Lord help me be merciful and fully forgive from my heart. 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 17 of our Lenten Challenge with this opening prayer:
TRUST AND BELIEVE...
Jesus,
Please help me be merciful and fully forgive from my heart anyone who has hurt me or done evil against me. Lord, I ask you to give me the grace to be merciful to those who have done evil against me and my family. Help me fully forgive them all for all their transgressions against me.
Let me imitate you in kindness, humility, and charity. Let me offer my prayers and sacrifice for the conversion of all my enemies so that they may one day be reconciled to you. May their hearts be made pure and holy. Help me be merciful and kind, to forgive from my heart, so that I might be merciful and pray for them with true charity. Thank you, Lord, for helping me to fully forgive from my heart and let go of the pain.
AMEN.
Tuesday of the 3rd Week of Lent (Liturgical Year II)
Help me be Merciful, Fully Forgive from my Heart
A Reflection for Prayerful Meditation
Join me in a prayerful meditation for your Lenten journey to be merciful like Christ.
Help me be Merciful, Fully Forgive from my Heart
Prayer to the Holy Spirit
Jesus my Merciful Savior,
I believe you are truly here and present to me right now. I desire to be present to you. Guide my heart and mind to be merciful and fully forgive all transgressions against me from my heart. Show me how I might pick up my cross and follow you. You were silent, Lord, in the face of your enemies, and you loved them even unto death, asking the Father to forgive them because they “Know not what they are doing.” I know that your love is endless, and with great kindness and mercy you deal with us. Give me the grace to forgive as you do.
Lord you forgave those who betrayed you, abandoned you, beat you, mocked you, stole your garments, dislocated your shoulder, nailed your hands and feet, pierced your side, and gladly rejoiced in your humiliating death. Give me holy love to forgive and be kind to all those who do evil against me. Lord give me the grace to love my enemies and pray for them. Jesus, help me be merciful and fully forgive from my heart.
Please send me your Spirit, Lord. Fill me with humility and charity. Let me 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 forgiveness from my heart. Let me be completely fixated on you and your merciful sacrifice for sinners. Jesus, look at me with the eyes of a merciful Savior and be kind to me. You know all my weaknesses and that I can’t forgive my enemies and love them with perfect charity without your help.
Please give me the grace right now 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. 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 carry my cross as you did, 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.
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?
Help me be Merciful, Fully Forgive from my Heart
Brought Low Because of Our Sins
Daniel 3:25,34-43
Azariah stood up in the fire and prayed aloud: “For your name’s sake, do not deliver us up forever, or make void your covenant. Do not take away your mercy from us, for the sake of Abraham, your beloved, Isaac your servant, and Israel your holy one, To whom you promised to multiply their offspring like the stars of heaven, or the sand on the shore of the sea.
For we are reduced, O Lord, beyond any other nation, brought low everywhere in the world this day because of our sins.
We have in our day no prince, prophet, or leader, no holocaust, sacrifice, oblation, or incense, no place to offer first fruits, to find favor with you.
But with contrite heart and humble spirit let us be received; As though it were holocausts of rams and bullocks, or thousands of fat lambs, So let our sacrifice be in your presence today as we follow you unreservedly; for those who trust in you cannot be put to shame.
And now we follow you with our whole heart, we fear you and we pray to you. Do not let us be put to shame, but deal with us in your kindness and great mercy. Deliver us by your wonders, and bring glory to your name, O Lord.”
Reflection:
Let us take a moment to reflect on the message in the first reading.
We are listening to an excerpt of the prayer of Azariah, (or Abednego), one of the three men thrown into the fiery furnace to be burned to death for not worshipping a pagan god during the Babylonian exile.
Azariah’s prayer is quite long, and later in the chapter the LORD answered this prayer by miraculously sparing the men thrown in the fiery furnace.
What part of this excerpt from Daniel 3 sticks out to you?
“And now we follow you with our whole heart, we fear you and we pray to you. Do not let us be put to shame, but deal with us in your kindness and great mercy.”
During this time King Nebuchandnezzar II destroyed the first temple and took the people from Judah captive into slavery in Babylon. They were not allowed to freely worship God, and if they did, it was under the fear of death.
Now let’s personalize this passage from our first reading…
Can you relate to Azariah who grew his faith in God through his suffering after having lost his freedom to worship in Judah?
Let’s Pray:
Jesus, let me love you in both my prosperity and in my poverty. Let me love you over any other person or thing because you are kind and merciful and deserve to be loved with my whole heart. AMEN.
Be Completely Real...
How does suffering bring you closer to God?
Take a few moments to sit in silence with the Lord and ponder these things. You may want to journal about it.
Now we will contemplate the Lord by listening to him speak to us in the Gospels.
Visualize Christ
We are with Jesus and the disciples in a local follower’s home in Capernaum. It early fall, and the hot dry summer weather has begun to make way for more comfortable temperatures.
It is raining lightly as you gather with the small group of followers under the protection of the flat roof of the open courtyard. You find a place to sit on the floor where there is a comfortable mat.
There is an expectation as you wait with the others to hear Jesus teach and enter into dialogue with his many disciples. The room is lit with dim lanterns, and there is an earthy smell from the light rain….
Help me be Merciful, Fully Forgive from my Heart
He Refused Mercy after it was Given Him
Matthew 18:21-35
Peter approached Jesus and asked him, “Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive him? As many as seven times?”
Reflection:
Today’s meditation is a heavy topic. Let us meditate on Peter’s question when he asks about how to fully forgive:
“Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive him? As many as seven times?”
Peter thought this was a great answer because the Rabbis in that time taught that a man was only obligated to forgive his brother three times. This rule gave many the impression that God’s limit on transgressions was only three offenses.
But Jesus had a shocking response. He said “seventy-seven” times. It’s really an incalculable number, because in human nature we don’t keep scores with transgressions like that, harboring a list of offenses to hold against another soul. This response of Jesus means we are called to always fully forgive from our hearts.
Have you ever experienced true forgiveness?
Have you ever done an evil thing to someone for no just reason, simply because you were mad and wanted to hurt that person? Did that person forgive you? Perhaps you stole money and they forgave the debt, or maybe you tried to ruin their reputation but in turn, they did not try to ruin yours. They just forgave you. Maybe it almost felt like you ‘got away with murder’ and there was no consequence for your actions.
Have you been able to fully forgive someone?
Forgiveness is releasing the transgressor from the debt they owe you, completely and freely. Jesus is teaching us in this Gospel to fully release the debt owed from the sins committed against us and not to hold a grudge or keep score or to even desire retaliation or that the person ‘learns their lesson’ and fails in the future.
If you can pray for someone who has done evil against you and you can ask God to release that person from the justice and punishment he or she deserves, this is how to fully forgive that person.
Take a moment to ask Jesus how to forgive someone from your heart. Speak to him from your heart the situation that you are facing. Be raw and honest. What is the burden on your heart? Give the Holy Spirit time to respond.
Let us pray:
Lord Jesus Christ, I release [name] from the justice and punishment [name] deserves for the sins [name] committed against me in my life. Lord, please give [name] the grace needed for a full conversion of heart so that he/she can renew himself/herself by the power of your Precious Blood and be restored to a state of sanctifying grace. Lord Jesus, please help [name] to stop doing the things that are sinful to God and to others by your grace and please be merciful and give [name] an increase in the spiritual gifts of faith, hope, and charity so that he/she can serve you and others with heroic virtue all the remaining days of his/her life. AMEN.
Sometimes the Lord leads us toward a complete reconciliation and sometimes he leads us to just offer forgiveness. Seek the Lord and humbly ask to do his will in your situation and trust in him.
Forgiveness and reconciliation are not the same thing
We are able to reconcile and have a true restoration of friendship only after the one who commits the harm has thoroughly repented and amended his or her life and then seeks forgiveness. The offender has to have a change of heart in both word and deeds. St. Mary Magdalene and St. Paul the Apostle are two examples of sinners who transgressed and renewed themselves in Christ.
We are called to love unconditionally and part of that unconditional loving includes “shaking the dust off our feet” (Matthew 10:11-15) when we enter into a place of evil where there is no peace and no desire to love and obey God. As painful as this is, it is an act of holy love to do this, and it is what Jesus teaches.
Do not lose heart, and pray without ceasing for your loved one who is away from the faith and whose heart is hardened and far from God. Pray for their full restoration so that they can be brought into the light of Christ.
Let us continue our mental prayer with the prayer of the Psalms:
Help me be Merciful, Fully Forgive from my Heart
Remember Your Compassion Lord
Psalms 25:4-9
Your ways, O LORD, make known to me;
teach me your paths,
guide me in your truth and teach me,
for you are God my savior.
Remember that your compassion, O LORD,
and your love are from of old.
In your kindness remember me,
because of your goodness, O LORD.
Good and upright is the LORD;
thus he shows sinners the way.
He guides the humble to justice,
he teaches the humble his way.
Are You Listening?
Jesus is with you in your fiery furnace. Whatever situation you are in that feels impossible, never lose hope in God’s merciful love and faithfulness. He is the reason you are not consumed by this fire. Remember how he forgives fully from his heart and imitate him.
Pray the next Lenten Meditation
Day 18 Mental Prayer Meditation
I will Obey Your Word, Jesus, and Teach others to Follow You
I will Obey Your Word, my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I will teach others to follow you and I will bless your holy name.