Words of Jesus, Convert My Heart From Sin. 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 6 of this Lenten prayer journey with this opening prayer :
Trust and Believe…
Lord,
I know you love me intimately. Please help me prepare my heart as I begin these 15 minutes of mental prayer with you. Lord, let me be present to you and aware of the movements of the Holy Spirit in my heart, receiving your words with humility and contrition so that they will convert my heart from sin. Lord, help me visualize you in my presence as I strive to complete this Lenten reflection. Let me fully contemplate your words, Jesus, so they will convert my heart from sin. I want to follow you all the way to Calvary with my whole heart.
AMEN.
Wednesday of the First week of Lent (Liturgical Year I)
Words of Jesus, Convert My Heart From Sin
A Reflection for Prayerful Meditation
Let’s begin Day 6 of our Lenten journey as we continue traveling with Jesus in our hearts and minds toward Calvary by meditating on the daily Mass readings for today: the First Reading, the Psalms, and the Gospel Reading. As you make your self-reflection, feel free to journal your responses to the Lord. This meditation is suited for prayer before the Blessed Sacrament, but you can also pray this meditation while looking at a Crucifix or an image of Jesus that you have.
Words of Jesus, Convert My Heart From Sin
Prayer to the Holy Spirit
Start with Love…
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 how I might pick up my cross and follow Jesus all the way to Calvary. Help me turn my heart more fully to God so that I might better understand God’s love for me.
Breathe on me as I spend these next 15 minutes fixated on today’s Mass readings. Holy Spirit, help me recognize my past failings, but more importantly, let me move forward in faith as Jonah did. 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.
AMEN.
Say Nothing Just Take Him In
Spend 1-3 minutes in silence gazing at Jesus 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 being in the city of Nineveh as you read. Take your time. Pause and reflect on this scene. Picture yourself in a crowded marketplace shopping when you see a man off in the distance shouting with urgency. He looks like he has seen God. He has no fear, is single-minded, yet he shouts a threatening warning about the complete destruction of your city. His conviction causes your faith to grow. God surely has called him because he has such faith. You see how moving forward in faith after repentance caused tremendous grace to come to this man, and you want this for yourself.
Words of Jesus, Convert My Heart From Sin
Converting My Heart from every Evil Way
Jonah 3:1-10
The word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time:
“Set out for the great city of Nineveh, and announce to it the message that I will tell you.”
So Jonah made ready and went to Nineveh, according to the LORD’S bidding. Now Nineveh was an enormously large city; it took three days to go through it.
Jonah began his journey through the city, and had gone but a single day’s walk announcing, “Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed,”
when the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast and all of them, great and small, put on sackcloth.
When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in the ashes. Then he had this proclaimed throughout Nineveh, by decree of the king and his nobles: “Neither man nor beast, neither cattle nor sheep, shall taste anything; they shall not eat, nor shall they drink water. Man and beast shall be covered with sackcloth and call loudly to God; every man shall turn from his evil way and from the violence he has in hand. Who knows, God may relent and forgive, and withhold his blazing wrath, so that we shall not perish.”
When God saw by their actions how they turned from their evil way, he repented of the evil that he had threatened to do to them; he did not carry it out.
Reflection:
Let us take a moment to reflect on the message in the First Reading.
Reread the passage again, this time imagine God using Jonah to convert your heart from sin. Then imagine yourself in Nineveh with the others. You are wearing sackcloth and placing ashes on your head as a sign of sorrow for your sins. How are you going to respond to God?
Now let’s personalize this passage from our First Reading…
Be Completely Real…
Maybe you want to ask God to reveal things in your life that separate you from intimacy with him. Do you have a bad habit, or an unholy attachment to someone or something? Ask the Lord what is holding you back from your calling. Take a few minutes to search your heart.
Now give the Holy Spirit time to respond.
If there are habitual sins you’re currently committing regularly, take a moment to pray about it. Begin by saying, “Convert my heart from sin, Jesus.” Then take a minute to tell the Lord the sins you want to overcome and ask him for the grace to do it. In the next part we will read a prayer for conversion of heart from Psalms 51. Pray this prayer with faith, believing Jesus will convert your heart from sin.
Let us continue our mental prayer with today’s Responsorial Psalm:
Words of Jesus, Convert My Heart From Sin
God, in Your Compassion You Forgive My Sins
Psalms 51: 3-4, 12-13, 18-19
Have mercy on me, O God, in your goodness;
in the greatness of your compassion wipe out my offense.
Thoroughly wash me from my guilt
and of my sin cleanse me.
A clean heart create for me, O God,
and a steadfast spirit renew within me.
Cast me not out from your presence,
and your Holy Spirit take not from me.
For you are not pleased with sacrifices;
should I offer a burnt offering, you would not accept it.
My sacrifice, O God, is a contrite spirit;
a heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.
Visualize Christ…
Next, try to put yourself in the presence of Christ by visualizing Jesus in an intimate way. Take a moment to close your eyes and picture yourself among a crowd who is listening to Jesus speak. See the many people reacting to the Lord’s message. What are they doing? Do you notice people there who do not seem to believe the words of Jesus? Keep your gaze on Jesus as you hear his response to this indifferent and somewhat hostile crowd of people.
Now we are ready to take our image of this scene with Jesus and visualize today’s Gospel Reading. Read this passage twice, the second time more slowly, pausing on a word or phrase that speaks to your heart. Then prayerfully speak to Jesus about what stirred your heart the most in this moment. What do you want to tell him?
Words of Jesus, Convert My Heart From Sin
Jesus is Greater than Jonah, So I Will Obey His Word
Luke 11: 29-32
While still more people gathered in the crowd, Jesus said to them:
“This generation is an evil generation; it seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it, except the sign of Jonah. Just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be to this generation.
At the judgment the queen of the south will rise with the men of this generation and she will condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and there is something greater than Solomon here.
At the judgment the men of Nineveh will arise with this generation and condemn it, because at the preaching of Jonah they repented, and there is something greater than Jonah here.”
Are You Listening?
Contemplate Jesus looking at you intently. He speaks to you, “My message is greater than the message of Jonah. I am the sign the unbelievers seek, their only mediator for eternal life with God. Do you have enough faith in me to go where I send you and bring my light to an evil generation?”
Take a moment now to speak from your heart to the Lord. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you envision yourself bringing Christ to others in your life. Take a few moments and imagine yourself doing this. Where are you doing this? What are you saying to them? Who are you with? Can you see Jesus in this scene? Is the Lord speaking to you? What is he saying?
Pray the next Lenten Meditation
Day 7 Lenten Meditation
You Will Answer My Prayers Because You Love Me
“You Will Answer My Prayers Because You Love Me” – Join us in our 7th Lenten reflection for Liturgical Year I
3 Responses
Hello Anonymous C
Thank you for all the prayers and meditations
God bless
Thank you, Dan. I am very glad to hear you appreciate them and are blessed by them.
I love all your prayers and meditation God bless