Every kingdom divided against itself will be laid waste. 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 19 of our Lenten Challenge with this opening prayer:
TRUST AND BELIEVE...
Holy Trinity, One God,
Please have mercy on your people. Help us to overcome pride and selfishness that lead to divisions in our world, our communities, our churches, and our families. When we are tempted toward pride and selfishness Your kingdom is divided against itself. Allow us to be united in love.
Holy Trinity, you are one, in perfect unity, perfect love. Please heal the division in our hearts due to our own sinful desires. Bless us with an increase in faith, for a rightly ordered intellect; hope, for a rightly ordered memory and imagination; and charity for a rightly ordered will.
Unfading light, protect us from evil and grant us peace. Three divine persons in perfect unity, help your children worship in unity. We are called to be a dwelling place of the Most Holy Trinity, to love you, to keep your word, and to be a vessel for you to make your home within our hearts. Please protect the Church from all forms of division by helping your people, made in your image and likeness, to grow in virtue and holiness.
AMEN.
Thursday of the 3rd Week of Lent (Liturgical Year II)
Every Kingdom Divided against itself will be Laid Waste
A Reflection for Prayerful Meditation
Join me in a prayerful meditation for your Lenten journey on having peace and unity.
Every Kingdom Divided Against Itself will be Laid Waste
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. Guide my heart and mind toward complete unity with your Kingdom. Show me how I can worship you in the fullness of truth without confusion, doubt, or suspicion. Lord, you teach us that a kingdom divided against itself will be laid waste. Lord do not let me contribute to divisions.
Take away any spiritual pride that separates me from unity with the Church. Please give me a firm faith and belief that the Holy Spirit guides the Church as you promised.
Jesus says that a kingdom divided against itself is laid waste and whoever does not gather with God, scatters. Please, Holy Spirit, do not let me scatter. Do not let me be against you.
I want to 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 every kingdom divided against itself will be laid waste. Let my heart and mind be completely fixated on you.
Holy Spirit, You know all my weaknesses and that I can’t elevate my heart or my mind 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.
Lord, I thank you 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 Jesus toward Jerusalem. Help me carry my cross well 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?
Every Kingdom Divided Against Itself will be Laid Waste
Faithfulness has Disappeared
Jeremiah 7:23-28
Thus says the LORD: This is what I commanded my people: Listen to my voice; then I will be your God and you shall be my people. Walk in all the ways that I command you, so that you may prosper.
But they obeyed not, nor did they pay heed. They walked in the hardness of their evil hearts and turned their backs, not their faces, to me.
From the day that your fathers left the land of Egypt even to this day, I have sent you untiringly all my servants the prophets.
Yet they have not obeyed me nor paid heed; they have stiffened their necks and done worse than their fathers.
When you speak all these words to them, they will not listen to you either; when you call to them, they will not answer you. Say to them: This is the nation which does not listen to the voice of the LORD, its God, or take correction. Faithfulness has disappeared; the word itself is banished from their speech.
Reflection:
Let us take a moment to reflect on the message in the first reading.
This passage is part of the Temple Sermon given by Jeremiah around 600 BC during the early reign of King Jehoiakim, who rose to power after King Josiah’s death. Josiah had purged the idols and brought the people back to proper worship, but after he died they resorted to their old ways, quickly regressing back into idolatry and social injustice.
What part of this excerpt from Jeremiah sticks out to you?
“They walked in the hardness of their evil hearts and turned their backs, not their faces, to me.”
When we give into sin we naturally turn away from the Lord and choose hardness of heart over unity and reconciliation.
Now let’s personalize this passage from our first reading…
Is there any disunity in your life right now?
Do you want to say something to the Lord about this?
Give the Holy Spirit time to respond to you.
Let’s Pray:
Holy Trinity, One God, Help us walk in unity with you, being of one mind with each other as you are also one. Where there is division, help us bring peace, and where there is evil, let us bring love. May we always show you our faces and never turn our backs on you. AMEN.
Be Completely Real...
Ask the Lord: “How can I bring peace and unity in my family, church, and community?”
Take a few moments to sit in silence with the Holy Spirit. When an idea comes to mind of a person or a place, continue dialoguing with the Lord about it.
You may want to journal your questions and the responses and continue praying on it in the coming days, weeks, and months.
Now we will contemplate the Lord by listening to him speak to us in the Gospels.
Visualize Christ
We return with Jesus and his disciples as they travel to Jerusalem toward the end of his earthly ministry.
The group has stopped in a village somewhere between Galilee and Jerusalem. The local people are excited to see Jesus, who they have been told performs miracles. It is autumn, and off in the distance some farmers can be seen plowing. Workers are in the groves harvesting olives, working carefully and in unison….
Every Kingdom Divided Against Itself will be Laid Waste
By the Finger of God I Drive out Demons
Luke 11:14-23
Jesus was driving out a demon that was mute, and when the demon had gone out, the mute man spoke and the crowds were amazed.
Some of them said, “By the power of Beelzebul, the prince of demons, he drives out demons.”Others, to test him, asked him for a sign from heaven.
But he knew their thoughts and said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself will be laid waste and house will fall against house.
And if Satan is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? For you say that it is by Beelzebul that I drive out demons.
If I, then, drive out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your own people drive them out? Therefore they will be your judges.
But if it is by the finger of God that I drive out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.
When a strong man fully armed guards his palace, his possessions are safe. But when one stronger than he attacks and overcomes him, he takes away the armor on which he relied and distributes the spoils. Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.”
Reflection:
Lord, you tell us that the devil would never cast out the same demons that he uses to enslave people, as he would only be defeating himself.
When I have witnessed division in my own life, did I try to create unity or did I create division and cause something you willed to be laid waste?
If I have worked toward division in the Church, did I do so with full knowledge? Lord, please reveal to me how I may have scattered or worked against your grace when I should have been with you in unity.
Division destroys unity; I see it in my family, in friendships, my church community, my neighborhood, local government, and in my country. The devil is the accuser, the slanderer, the divider. To defeat us and enslave the people of God he works through our sinful natures to create in us a kingdom divided. By our sin we would join him through his evil deceptions to willingly destroy the unity of your kingdom, in your name we attack the Church.
Is our work that of scattering souls, to have her laid waste rather than building her up? Or do we work to build the unity of the church through acts of perfect charity and love?
Lord Jesus Christ give me the grace to be against the works of the devil and always have wisdom to know what is right and according to your will. AMEN
Now listen to the second part of Jesus’ teaching, “When a strong man fully armed guards his palace, his possessions are safe. But when one stronger than he attacks and overcomes him, he takes away the armor on which he relied and distributes the spoils.”
I understand, Jesus, that the strong man in this parable is the devil, and that you have come to attack and overcome his palace. You have taken away his armor, and by your grace, we too can overcome the evil one.
Take a moment to ask Jesus more questions from your heart about divisions in your life. Do you have anxiety about the future? Are you without peace? Be honest with Jesus and tell him more about your situation. 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 meditation from Saint Alphonsus Liguori:
Every Kingdom Divided Against Itself will be Laid Waste
Rash Judgements
By St. Alphonsus Liguori (the School of Christian perfection IV)
Dear Christian reader, if you are desirous of practicing the beautiful virtue of charity, strive in the first place to reject every rash judgment, every distrust, and unfounded suspicion of your neighbor.
It is a grave fault, without sufficient reason, to doubt the innocence of another. It is graver still to entertain a real suspicion, and far more so when without adequate reason we hold for certain that another has done wrong.
He who judges in this manner will himself be judged: “Judge not,” says our Divine Redeemer, “that you may not be judged; for with what judgment you judge, you shall be judged; and with what measure you mete, it shall be measured to you again.”
Beware of trying to find out the faults of your neighbor. Do not imitate those who go about inquiring what is said of them and thereby fill their heart with suspicion, bitterness and aversion. Things are often represented to be different from what they really are. If you hear, therefore, that an unfavorable comment has been passed on you, do not attach much importance to the assertion and do not seek to know its origin or source.
Reflection:
Jesus takes away all deceptions, all suspicions, all manipulations, every sort of division in our hearts when we turn to him and ask him to deliver us.
Think about the consequences of rash judgements that St. Alphonsus Liguori teaches about. Humbly ask the Lord to increase in you the love needed to overcome suspicious and judgmental thoughts.
Let us Pray:
Jesus, please give Church leaders the wisdom to overcome divisions in the Church. Help us have perfect charity towards each other, to pray more intensely, and to offer sacrifices, and acts of fasting for unity in the Church. AMEN.
Are You Listening?
Ask the Lord to reveal to you how well you have listened to his voice.
Have you paid heed to his messages? If not is it because your heart is hard? Is it a lack of trust? Have you stiffened your neck to his voice?
Take a moment and speak to the Lord from your heart. Ask him for the grace to be faithful to you and obedient to his voice. Ask for an increase in humility and fear of offending him out of love for him.
Pray the next Lenten Meditation
Day 20 Mental Prayer Meditation
Loving God with All My Heart and Seeing Him in Every Person
Today’s reflection is about loving God with all my heart, all my mind, and all my soul, and seeing him in every person, and loving them for his sake.