Your sacrifice has restored me to the Father. 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 14 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 the grace you give with gratitude and piety. Lord, help me visualize you in my presence right now as I strive to complete this Lenten reflection. Let me fully contemplate the readings as I ponder how your sacrifice has restored me to the Father. I want to follow you all the way to Calvary, Jesus, and I want to do it with my whole heart.
AMEN.
Friday of the Second week of Lent (Liturgical Year I)
Your Sacrifice has Restored Me to the Father
A Reflection for Prayerful Meditation
Let’s begin Day 14 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.
Your Sacrifice has Restored Me to the Father
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 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.
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. We will travel to the house of Israel (who is Isaac’s son, Jacob, renamed Israel after a wrestling match with God). Imagine yourself as a servant in this household who sees the envy of Joseph’s older brothers. They hate him because he is the son of Rachel, their father’s favorite wife and because he is Israel’s favorite son, and Israel gives him special gifts. They hate knowing Joseph is blessed by God with a gift of prophetic dreams. You recently heard Joseph tell them he dreamt he would rise to greatness over them, and you could see the jealousy in their eyes. You feel the tension in this household and you just know something evil is going to happen. Imagine this scene in your mind as you begin to read.
Your Sacrifice has Restored Me to the Father
They Hated Him So Much Because he Was the Beloved Son
Genesis 37:3-4, 12-13, 17-28
Israel loved Joseph best of all his sons, for he was the child of his old age; and he had made him a long tunic. When his brothers saw that their father loved him best of all his sons, they hated him so much that they would not even greet him.
One day, when his brothers had gone to pasture their father’s flocks at Shechem, Israel said to Joseph, “Your brothers, you know, are tending our flocks at Shechem. Get ready; I will send you to them.”
“I am ready,” Joseph answered.
The man told him, “They have moved on from here; in fact, I heard them say, ‘Let us go on to Dothan.'”
So Joseph went after his brothers and caught up with them in Dothan. They noticed him from a distance, and before he came up to them, they plotted to kill him. They said to one another: “Here comes that master dreamer! Come on, let us kill him and throw him into one of the cisterns here; we could say that a wild beast devoured him. We shall then see what comes of his dreams.”
When Reuben heard this, he tried to save him from their hands, saying: “We must not take his life. Instead of shedding blood,” he continued, “just throw him into that cistern there in the desert; but don’t kill him outright.” His purpose was to rescue him from their hands and restore him to his father.
So when Joseph came up to them, they stripped him of the long tunic he had on; then they took him and threw him into the cistern, which was empty and dry.
They then sat down to their meal. Looking up, they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, their camels laden with gum, balm and resin to be taken down to Egypt. Judah said to his brothers: “What is to be gained by killing our brother and concealing his blood? Rather, let us sell him to these Ishmaelites, instead of doing away with him ourselves. After all, he is our brother, our own flesh.”
His brothers agreed. They sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver. Some Midianite traders passed by, and they pulled Joseph up out of the cistern and took him to Egypt.
Reflection:
Let us take a moment to reflect on the message in the First Reading.
Did you envision yourself as a servant of Israel, assigned to accompany young Joseph on this fateful journey to meet up with his brothers? You then witnessed Reuben’s cowardice and peered into the cistern to see Joseph’s terrified eyes gazing back at you. You wanted to pull him out and save him, but as a servant you were powerless against the brothers. What emotion did this family crisis create in your heart as you saw the Ishmaelites taking Joseph away from you?
Now let’s personalize this passage from our First Reading…
Be Completely Real…
Take a moment to consider the sin of envy in your own life. Is it in your own household, among your own siblings, or your children? Ask the Lord to show you things you haven’t considered.
As things start coming to your mind, ask yourself, Who do I most identify with in my own life? Is it Joseph, or Israel, the jealous brothers who want revenge, or cowardly Reuben who sees the evil and is unable to stand up for what is right? You can journal your thoughts and ask the Lord to speak to your heart.
Give the Holy Spirit time to respond.
In the next part we will read a passage from Psalms. As you prayerfully read it, see how the Lord’s anointing comes to pass despite the evil done against Joseph. Let the Holy Spirit move you as you ponder the power of God’s promise in your own life. Take a moment to thank God for his promises and tell him you trust in his plan for your household despite the evil of envy, anger, and disharmony you may be experiencing.
Now, let us continue our mental prayer with today’s Responsorial Psalm:
Your Sacrifice has Restored Me to the Father
The Lord's Will for Me Shall Come to Pass
Psalms 105:16-21
and ruined the crop that sustained them,
He sent a man before them,
Joseph, sold as a slave.
They had weighed him down with fetters,
and he was bound with chains,
Till his prediction came to pass
and the word of the LORD proved him true.
The king sent and released him,
the ruler of the peoples set him free.
He made him lord of his house
and ruler of all his possessions.
Visualize Christ…
The Bible continually shows us that God’s promises are always fulfilled. Even though evil may be done to thwart God’s will, it never prevails.
God gave Joseph the gift of interpreting dreams, and Joseph was faithful to God even when put to the test, so God blessed Joseph. He kept his promise.
God knows your weakness and what you need. He has also given you a gift. So if you are in a difficult time, do not lose hope. God gave Joseph dreams as a young man so that he would not despair while in captivity. His dreams were his gift from God, and although his dreams ultimately led him toward a bitter suffering in the beginning, they also helped him rise in prominence. His dreams ultimately caused the restoration of his family in the end, too.
Now in this next reading we will hear Jesus talk about his sacrifice and how it will restore us to the Father. We will hear Jesus prophesy about his coming passion.
Let’s enter into this scene. We are at the Temple courtyard, and Jesus is there with his disciples. Among the crowd are the chief priests and Pharisees, and Jesus knows they are full of envy and plotting evil against him, so he begins to tell this parable….
Your Sacrifice has Restored Me to the Father
Let Me Produce Fruit for Your Kingdom
Matthew 21:33-43, 45-46
Jesus said to the chief priests and the elders of the people:
“Hear another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a hedge around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a tower. Then he leased it to tenants and went on a journey. When vintage time drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to obtain his produce. But the tenants seized the servants and one they beat, another they killed, and a third they stoned.
Again he sent other servants, more numerous than the first ones, but they treated them in the same way.
Finally, he sent his son to them, thinking, ‘They will respect my son.’
But when the tenants saw the son, they said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and acquire his inheritance.’
They seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him.
What will the owner of the vineyard do to those tenants when he comes?”
They answered him, “He will put those wretched men to a wretched death and lease his vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the proper times.”
Jesus said to them, “Did you never read in the scriptures: ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; by the Lord has this been done, and it is wonderful in our eyes’? Therefore, I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that will produce its fruit. When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they knew that he was speaking about them. And although they were attempting to arrest him, they feared the crowds, for they regarded him as a prophet.
Are You Listening?
Prayerfully speak to Jesus about what it means to produce good fruit for his kingdom. Consider Joseph and Reuben, and how the Pharisees and the brothers allowed their envious thoughts to become evil actions.
Contemplate Jesus looking at you with a deep loving gaze, knowing everything about your current situation and understanding the bad fruits that come from the sin of envy. Let him speak to you now about envy in your life and all the bad fruits it has caused. What is he saying? Are you reminded of people you love and recent situations? Are there old wounds? Do you need to make a sacrifice so that there can be a restoration? Ask the Lord questions from your heart.
If Jesus reveals things to you, thank him, then speak back to him and say, “Jesus, your sacrifice has restored me to the Father.” Then you may want to offer to make a sacrifice for the restoration of your household. You may also want to journal your thoughts and the inspirations of the Holy Spirit as they come.
Pray the next Lenten Meditation
Day 15 Lenten Meditation
You Bring My Dead Soul Back to Abundant Life
“You Bring My Dead Soul Back to Abundant Life” – Join us in our 15th Lenten reflection for Liturgical Year I