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Believing in Jesus and Anointing Him with My Love

Believing in Jesus as Mary Magdalene did while pouring precious nard on his feet. I too am anointing him with my love as I contemplate his Passion and death.
Daily Lenten Reflection Monday of Holy Week Year 2

DAILY LENTEN MEDITATIONS: Year 2

Believing in Jesus and Anointing Him with My Love

Today we embrace having faith in Jesus. 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 34 of our Lenten Challenge with this opening prayer:

Trust And Believe

Pray for me Virgin Mary, so that by believing in Jesus I can trust with both my mind and my heart in the love of God and forgiveness of all my sins. Pray that I do not despair as Judas Iscariot did. I want to be believing in Jesus like Mary Magdalene. I too am anointing him with my love, trusting in all his promises of redemption. I am pouring out all that I have to give in gratitude for what he has suffered for my sake. Blessed Mother, please ask the Lord to help me contemplate his Passion and death so that I might grow to love him even more and serve him for the rest of my life. AMEN.

Believing in Jesus and Anointing Him with My Love

A Reflection for Prayerful Meditation

Join me in a prayerful reflection and meditation for your Lenten journey with Christ to Jerusalem. 

Opening Prayer

Eternal Father, 

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 believing in Jesus and in the forgiveness of my sins. Speak to my heart today and show me how I might pick up my cross and follow Jesus in obedience to your holy will. I know that you love me with infinite love. I know Jesus laid down his life so that I could be in union with the Holy Trinity and be filled with the Spirit. I acknowledge my past sins and by believing in Jesus and amending my life, I trust that I will be transformed by the renewal of my mind into a new creation. As I contemplate his suffering and death to atone for my sins I am anointing him with my love and gratitude.  

I am here, Lord, because I am believing in Jesus and the power of the Cross. Please send me your Spirit so that I can 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 believing in Jesus with all my heart and mind.  Jesus, look at me with the eyes of a Savior and let me anoint your feet with my tears of gratitude. 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. 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 you 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

You are in the home of Lazarus. It is evening, and you’ve eaten. The smell of fresh baked bread still in the air. It’s yeasty. There is a low light of oil lamps giving a soft glow. All of a sudden you hear a crack, like the neck of a bottle being broken and a pungent, intoxicating, and heavy floral aroma fills the house, lingering in the air, causing a stark sensory shift from the taste of the bread and wine you’ve shared with the others….

Anointing Him with Oil

John 12:1-11

Six days before Passover Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. They gave a dinner for him there, and Martha served, while Lazarus was one of those reclining at table with him.
 
Mary took a liter of costly perfumed oil made from genuine aromatic nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and dried them with her hair; the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil.
 
Then Judas the Iscariot, one (of) his disciples, and the one who would betray him, said, “Why was this oil not sold for three hundred days’ wages and given to the poor?” He said this not because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief and held the money bag and used to steal the contributions.
 
So Jesus said, “Leave her alone. Let her keep this for the day of my burial. You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.”
 
(The) large crowd of the Jews found out that he was there and came, not only because of Jesus, but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. And the chief priests plotted to kill Lazarus too, because many of the Jews were turning away and believing in Jesus because of him.

Be Completely Real

Let us meditate on this passage. What sticks out most to you? How do you see the actions of both Judas and Mary in this scene? Which one tugs your conscience? Do you identify more with one than the other?

Contemplate all the ways you have pursued the things of this world and your attachments to things and people over your love of God and desire to do his will. 

Take a moment to ask the Lord to give your the grace needed to overcome unholy attachments. Ask the Lord to wound you in order to heal you, to help you enter into sorrow so that you can know the value of his gift, so that you will anoint him with your love and believe in him in all things. 

Lord Jesus Christ, You know my heart. You know all things. Please probe my mind and show me all the disordered love in my life. Convict my heart of my attachments to things, and my attachments to people, and my pride of desiring worldly status through these attachments.

Lord, where in my life do these attachments cause me to do evil things? How do these unholy attachments cause me to have an evil disordered love? How can I love you more perfectly and humbly? St. Augustine says disordered love causes you to be mercifully angry and even mercifully punish us so that we might be healed of this affliction. Lord, please heal me of it. AMEN.

Next, let us meditate on Isaiah 42. Prayerfully reflect on the words and reread them, pausing on a passage that speaks to you. 

My Chosen One with Whom I am Pleased

Isaiah 42:1-7

Here is my servant whom I uphold, my chosen one with whom I am pleased, Upon whom I have put my Spirit; he shall bring forth justice to the nations, Not crying out, not shouting, not making his voice heard in the street.

A bruised reed he shall not break, and a smoldering wick he shall not quench, Until he establishes justice on the earth; the coastlands will wait for his teaching.

Thus says God, the LORD, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spreads out the earth with its crops, Who gives breath to its people and spirit to those who walk on it: I, the LORD, have called you for the victory of justice, I have grasped you by the hand; I formed you, and set you as a covenant of the people, a light for the nations, To open the eyes of the blind, to bring out prisoners from confinement, and from the dungeon, those who live in darkness.

Reflection:

Let us pray and reflect on the words of Isaiah 42.

Jesus, please, establish your justice in my heart. Put your Spirit in me and let me be an instrument of your will for all nations. Believing in you, I come to you now, anointing you with my love and asking to be formed. Grasp me by my hand, Lord, and open my blind eyes to see the light of the truth. Then let me be a disciple that brings your Spirit to my neighbors to whom you have given me to serve. AMEN.

Are You Listening?

In what ways do you anoint the Lord with your love? Is there something you have given to him that is costly? Is he asking you to surrender something costly for his sake? Is it an attachment you have to a material thing? A place? A person? 

Take a few moments to speak from your heart to the Lord. Listen for his response to your heartfelt prayer. Linger a few moments and wait for the Holy Spirit. What is he saying to you?

Consider your promise to be a true disciple of Christ. Take up your Cross to renew yourself, to overcome all disordered love, and to follow him without fear, believing in Jesus and anointing him with your love.

Pray the next Lenten Meditation

Day 35 Mental Prayer Meditation

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2 Responses

  1. I I have found these meditations to be insightful and thought provoking.. Thanks so much for providing these Lenten reflections.. With blessings and prayers. Mary.

    Reply

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