God protects me from the malice of the wicked. 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 27 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 humility and contrition. 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 God protects me from the malice of the wicked. I want to follow you all the way to Calvary, Jesus, and I want to do it with my whole heart.
AMEN.
Saturday of the Fourth week of Lent (Liturgical Year I)
God Protects Me from the Malice of the Wicked
A Reflection for Prayerful Meditation
Let’s begin Day 27 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.
God Protects Me from the Malice of the Wicked
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 are traveling to the city of Anathoth. It’s a Levitical town in the territory of the tribe of Benjamin. The Levites in Anathoth are responsible for taking care of the Temple, and it is so close to Anathoth that they could see the Temple walls from the dwelling places of their city, just a few miles northeast of Jerusalem.
Slowly imagine the prophet Jeremiah at prayer. Imagine him prostrate in his quiet, empty home as he receives a revelation from God about some very evil doings that his own people are plotting against him.
Imagine this scene in your mind as you read. Picture Jeremiah praying fervently, as he is living in very troubling times and feels alone with God. He is called to warn his people that God will punish them for their iniquities if they don’t repent and they plot to silence him for this…
God Protects Me from the Malice of the Wicked
The Lord Showed Me Their Doings
Jeremiah 11:18-20
I knew their plot because the LORD informed me; at that time you, O LORD, showed me their doings.
Yet I, like a trusting lamb led to slaughter, had not realized that they were hatching plots against me: “Let us destroy the tree in its vigor; let us cut him off from the land of the living, so that his name will be spoken no more.”
But, you, O Lord of hosts, O just Judge, searcher of mind and heart, Let me witness the vengeance you take on them, for to you I have entrusted my cause!
Reflection:
Let us take a moment to reflect on the message in the First Reading.
Can you imagine the loneliness Jeremiah must have felt when he realized his own people were plotting to kill him? He had only the Lord on his side because when he began his priestly ministry, the Lord commanded him not to marry and have children. He was asked to remain in the place where he was born and warn his people to repent or face the wrath of God. Do you see how God cared for Jeremiah in his loneliness? He let Jeremiah know their plot so that his life would not be taken by his people. God gave Jeremiah a vocation and it was by the grace of God that Jeremiah was able to carry it out according to his will.
Now let’s personalize this passage from our First Reading…
Be Completely Real…
Have you ever faced a difficult situation and felt that you had no one you could trust who was on your side? As long as you are doing the will of God and living in a state of grace, God will protect you from the malice of the wicked. He will shield you and bless you in your doings. Does it comfort you to know that, just like Jeremiah, God is with you when you are being plotted against? Think about a recent memory in your life. Can you see now, looking back, how God’s providence protected your innocence from something evil? Protecting us from evil doesn’t always mean we will not suffer, as Jeremiah did, it means God will sustain us even in our suffering.
Take a few moments to let the Holy Spirit speak to your heart about these truths as they pertain to your life. Offer a prayer of gratitude to God for his faithfulness, and if you are currently struggling against the malice of the wicked, pray for courage, fortitude, and fear of offending God.
In the next part we will read a prayer of praise from Psalms. Pray this with love, remembering God’s faithfulness to you throughout your life.
Let us continue our mental prayer with today’s Responsorial Psalm:
God Protects Me from the Malice of the Wicked
Let the Malice of the Wicked Come to An End
Psalms 7:2-3, 9-12
save me from all my pursuers and rescue me,
Lest I become like the lion’s prey,
to be torn to pieces, with no one to rescue me.
Do me justice, O LORD, because I am just,
and because of the innocence that is mine.
Let the malice of the wicked come to an end,
but sustain the just,
O searcher of heart and soul, O just God.
A shield before me is God,
who saves the upright of heart;
A just judge is God,
a God who punishes day by day.
Visualize Christ…
Next, we return to the Feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem. Jesus is attracting a crowd, and as the Pharisees get wind of this, they decide to send officers to arrest him. We begin our reading on the last day of the feast. Jesus finishes his talk by describing the Holy Spirit as rivers of living water. Some of the people are amazed at his knowledge but others doubt him. Jesus knows this.
The Pharisees are there plotting against Jesus, and he is aware of this as well. He knows his time has not yet come. One of the Pharisees is conflicted. His name is Nicodemus, and Jesus has already met him before. He is here, in the crowd, a member of the Jewish ruling council, the Sanhedrin. You’ve seen Nicodemus around before. He has always struck you as a proud, well-educated man who speaks with authority.
Now we are ready to take our image of Jesus and visualize today’s Gospel Reading. Put yourself in this scene. Imagine yourself as a member of the crowd, an officer, or another Pharisee. Then prayerfully speak to Jesus about what stirred your heart. What do you want to tell him?
God Protects Me from the Malice of the Wicked
A Division Occurred in the Crowd Because of Him
John 7:40-53
Some in the crowd who heard these words of Jesus said, “This is truly the Prophet.”
Others said, “This is the Messiah.”
But others said, “The Messiah will not come from Galilee, will he? Does not scripture say that the Messiah will be of David’s family and come from Bethlehem, the village where David lived?”
So a division occurred in the crowd because of him. Some of them even wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him. So the guards went to the chief priests and Pharisees, who asked them, “Why did you not bring him?”
The guards answered, “Never before has anyone spoken like this one.”
So the Pharisees answered them, “Have you also been deceived? Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him? But this crowd, which does not know the law, is accursed.”
Nicodemus, one of their members who had come to him earlier, said to them, “Does our law condemn a person before it first hears him and finds out what he is doing?”
They answered and said to him, “You are not from Galilee also, are you? Look and see that no prophet arises from Galilee.”
Then each went to his own house.
Are You Listening?
The Lord is just and he shields the innocent from the malice of the wicked, and Jesus is the Lamb who allows himself to be led to slaughter. Do you see the connection between Jeremiah and Jesus? The Father spared Jeremiah from being killed by his own people. Soon we will witness Jesus submitting himself to be led like a lamb to slaughter, by his own people, for the salvation of your soul.
Take a few moments to speak with the Lord about what is stirring your heart. Offer him your sincerest gratitude for being the Lamb of God who takes away your sins and the sins of the world, who forgives the wicked who committed evil against him in their ignorance, and who forgives you of your sins when you repent.
Pray the next Lenten Meditation
Day 28 Lenten Meditation
Testify to the Truth and Be Protected by God
“Testify to the Truth and Be Protected by God” – join us in our 28th Lenten reflection for Liturgical Year I