The keys to the Kingdom of Heaven, given for our salvation. If you are new to mental prayer, we invite you to visit our page on the ways of mental prayer, Don’t know how to pray to God, to learn more.
We begin Day 7 of our Lenten Challenge with this opening prayer:
TRUST AND BELIEVE...
Jesus,
I believe you want to give me the grace to go deeper in prayer this Lent. Help me to be present to you in these next 15 minutes with my heart fully open and willing to receive that grace. Please help me 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, help me humbly obey and truly love the leaders of our Church. Help me understand the true meaning of the words: “I will place the key of the House of David on his shoulder; what he opens, no one will shut, what he shuts, no one will open” (Isaiah 22:22).
Jesus, I recognize that in your mercy and divine providence, you have given the keys to Peter and all who have come after him. You’ve done this because you are a God of order and not chaos. It is your will that we are as one in your Church.
Lord, I am sorry for the times I have erred in judgment and doubted your providence. It made me fall into confusion and made me despair and lose my faith.
You have promised us that by your grace and the ministry of the Church my past sins can be forgiven if I confess them and turn away from all that leads me to sin. I thank you for this mercy and great gift of hope for my soul. It takes away the heavy burden of my sins.
Thank you, Jesus, for your Church. You tell us that unless we have a heart like a child we cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven. Help me be trusting like a child and lean on You and the authority of the Church for all my spiritual needs.
AMEN.
Thursday of the 1st Week of Lent (Liturgical Year II)
The Keys to the Kingdom of Heaven,
Given for our Salvation
A Reflection for Prayerful Meditation
Join me in a prayerful meditation for your Lenten journey on the gift of our Church.
The Keys to the Kingdom of Heaven Given for Our Salvation
Prayer to the Holy Spirit
TRUST AND BELIEVE...
Holy Spirit,
I believe you are truly here and present to me right now. I desire to be present to you. Guide my heart and mind and show me the truths of the Catholic faith and how I might live in the fullness of the truth with humility and charity.
Holy Spirit, I recognize how disobedience to the Church causes despair, confusion, fear and restlessness. Please help all those how have confusion and doubt about the Church by giving them the gifts of wisdom, knowledge, and understanding so that your Church can be strong and full of vibrant faithful members.
Breath 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 Calvary as a member of His Church.
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. Slowly imagine this scene in your mind as you read. Take your time. Pause over a moment that really tugs at your heart. Reread the passage again, this time imagine yourself physically there in the scene. What do you hear? See? Feel? Sense?
The Keys to the Kingdom of Heaven
For You are At My Side
Psalms 23:1-6
The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
In verdant pastures he gives me repose;
beside restful waters he leads me;
he refreshes my soul.
Even though I walk in the dark valley
I fear no evil; for you are at my side
with your rod and your staff
that give me courage.
You spread the table before me
in the sight of my foes;
You anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
Only goodness and kindness follow me
all the days of my life;
and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD
for years to come.
Reflection:
Let us take a moment to reflect on the message in the first reading.
Were you able to visualize the totality of God’s presence throughout the earth? Was there a word or phrase that stuck out to you?
What came to mind when you read the final sentence: “Only goodness and kindness follow me all the days of my life; and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD for years to come.”
Now let’s personalize this passage from our first reading…
In the passage above, did you imagine the house of the LORD as your church, and the community of people God has put into your life?
Let’s Pray:
Jesus, help me love and serve all those who dwell with me in the house of the LORD for years to come. AMEN.
Be Completely Real...
Let the Holy Spirit guide your mind to recall with gratitude the ways you have experienced goodness and kindness through the ministry of the Church. Thank the LORD for each memory and ask him to bless each person that comes to mind.
Visualize Christ...
Now we will contemplate the Lord by listening to him speak to us in the Gospels. Imagine yourself in 1st Century Caesarea Philippi, a prominent, pagan-influenced Roman city that is about 25 miles north of the Sea of Galilee. You are at the base of Mount Hermon near lush deep springs and water-filled cave that feed into a tributary that flows into the Jordan river. Your eyes take in the scenic area, including a huge, thriving Hellenistic temple before you. Before you is a grotto to honor the pagan god Pan, filled with cult followers believing this spot to be a direct entrance to the underworld, the “gates of hades”. You don’t understand why Jesus has taken you and the other disciples to such a place.
Your eyes see hundreds of cult worshippers trying to appease their false gods in order to be prosperous in life. They have no real faith, no real protection, and no real love toward these false gods. This saddens you. These people are steeped in belief that pleasures are the ultimate goal and their practices promote sensual immorality in all areas of life.
Why has Jesus traveled so far north of Galilee and brought you here? What is he trying to teach you in such a place? You listen to Jesus as he turns to you and the other disciples to speak….
The Keys to the Kingdom of Heaven
Who Do You Say that I Am?
Matthew 16:13-19
Jesus went into the region of Caesarea Philippi and he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”
They replied, “Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”
Simon Peter said in reply, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
Jesus said to him in reply, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father. And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”
Reflection:
Let us meditate on Simon Peter’s answer to Jesus’ question: “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
Who do you say that Jesus is? Think for a moment, what is coming to your mind? “The Messiah?”, “The Holy One of God?”, “The Son of the living God?”, “High Priest?”
Take a few moments and contemplate the gravity of these titles.
If Jesus is in fact the High Priest, the Son of the living God, how do you worship him? Is anything holding you back?
Now listen to the second part of Jesus’ words: “You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven…”
The power to bind and loose were given to Peter and the apostles, the Church’s first bishops. To this day the Church’s bishops can trace their succession back to Peter, and they hold the power to exorcise demons from people; it is only under their authority that an exorcist is appointed to fill that role in a diocese.
Let us pray:
Heavenly Father, I acknowledge that your nature is unchanging. You are the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. I assent to the divine revelation that all things in the Old Covenant point to the New Covenant. I believe your Davidic kingdom prefigures the eternal kingdom of God through Jesus Christ, for whom the authority of your palace administration is given to the Vicar of Christ of the See of Peter. I promise to pray for the pope and to obey the Magisterium in gratitude for this gift of love. AMEN.
Reflection:
Take a moment to ask Jesus questions from your heart about the Church. Do you have doubts? What confuses you? Be honest with Jesus and tell him your fears.
Give the Holy Spirit time to respond.
Has he shown you something? You may want to write it down.
Let us continue our mental prayer with a meditation from Saint Cyprian of Carthage.
The Keys to the Kingdom of Heaven
There is but One Church and One Chair
By St. Cyprian of Carthage A.D. 251
“The Lord says to Peter: ‘I say to you,’ he says, ‘that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell will not overcome it. And to you I will give the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever things you bind on earth shall be bound also in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth, they shall be loosed also in heaven’ in Matthew 16:18–19.
On Peter Jesus builds the Church, and to him he gives the command to feed the sheep (John 21:17) and although he assigns a like power to all the apostles, yet he founded a single chair (cathedra), and he established by his own authority a source and an intrinsic reason for that unity.
Indeed, the others were also what Peter was as apostles, but a primacy is given to Peter, whereby it is made clear that there is but one Church and one chair.
So too, all the apostles are shepherds, and the flock is shown to be one, fed by all the apostles in single-minded accord.
If someone does not hold fast to this unity of Peter, can he imagine that he still holds the faith? If he should desert the chair of Peter upon whom the Church was built, can he still be confident that he is in the Church?
Are You Listening?
If Jesus promises Peter that the gates of hell will not prevail against his Church, then we must hold fast to the words of our Lord and believe with great faith in this eternal truth.
If we do not, then how do we still hold on to the faith?
Pray the next Lenten Meditation
Day 8 Mental Prayer Meditation
Jesus Help Me Turn Away from all My Sinful Habits
Have you lost your faith and turned away from God? In today’s reading we pray, “Jesus help me turn away from all my sinful habits.”