You are merciful to me, Lord. Do not let me be full of ignorance. I will learn your teachings. Give me the grace to grow in wisdom and knowledge about your ways. I love you Lord, and I’ll obey your laws because you are trustworthy. You are merciful to me and you forgive my transgressions. All your rules are just and you have given them to me because you love me and will for me to be blessed and to prosper. Please, Lord, let me walk in your ways. Help me grow my love for you. Make me a saint. AMEN.
Sunday of the 3rd Week of Lent (Liturgical Year B)
You are Merciful to Me; I Will Obey Your Laws
A Reflection for Prayerful Meditation
Join me in a prayerful reflection and meditation for your Lenten journey with Christ to Jerusalem.
You are Merciful to Me; I Will Obey Your Laws
Opening Prayer
Enter into the prayer of silence before the Lord
Lord Jesus Christ,
I believe you are truly here and present to me right now. I desire to be present to you. Guide my heart and mind toward obedience. Speak to me today and give me knowledge about how to walk in your ways. You are merciful to me, Lord let me be merciful to others. You have given me commands to live by. Lord help me obey your laws because they are right and you are trustworthy. All your precepts are good and they are given to me so that I will be blessed and prosper. Please, Lord, I need to walk in your ways.
Please send me your Spirit so that I can worship you with a pure heart and without distraction. Help me to separate myself from all worldly attachments and spend these 15 minutes reflecting on my need of renewal with my heart and mind completely fixated on you. Jesus, you are merciful to me. You know all my weaknesses and that I can’t elevate my heart or my mind without your help. Thank you for sending me your Spirit to pray my mental prayer well and to love you in a way that is pleasing to you. I want to grow to love you more perfectly and to obey your laws.
Thank you, Lord, for every consolation, desolation, time of silence, difficult trial, and temptation of the evil one. I understand that everything that happens in my life is by your holy will, whether it be your divine providence or your permissive will due to my sin and negligence. Please humble me as I walk with you toward Jerusalem. Help me obey your laws and do so with great love in my heart for you.
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.
Let us Begin
Now we will contemplate the Lord by listening to him speak to us in the Gospels. Today we return to the Temple and we recall the first time Jesus enters there to clear it of corruption. This is the start of Jesus’ earthly ministry, and we can sense his anger at all those who are profiting from the Temple but have hearts that are far from God….
You are Merciful to Me; I Will Obey Your Laws
In Three Days I will Raise it Up
John 2:13-25
Since the Passover of the Jews was near, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. He found in the temple area those who sold oxen, sheep, and doves, as well as the money changers seated there.
He made a whip out of cords and drove them all out of the temple area, with the sheep and oxen, and spilled the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables, and to those who sold doves he said, “Take these out of here, and stop making my Father’s house a marketplace.”
His disciples recalled the words of scripture, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”
At this the Jews answered and said to him, “What sign can you show us for doing this?”
Jesus answered and said to them, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.”
The Jews said, “This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and you will raise it up in three days?”
But he was speaking about the temple of his body. Therefore, when he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they came to believe the scripture and the word Jesus had spoken.
While he was in Jerusalem for the feast of Passover, many began to believe in his name when they saw the signs he was doing. But Jesus would not trust himself to them because he knew them all, and did not need anyone to testify about human nature.
He himself understood it well.
Reflection:
Let us meditate on what Jesus means when he says, “… and stop making my Father’s house a marketplace.”
As we read over this passage we see the anger Jesus felt for the moneychangers in the temple. They were transactional. They had turned the sabbath into another day of business; their hearts were far from loving God. They were making money off of religion for self-gain.
Have you ever been transactional? Do you look at things from a transactional perspective? Do you frequently count the cost, and weigh decisions based on what you may or may not gain from them?
Does this carry over into your spiritual life? Is Jesus revealing to you a lack of love for God while engaged in the things of God? Only God knows the heart of men. Let him probe your heart and give him a moment to speak to you.
Now listen to the second part of Jesus’ teaching, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.”
Ponder for a moment what the disciples said about this. They tell us that in the moment they were not sure what the Lord meant, but later, after his death and resurrection they understood clearly.
Jesus was referring to his own Body. His Body is a Temple.
Take a moment to ask Jesus questions from your heart. Ask him questions about his Body, and how you might receive it with love in holy Communion. Ask him, “Lord, am I transactional? Do I lack respect for your Body and Blood? Do I make myself a worthy dwelling place?” Linger a moment and wait for his response. Has he shown you something? You may want to write it down.
Let us continue our mental prayer with a prayerful meditation on Exodus 20.
You are Merciful to Me; I Will Obey Your Laws
To obey Your Laws
Exodus 20:1-17
In those days, God delivered all these commandments :
“I, the LORD, am your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery.
You shall not have other gods besides me.
You shall not carve idols for yourselves in the shape of anything in the sky above or on the earth below or in the waters beneath the earth; you shall not bow down before them or worship them. For I, the LORD, your God, am a jealous God, inflicting punishment for their fathers’ wickedness on the children of those who hate me, down to the third and fourth generation; but bestowing mercy down to the thousandth generation, on the children of those who love me and keep my commandments.
You shall not take the name of the LORD, your God, in vain. For the LORD will not leave unpunished him who takes his name in vain.
Remember to keep holy the sabbath day. Six days you may labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD, your God. No work may be done then either by you, or your son or daughter, or your male or female slave, or your beast, or by the alien who lives with you. In six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them; but on the seventh day he rested. That is why the LORD has blessed the sabbath day and made it holy.
Honor your father and your mother, that you may have a long life in the land which the LORD, your God, is giving you.
You shall not kill.
You shall not commit adultery.
You shall not steal.
You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male or female slave, nor his ox or ass, nor anything else that belongs to him.
Reflection:
Let us meditate on the laws of the Lord in light of the Gospel reading for today. We learned a little over a week ago in the meditation, Jesus is Asking you to Turn Away from all your Sinful Habits, that before we can present ourselves to the altar we must be reconciled with our brother. And today we learn that the Lord’s Body is the Temple.
Do you know what also becomes a temple?
In 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, St. Paul tells us our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit and we must glorify God in our body. Let us ponder what this means. To glorify God we must have a place where he is honored and worshipped, a place holy and sanctified. We know that in John 6 Jesus tells us that he is the Bread of Life, and that we must eat him to have life in us, so when we eat Christ in the Eucharist, we glorify God in our body and our bodies become a temple where God can dwell.
Ask the Lord right now, what is your body’s temple like? Is it a worthy dwelling place for his Body? Do you receive him with the stain of sin on your soul? Do you receive him even though you have not properly reconciled with your brother whom you have transgressed against?
Christ has come not only to “cleanse the Temple of Jerusalem,” but he came to cleanse both your body and soul through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and the sacrament of the Eucharist.
The Lord Jesus wants to communicate with you in your daily life.
Let us pray
Lord, You are merciful to me and I want you to teach me how to love you and desire to obey your laws so that when you communicate with me my body can be a worthy dwelling place for your Holy Spirit and I can worship you as you wish. Make my heart a sanctuary of rightly ordered love; take away from me any attachments that lead me toward love of money, or power, or people, or things that cause me to practice idolatry. I ask this in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. AMEN.
You are Merciful to Me; I Will Obey Your Laws
God's Law is Perfect and Right and True
Psalms 19:8-11
The law of the LORD is perfect,
refreshing the soul;
The decree of the LORD is trustworthy,
giving wisdom to the simple.
The precepts of the LORD are right,
rejoicing the heart;
The command of the LORD is clear,
enlightening the eye.
The fear of the LORD is pure,
enduring forever;
The ordinances of the LORD are true,
all of them just.
They are more precious than gold,
Than a heap of purest gold;
Sweeter also than syrup
Or honey from the comb.
Reflection:
Let us contemplate what love is, and what it is not…
Love is not a feeling. It does not come to me through my passions. No this is a deception.
Love is an act of my free will. I must choose to love because God wills it, and the act of loving is one that is selfless and entirely sacrificial. It is a self-giving act of my will to do for another that which is right and good.
So if I say with my mouth that I love you, Lord, and I am not willing to obey your laws and follow your will, this would make me a liar. Lord, you are merciful to me. Give me the grace to love you. Without your grace I am incapable of love and I want to say I love you truthfully, with a pure heart.
Now we will meditate on the private writings of St. Peter Julian Eymard, who wrote the book The Real Presence, which is full of meditations about Jesus in the Eucharist.
You are Merciful to Me; I Will Obey Your Laws
Why is the Lord not my Center?
By St. Peter Julian Eymard
(The Eucharist, the Center of our Love II)
WHY is our Lord not my center?
Because He is not yet the ego of my ego; because I am not completely under His control, under the inspiration of His will; because I have desires that are vying with the desires of Jesus within me; because He does not mean everything to me. And yet a child works for his parents, an angel for his God; I ought therefore to work for my Master, Jesus Christ.
What am I to do?
I must enter into this center, abide in it, and act in it, not indeed by the sentiment of His sweetness, which does not depend on me, but by repeated attempts, by the homage of every action. Come, O my soul! Leave the world; come but of yourself; renounce yourself; and go to the God of the Eucharist. He has an abode in which to receive you; He longs for you; He wants to live with you, to live in you. Abide therefore in Jesus present in your heart, live in his heart; live in the goodness of Jesus Eucharistic.
O my soul, study our Lord in you, and do nothing but by Him.
Abide in our Lord. Abide in Him through A sense of devotedness, of holy joy, of readiness to do whatever He will ask of you. ‘Abide in the Heart and the peace of Jesus Eucharistic.
Final Thoughts:
If you haven’t yet gone to Eucharistic adoration, take some time this week to go and be with the Lord; be filled by grace.
Take a moment to be with the Lord. Take 1-3 minutes to listen for his response to your heartfelt prayer.
Pray the next Lenten Meditation
The Fourth Sunday of Lent, Year B
Whoever Lives the Truth Comes to the Light
Whoever lives the truth comes to the light. Let me live in the light and truth of the Holy Spirit so that I may be a blessing to others and merit eternal life.