Help Me Take The Right Path and Not Stumble. 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 20 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 so that I might live a just life. 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 what it means to take the right path and not stumble. 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 Third week of Lent (Liturgical Year I)
Help Me Take The Right Path and Not Stumble
A Reflection for Prayerful Meditation
Let’s begin Day 20 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.
Help Me Take The Right Path and Not Stumble
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 visit a minor prophet from the north kingdom of Israel named Hosea. He lived about 200 years after the northern kingdom had divided from Judah. Through Hosea, God reveals his judgment on the people of Israel who have broken their covenant and were unfaithful to God. Hosea was called by the LORD to marry a prostitute named Gomer. She left him and returned to her former way of life, and instead of letting her go, Hosea buys her back. The LORD leads Hosea to love and redeem Gomer, regardless of her infidelity; this is a symbol of God’s love for Israel and willingness to forgive the people who left him for false gods. Through Hosea we see how God offers us grace to take the right path after we’ve gone astray from him.
Slowly imagine this scene in your mind as you read. While we don’t know where Hosea prophesied, we do know that at his time the city of Samaria, near the base of Mount Gerizim, was the capital of Northern Israel. We can imagine Hosea prophesying in the center this large city. Here there was a Temple and also Jacob’s well. This mountain was also the place where Abraham almost sacrificed his son Isaac.
Samaria was a large city with a huge population, and the people regularly traded with the neighboring kingdoms that bordered their region. Imagine yourself physically there in the scene. You see horse traders, olive traders, and a marketplace buzzing with activity. The people of the city have left God and have pursued relations with other kingdoms, and have worshipped the idols of those kingdoms. We are about to hear God send a message through Hosea to a crowd of people in this ancient city. You are there with them. What do you hear? See? Feel? Sense?
Help Me Take The Right Path and Not Stumble
Because of You, Lord, I Will Bear Good Fruit
Hosea 14:2-10
Reflection:
Let us take a moment to reflect on the message in the First Reading.
Did you envision yourself listening to Hosea prophesy from his heart? How did it affect you knowing that he himself was betrayed by his wife, and yet he forgave her fully and bought her back? You know Gomer did not deserve this mercy and faithfulness from Hosea. Did this make his prophesy tug at your heart even more? How does Hosea’s love for his wife and willingness to forgive her infidelity compare to God’s mercy for you? What about for your loved one who betrayed you?
Now let’s personalize this passage from our First Reading…
Be Completely Real…
Take a few moments to think about this plea from God to repent and return. Then think about your own life. Have you been in Hosea’s position? Or have you been like his unfaithful wife, Gomer? Have you not taken the right path, or have you had to rescue someone who took the wrong path?
Give yourself a few minutes of silence to let the Lord speak to you about your own life, your family members, and those he has given you to love. Ask the Holy Spirit to speak to your heart.
Be honest with the Lord about what he has revealed to you. Self-reflect on things that have happened and consider what God is trying to tell you. Do you need to forgive? Do you need to seek forgiveness? Have you been forgiven but you cannot forgive yourself? Have you done what the voice of God asks you to do in this passage from Hosea? If the Holy Spirit reminds you of something, you may want to journal about it. Linger on it and ask the Lord questions from your heart. In the next part we will read a passage from Psalms. Listen to the Lord’s warning to the people, and let the conviction of the Holy Spirit fill your heart as you read.
Let us continue our mental prayer with today’s Responsorial Psalm:
Help Me Take The Right Path and Not Stumble
I will Have No Strange God above You, LORD
Psalms 81:6-11,14,17
An unfamiliar speech I hear:
“I relieved his shoulder of the burden;
his hands were freed from the basket.
In distress you called, and I rescued you.”
“Unseen, I answered you in thunder;
I tested you at the waters of Meribah.
Hear, my people, and I will admonish you;
O Israel, will you not hear me?”
“There shall be no strange god among you
nor shall you worship any alien god.
I, the LORD, am your God
who led you forth from the land of Egypt.”
“If only my people would hear me,
and Israel walk in my ways,
While Israel I would feed with the best of wheat,
and with honey from the rock I would fill them.”
Visualize Christ…
Next, try to put yourself in the presence of Christ by visualizing Jesus in an intimate way. Take a moment to close your eyes and picture him walking in a small Jewish city. You see a young scribe hurry to catch him. This man is smartly dressed, and very respectful looking. You think he must be a scholar who has studied the Hebrew Scriptures and Jewish Law. Maybe he is a legal expert or a teacher himself. You are there when he reaches the Lord and asks permission to speak a moment with him.
Now we are ready to take our image of Jesus and visualize today’s Gospel Reading. Put yourself in this scene much like you did in the First Reading. Then prayerfully speak to Jesus about what stirred your heart. What do you want to tell him?
Help Me Take The Right Path and Not Stumble
I Am Commanded to Love You, LORD
Mark 12:28-34
One of the scribes came to Jesus and asked him, “Which is the first of all the commandments?”
Jesus replied, “The first is this: ‘Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
The scribe said to him, “Well said, teacher. You are right in saying, ‘He is One and there is no other than he.’ And ‘to love him with all your heart, with all your understanding, with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself’ is worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”
And when Jesus saw that (he) answered with understanding, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And no one dared to ask him any more questions.
Are You Listening?
Contemplate Jesus looking at you with a deep loving gaze. He speaks to you, “If you love me and are faithful to me, I will make your path straight. Love me with all your heart, your soul, and your mind. To do this, you must give up every false idol and be faithful to me always.”
Take a moment now to speak from your heart about your desire to walk the straight path the Lord desires you to take. Ask the Holy Spirit to guide you in repairing relationships in your family and helping you to love others with the same faithfulness that God has for you. You may want to add some resolutions you want to make this Lent in your journal. This will help you stay faithful to God in your promises to him.
Pray the next Lenten Meditation
Day 21 Lenten Meditation
You Want My Humility, Not My Public Sacrifices
“You Want My Humility, Not My Public Sacrifices” -Join us in our 21st Lenten reflection for Liturgical Year I