From the Heart of God Flow Waters of Mercy. 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 23 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 the waters of mercy flow from the heart of God. I want to follow you all the way to Calvary, Jesus, and I want to do it with my whole heart.
AMEN.
Tuesday of the Fourth week of Lent (Liturgical Year I)
From the Heart of God Flow Waters of Mercy
A Reflection for Prayerful Meditation
Let’s begin Day 23 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.
From the Heart of God Flow Waters of Mercy
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 heading to Tel Abib, which is on the Chebar River. We are in the metropolitan city of Nippur, during the height of the Babylonian empire. We are surrounded by thousands of pagan temples. They are dedicated to over 3,000 different Sumerian gods. Everywhere Ezekiel looks he sees a pagan temple of worship to a false god. The vision we are about to experience comes to Ezekiel after about 25 years of living in exile. He and the people of Judah have been suffering without their temple or their homeland for decades.
Slowly imagine Ezekiel in your mind as you read. He is gazing out his window before he sleeps and he sees countless temples erected for pagan deities in the city Nippur. Imagine how he feels, exiled in a place where worshippers of a polytheistic pantheon have ruled over his people for nearly half his life. Imagine yourself physically there in the scene with him. What do you hear? See? Feel? Sense?
From the Heart of God Flow Waters of Mercy
Where the Holy Spirit's Water Flows I Live
Ezekiel 47:1-9, 12
The angel brought me, Ezekiel, back to the entrance of the temple of the LORD, and I saw water flowing out from beneath the threshold of the temple toward the east, for the façade of the temple was toward the east; the water flowed down from the right side of the temple, south of the altar.
He led me outside by the north gate, and around to the outer gate facing the east, where I saw water trickling from the southern side.
Then when he had walked off to the east with a measuring cord in his hand, he measured off a thousand cubits and had me wade through the water, which was ankle-deep.
He measured off another thousand and once more had me wade through the water, which was now knee-deep. Again he measured off a thousand and had me wade; the water was up to my waist.
Once more he measured off a thousand, but there was now a river through which I could not wade; for the water had risen so high it had become a river that could not be crossed except by swimming.
He asked me, “Have you seen this, son of man?” Then he brought me to the bank of the river, where he had me sit. Along the bank of the river I saw very many trees on both sides.
He said to me, “This water flows into the eastern district down upon the Arabah, and empties into the sea, the salt waters, which it makes fresh. Wherever the river flows, every sort of living creature that can multiply shall live, and there shall be abundant fish, for wherever this water comes the sea shall be made fresh. Along both banks of the river, fruit trees of every kind shall grow; their leaves shall not fade, nor their fruit fail. Every month they shall bear fresh fruit, for they shall be watered by the flow from the sanctuary. Their fruit shall serve for food, and their leaves for medicine.”
Reflection:
Let us take a moment to reflect on the message in the First Reading.
Did you envision Ezekiel having this dream? Could you imagine how he reacted? He was overwhelmed by grace, rivers of mercy so deep that he had to swim with the ebb and flow? Did you realize this water was a metaphor for the Holy Spirit’s power and grace? Could you feel the Holy Spirit flowing like a powerful river and making everything that touches it fresh, fruitful, and full of life? God is giving Ezekiel hope in his long-suffering so that he realizes the Lord’s ultimate plan of salvation is coming.
Now let’s personalize this passage from our First Reading…
Be Completely Real…
Have you ever experienced the Holy Spirit in a powerful way? Can you say that when you have felt this spirit it was powerful and full of life? Did it produce good fruit in you afterward? Take some time to think about a time when you experienced an overwhelming act of God’s grace. Did you find yourself surrendering to it easily? Did it feel like it was taking you somewhere and that you had to let go and let God breathe in you?
Take a few moments to revisit this experience and to ponder the vision of Ezekiel as you remember feeling the presence of God at an important moment in your life.
Is the Holy Spirit nudging you? Take a moment to dialogue with the Lord about what’s in your mind. If you’d like, journal about these memories. Speak honestly from your heart to God. In the next part we will read a passage from Psalms. Pray this with adoration, pausing over a word or phrase that resonates with your personal experiences.
Let us continue our mental prayer with today’s Responsorial Psalm:
From the Heart of God Flow Waters of Mercy
The Stream that Gladdens the City of God
Psalms 46:2-3, 5-6, 8-9
God is our refuge and our strength,
an ever-present help in distress.
Therefore, we fear not, though the earth be shaken
and mountains plunge into the depths of the sea.
There is a stream whose runlets gladden the city of God,
the holy dwelling of the Most High.
God is in its midst; it shall not be disturbed;
God will help it at the break of dawn.
The LORD of hosts is with us;
our stronghold is the God of Jacob.
Come! behold the deeds of the LORD,
the astounding things he has wrought on earth.
Visualize Christ…
Next, try to put yourself in the presence of Christ. We are traveling to Bethesda. Picture yourself with Jesus and you are walking in Jerusalem, near the Sheep Gate. Ahead in the distance you see a large rectangular pool. It has two basins and five covered porticoes, which are covered walkways that have large columns. It is an open area but still attached to the buildings around it. Can you envision this pool?
Now we are ready to be with Jesus in the pool of Bethesda for today’s Gospel Reading. Put yourself in this scene much like you did in the First Reading. The pool area is crowded with people. You see Jesus intently looking at one man laying on a mat. He begins to walk in this man’s direction and so you follow him.
From the Heart of God Flow Waters of Mercy
Pool of Healing through the Heart of Christ
John 5:1-16
There was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
Now there is in Jerusalem at the Sheep (Gate) a pool called in Hebrew Bethesda, with five porticoes. In these lay a large number of ill, blind, lame, and crippled. One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years.
When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been ill for a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be well?”
The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; while I am on my way, someone else gets down there before me.”
Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your mat, and walk.” Immediately the man became well, took up his mat, and walked.
Now that day was a sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who was cured, “It is the sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to carry your mat.”
He answered them, “The man who made me well told me, ‘Take up your mat and walk.'”
They asked him, “Who is the man who told you, ‘Take it up and walk’?”
The man who was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had slipped away, since there was a crowd there.
After this Jesus found him in the temple area and said to him, “Look, you are well; do not sin any more, so that nothing worse may happen to you.”
The man went and told the Jews that Jesus was the one who had made him well. Therefore, the Jews began to persecute Jesus because he did this on a sabbath.
Are You Listening?
Did you notice the man on the mat seemed content to be unwell? Did you notice he was afraid to get in the water? Contemplate this moment, this fear of wanting to be made well but being afraid that you will be disappointed so you just never get in the water.
Hear Jesus speak to your heart. He says, “Do you want to be well?”
Well, do you?
Take a moment now to speak from your heart about what you need to be well. Are you struggling with grief, a past trauma, anxiety, or fear of failure? Do you have a habitual sin that you just can’t seem to stop even though you want to?
Talk to Jesus about it. And tell him, “I want to be well. Please, Jesus, I know from the heart of God waters of mercy will flow.”
Then spend time in silence listening to the Lord, and feeling the flow of the Holy Spirit into your heart.
Pray the next Lenten Meditation
Day 24 Lenten Meditation
Your Works are Holy and Your Ways are Just
“Your Works are Holy and Your Ways are Just” – join us in our 24th Lenten reflection for Liturgical Year I