Washed Clean by a Covenant of Love
Are you ready to spend some time with the Lord? If you are new to mental prayer, we invite you to visit our guide on how to pray to learn more.
We begin Week 1 of our Sunday Lenten Challenge with this opening prayer:
Trust And Believe
Lord,
I believe you want to give me the grace to go deeper in prayer this Lent. Help me to be present to you so that I’ll intimately pray these next 15 minutes with my heart fully open and willing to receive that grace. Please help me open my heart and pray with more intensity. I want to be able to visualize myself with you so I can feel your presence more intimately in my life this Lent. Lord, give me the grace I need as I strive to complete these 6 days of Sunday Lenten meditations. I am choosing to take up my cross and humbly follow you all the way to Calvary and I want to do it with my whole heart.
AMEN.
Washed Clean by a Covenant of Love
Let’s contemplate the promises of God this Lent. What does it mean to be washed clean by the Lord? To be faithful? Let’s meditate on these things in the presence of Christ and offer ourselves to Him in prayer.
Prayer to the Holy Spirit
Holy Spirit,
I believe you are truly here and present to me right now. I desire to be present to you.
Thank you for being so faithful to me, even in my darkest moments. Help me recognize your voice and give me the grace to obey it.
You are faithful to me even when I am not. Please do not let me take your covenant of love for granted. Do not let me forget the price Jesus has paid for my soul.
Every time I have sinned and repented I experience your faithful covenant. Thank you for always forgiving me. I am grateful to you for sustaining me through every trial in my life. Please give me fortitude and the willingness to obey you. I reject any unrighteous thoughts. I reject my unrighteous moods, and I thoroughly reject my disobedience to your divine will for my life.
Breathe on me as I spend these next 15 minutes fixated on today’s Mass readings. Holy Spirit, help me pray with humility, honesty, love and affection. I want to grow in virtue and holiness.
Thank you, Holy Spirit, for every consolation, desolation, time of silence, difficult trial, and temptation of the evil one. I understand that you love me and that everything in my life happens by God’s holy will, whether it be divine providence or God’s permissive will due to my sin and negligence.
Please humble me as I walk with Jesus toward Jerusalem. Help me prove my faithfulness and do so with great love in my heart.
AMEN.
Say Nothing Just Take Him In
Spend 1-3 minutes in silence gazing at the Lord with love and gratitude, in a prayer of silent contemplation.
Make a Movie in Your Mind
Now we will contemplate the first reading. Imagine yourself stepping down a massive wooden ramp. At the bottom you feel wet green grass squish brush the bare parts of your feet exposed by your sandals. The sun is bright, and their is still a drizzle but the great storm has finally ceased. You breathe in the air, rich with the scent of wet earth, fresh grass, and clean rain. All around you, a spectacular multitude of animals are moving about. You look over and see Noah nearby, gazing upward in awe….
A Promise to Noah
Genesis 9:8-15
God said to Noah and to his sons with him, “See, I am now establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you and with every living creature that was with you: all the birds, and the various tame and wild animals that were with you and came out of the ark. I will establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all bodily creatures be destroyed by the waters of a flood; there shall not be another flood to devastate the earth.”
God added, “This is the sign that I am giving for all ages to come, of the covenant between me and you and every living creature with you: I set my bow in the clouds to serve as a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth, and the bow appears in the clouds, I will recall the covenant I have made between me and you and all living beings, so that the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all mortal beings.”
Let us take a moment to reflect on the message in the first reading.
God has clearly shown us his faithfulness to his covenant with Noah through the image of the rainbow.
Can you recall a favorite memory involving a rainbow you’ve experienced? Have you ever seen a double rainbow?
Ponder what God means when he says, “This is a sign that I am giving for all ages to come, of the covenant between me and you and every living creature with you….”
The Lord is faithful even when we are not. Always. Without fail. He is faithful eternally. We are washed clean by his sacrifice for our sake.
Have you ever looked at a rainbow and said, “Thank you Eternal Father”? Do you thank the Eternal Father after you’ve received an absolution for your sins? Do you thank him when you are alone in prayer?
Take a moment to thank him for his faithfulness to you.
When God makes a promise we know we can trust in him.
Peter later looks back on this very flood and tells us what it was really pointing toward all along: “a few persons, eight in all, were saved through water. This prefigured baptism, which saves you now” (1 Peter 3:20-21). The waters that once judged the earth became, in God’s hands, the very sign of the washing that has made you His own.
Be Completely Real
What is God saying to your heart right now? Have you been doubting a promise of God? Have you been struggling lately in your faith?
Give the Holy Spirit time to respond.
Be honest with the Lord. Self-reflect on your faith and whether you completely trust in his promises.
Let us continue our mental prayer with today’s Gospel:
Visualize Christ
Imagine yourself following behind Jesus as he makes his way across the Jordan River toward the Judean wilderness beyond it. You see him journey the rugged area toward Mount Quarantania. Known as the Mount of Temptation, this arid limestone mountain area rises steeply over Jericho. It is a desolate, rocky landscape, a brutal terrain for anyone on foot with intense heat, no vegetation for shade, and steep mountainous ascent to the top.
As you watch Jesus enter into this place you decide it’s no longer safe or comfortable to follow him. You see him slowly ascend to the Mount of Temptation outside of society and wonder why he is choosing to go to such a desolate, lonely, and dangerous place full of wild beasts….
into the Desert to Pray
Mark 1:12-15
The Spirit drove Jesus out into the desert, and he remained in the desert for forty days, tempted by Satan.
He was among wild beasts, and the angels ministered to him.
After John had been arrested, Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God: “This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.”
Let us meditate on this first phrase: “The Spirit drove Jesus out into the desert, and he remained in the desert for forty days, tempted by Satan.”
Your life is meant to imitate Christ.
Let’s contemplate the phrase, “the Spirit drove Jesus out into the desert….”
It was by the will of God that Jesus went into the desert, to the barren place, to the solitude… to be tempted by the devil. He went to do battle against the weakness of the flesh.
Have you ever experienced a time of isolation? Did your isolation cause you to be tempted to despair? Did you turn to prayer to help you cope? How did you overcome the weakness of your flesh?
Now listen to the second part: “He was among wild beasts, and the angels ministered to him.”
Knowing that his only begotten Son would suffer in the desert, the Father, in his faithfulness, sent the angels to minister to Jesus and give him strength. Think for a moment about your time of isolation. How did God show his faithfulness to you during your time of suffering? If he did not take away your suffering for you, how did he minister to you in your difficult time?
Take a moment to ask Jesus questions from your heart. Give the Holy Spirit time to respond.
Wait on the Lord.
Ask him to reveal how he is faithful in your suffering and how you can be more faithful to him. Linger on it. Ponder how his faithful covenant of love sustains you in your most difficult moments in life.
Is there a burden on your heart today? Be honest with Jesus and tell him your fears. How can you show him you trust in him? Linger a moment and wait for his response. Has he shown you something? You may want to write it down.
Jesus, I need to be washed clean. You have called me out of darkness by your love and brought me to this place. The reality of what I chose is not in reality what I had expected. I acknowledge the truth of my situation and I am willing to face reality with your help. Please, Lord, help me walk with you in truth. Let me walk in reality, even if it is a harsh reality. Help me to keep praying in the midst of my disillusionment and give me the grace to see my situation from your viewpoint and not mine. Allow me to see your design. AMEN.
Are You Listening?
Do you easily give in to temptations? Do you find yourself despairing over a situation when God might be asking you to grow in fortitude?
Peter reminds us that Christ himself was “put to death in the flesh, but brought to life in the Spirit” (1 Peter 3:18) — the same battle between flesh and spirit Jesus faced in the desert, and the same one you’re facing today. Ask the Spirit to bring to life in you whatever still feels weak, or dead.
Think, for a moment, about how patient God has been with you specifically. He waited from the beginning of time for your life to even begin. He has waited through every year you didn’t know Him, every season you wandered, every time you came back only after trying everything else first. He is waiting for you even now, in this very prayer. You are washed clean — not because you earned it, but because He has never stopped drawing you back to Himself, every time you return to Him in prayer, every time you receive His Body and Blood.
Ask yourself honestly: have you been half as patient with yourself, or with God, as He has been with you?
Pray the next Lenten Meditation
The Second Sunday of Lent, Year B
Holy Spirit help me listen to Jesus, the Beloved Son
Second Sunday of Lent, Year B. On the mountain, we ask the Holy Spirit to help us truly listen to the Beloved Son.
2 Responses
Thank you so much for the beautiful reflections and meditations, which help me to dive deeper into the meaning of the Mass readings and assist my mental prayer. I am praying for you, Anonymous “C”, and I am deeply grateful for this website. Blessings always, Patricia
Thank you so much for your kind words and your prayers. I’m very grateful!