devil. In Christ you were tempted, for Christ received his flesh from your nature, but by his own power gained salvation for you; he suffered death in your nature, but by his own power gained glory for you; therefore, he suffered temptation in your nature, but by his own power gained victory for you.

  If in Christ we have been tempted, in him we overcome the devil. Do you think only of Christ’s temptations and fail to think of his victory? See yourself as tempted in him, and see yourself as victorious in him. He could have kept the devil from himself; but if he were not tempted he could not teach you how to triumph over temptation.”

Commentary on Psalm 60, St. Augustine