Preparation for Death Brings Forth New Life. 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 the final day of our Lenten Challenge with this opening prayer:
TRUST AND BELIEVE...
Jesus,
While Judas is making preparations for betrayal, you are preparing the upper room for a banquet of love. You will be handed over to men in preparation for death, but you are making a banquet that brings forth new life in the Church.
I live because you feed me your very self, and you died a terrible death on the Cross so that I might live to know you and love you.
Jesus, I love you. Help me to know you more intimately and to love you more deeply. I want to be with you in heaven, to worship you in your glory.
AMEN.
Spy Wednesday of Holy Week (Liturgical Year II)
Preparation for Death Brings Forth New Life
A Reflection for Prayerful Meditation
Join me in a prayerful meditation for your Lenten journey on the Bread of Life, Jesus Christ.
Preparation for Death Brings Forth New Life
Prayer to the Holy Spirit
TRUST AND BELIEVE...
Holy Spirit,
I believe you are truly here and present to me right now. Help me to be open to grace this Triduum so that I can receive with gratitude the gift of the Eucharist in a more deep and meaningful way.
Holy Spirit, you are the love that proceeds from the Father. Let me love Jesus with a pure heart of gratitude for what he chose to suffer to save me. Help me pray without distraction right now as I separate myself from all worldly attachments and spend these 15 minutes reflecting on the betrayal of Judas and Our Savior’s preparation for death.
Please give me the grace right now to pray my mental prayer well. 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 Jesus toward Jerusalem. Help me realize how our Lord’s preparation for death brings forth new life in the Church.
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?
Preparation for Death Brings Forth New Life
Pride can Thwart God's Healing Touch
Isaiah 50:4-9
The Lord GOD has given me
a well-trained tongue,
That I might know how to speak to the weary
a word that will rouse them.
Morning after morning
he opens my ear that I may hear;
And I have not rebelled,
have not turned back.
I gave my back to those who beat me,
my cheeks to those who plucked my beard;
My face I did not shield
from buffets and spitting.
The Lord GOD is my help,
therefore I am not disgraced;
I have set my face like flint,
knowing that I shall not be put to shame.
He is near who upholds my right;
if anyone wishes to oppose me,
let us appear together.
Who disputes my right?
Let him confront me.
See, the Lord GOD is my help;
who will prove me wrong?
Reflection:
Let us take a moment to reflect on the message in the first reading.
What part of this passage from Isaiah sticks out to you?
“I gave my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who plucked my beard; My face I did not shield from buffets and spitting.”
Did this passage make you think of Jesus?
Now let’s personalize this passage from our first reading…
Have you ever contemplated how Jesus had full knowledge of how he would suffer in his Passion? The Bible has foreshadowed it in detail. Imagine a suffering that you have faced in the past. If you had foreknowledge of this suffering, would you have been less likely to want to endure it? If you had the opportunity to avoid it, knowing with foreknowledge how hard it would be, would you?
Let’s Pray:
Jesus, my heart aches in knowing you had foreknowledge of your Passion. I could never repay you for what you have done for me, how you suffered, so that I could live. Your death brings forth new life. I receive this life in the Bread you offer, Your very Self, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity, at each Mass. Thank you, Jesus, for loving me so much. AMEN.
Be Completely Real...
Contemplate the weight of Our Lord’s heart when Judas asked if it was him. Then spend the next few moments sitting with that weight and contemplating how you have also betrayed Jesus too in your life.
Judas knew before he asked that it was him.
Let yourself feel the pain of this betrayal and how much it grieves the Lord when we turn away from him and return to our sinful habits.
Now we will contemplate the Lord by listening to him speak to us in the Gospels.
Visualize Christ
Today we witness a gut-wrenching betrayal of trust. One that Jesus knew was coming since before all time. Greed led to this betrayal. Greed and pride. And tepidity. And a lack of love.
Judas agreed to hand him over for just 30 pieces of silver. It was a modest amount of money, equal to about 4-5 months wages at that time. It was nowhere near a fortune, instead it was just enough to buy a potter’s field….
Preparation for Death Brings Forth New Life
Betrayed, Jesus Prepares for Death
Matthew 26:14-25
One of the Twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, “What are you willing to give me if I hand him over to you?”
They paid him thirty pieces of silver, and from that time on he looked for an opportunity to hand him over.
On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the disciples approached Jesus and said, “Where do you want us to prepare for you to eat the Passover?”
He said, “Go into the city to a certain man and tell him, ‘The teacher says, My appointed time draws near; in your house I shall celebrate the Passover with my disciples.'”
The disciples then did as Jesus had ordered, and prepared the Passover. When it was evening, he reclined at table with the Twelve. And while they were eating, he said, “Amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me.”
Deeply distressed at this, they began to say to him one after another, “Surely it is not I, Lord?”
He said in reply, “He who has dipped his hand into the dish with me is the one who will betray me. The Son of Man indeed goes, as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed. It would be better for that man if he had never been born.”
Then Judas, his betrayer, said in reply, “Surely it is not I, Rabbi?”
He answered, “You have said so.”
Reflection:
Let us continue our mental prayer with a passage from St. Peter Julian Eymard.
Preparation for Death Brings Forth New Life
The Intimate Friendship of Jesus
By Saint Peter Julian Eymard (The Divine Eucharist)
If the sight of hell on one side, and that of the immense and infinite love that God bears us on the other, no longer make any impression on us, we are hastening to our eternal perdition! Let some occasion present itself, and it is all over with us!
But I know what some may say to excuse themselves in their own eyes: “I am a religious of the Blessed Sacrament, I am living with Jesus, my Savior, what have I to fear?”
Judas also lived with Jesus.
“But I love the good God.”
Judas also loved Our Lord in the beginning, but tepidity came, little by little, and extinguished that love. Then, he became sacrilegious and the executioner of his Master….
Reflection:
Judas began his discipleship with great awe and expectation, but he was unable to overcome his many vices. His greed led to his fall, and this caused him so much anguish that he presumed God would never forgive him and took his own life.
Are You Listening?
Through death Our Lord ransomed your soul. He gave all so that you might live.
Are you giving all so that you might live with Jesus in the immense and infinite love that God bears in his heavenly Kingdom?
Take a few moments to imagine yourself before the throne of God in Heaven as it is described in the Bible. Imagine it so that you can really desire it in your heart….
Before you is a throne, with God the Father in the center and our Transfigured Lord to his right. Our Lord is ablaze in light, with a stream of red and clear white brilliant light emanating from his side. A radiant rainbow of light surrounds this throne, and beneath it lies a sea of crystal clear glass. The throne is surrounded by a choir of angels and saints who worship God with beautiful music that causes flashes of lightning and holy thunder, expressing the divine power of God. A river of living water flows out from the base of the throne of God, representing eternal life.
Ask the Holy Spirit to help you imagine this scene in your mind and feel the presence of God as you take time to envision eternal life in Christ.
Pray Daily Lenten Meditations Year 1
Day 1 Mental Prayer Meditation
Let me Turn My Heart More Fully to God
“Let me Turn My Heart More Fully to God” – Join us in our 1st Lenten reflection for Liturgical Year I