I will not forget the God who saves me. 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 25 of our Lenten Challenge with this opening prayer:
TRUST AND BELIEVE...
Holy Trinity,
I will not forget. You are the God who saves me. You are the Eternal Father. You are the Bread of Life. You are the Spirit of Truth. I have been washed clean, forgiven, and redeemed by the Precious Blood of Jesus. You have given me the Sacraments so that I might be saved. Thank you, Lord for the New Covenant in your Blood. Thank you for your mercy and your unfailing and unconditional love. Bless me Father and help me to be holy and to live a life that is pleasing to you.
AMEN.
Thursday of the 4th Week of Lent (Liturgical Year II)
I will not Forget the God Who Saves Me
A Reflection for Prayerful Meditation
Join me in a prayerful meditation for your Lenten journey on the God who saves.
I will not Forget the God Who Saves Me
Prayer to the Holy Trinity
Enter into the prayer of silence before the Lord
Holy Trinity One God,
I believe you are truly here and present to me right now. I desire to be present to you. I will not forget the God who saves me, who is kind, and generous, gentle, and forgiving. I will not forget your faithfulness, nor your blessings in my life. I know that you love me with infinite love. You are the God who protects me from evil and who saves me. I praise your holy Name.
I am here because my soul desires to honor you and praise you for your goodness.
Holy Trinity One God, let me 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 the God who saves me. I will not forget your Sacrifice for the salvation of my soul.
Almighty God, please look on me with eyes of mercy and bless me with your gifts so that I can grow in holiness and serve you from my heart. 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...
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?
I will not Forget the God Who Saves Me
The People have become Depraved
Exodus 32:7-14
The LORD said to Moses, “Go down at once to your people whom you brought out of the land of Egypt, for they have become depraved. They have soon turned aside from the way I pointed out to them, making for themselves a molten calf and worshiping it, sacrificing to it and crying out, ‘This is your God, O Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt!’
“I see how stiff-necked this people is,” continued the LORD to Moses. Let me alone, then, that my wrath may blaze up against them to consume them. Then I will make of you a great nation.”
But Moses implored the LORD, his God, saying, “Why, O LORD, should your wrath blaze up against your own people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with such great power and with so strong a hand?
Why should the Egyptians say, ‘With evil intent he brought them out, that he might kill them in the mountains and exterminate them from the face of the earth’? Let your blazing wrath die down; relent in punishing your people.
Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Israel, and how you swore to them by your own self, saying, ‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky; and all this land that I promised, I will give your descendants as their perpetual heritage.’“
So the LORD relented in the punishment he had threatened to inflict on his people.
Reflection:
The Lord kept his covenant despite the idolatry and unfaithfulness of the children of Israel.
Take a moment and consider your own unfaithfulness to God throughout your life. Consider how you have treated the Lord in the past, misunderstood him, neglected him, and disobeyed him.
Be Completely Real...
Think about his mercy toward you every time you have repented and turned back to him. Maybe there is something eating away at your conscience right now.
Take a moment to be with the Lord and tell him how grateful you are that he is so loving, kind, and merciful when you sin against him. If there is something you want to repent of, tell him now.
Tell him you are sorry, and ask for his mercy. Listen for his response to your heartfelt prayer. Is there a movement in your heart?
Now we will contemplate the Lord by listening to him speak to us in the Gospels.
Visualize Christ...
Today we return to the Jerusalem to hear Jesus speak to his followers after his confrontation with the Pharisees. You eagerly listen for Jesus explain why everyone ought to believe he is the Messiah….
I will not Forget the God Who Saves Me
For if you Had Believed Moses
John 5:31-47
Jesus said to the Jews: “If I testify on my own behalf, my testimony is not true.
But there is another who testifies on my behalf, and I know that the testimony he gives on my behalf is true.
You sent emissaries to John, and he testified to the truth. I do not accept testimony from a human being, but I say this so that you may be saved. He was a burning and shining lamp, and for a while you were content to rejoice in his light.
But I have testimony greater than John’s. The works that the Father gave me to accomplish, these works that I perform testify on my behalf that the Father has sent me. Moreover, the Father who sent me has testified on my behalf. But you have never heard his voice nor seen his form, and you do not have his word remaining in you, because you do not believe in the one whom he has sent.
You search the scriptures, because you think you have eternal life through them; even they testify on my behalf. But you do not want to come to me to have life. I do not accept human praise; moreover, I know that you do not have the love of God in you. I came in the name of my Father, but you do not accept me; yet if another comes in his own name, you will accept him.
How can you believe, when you accept praise from one another and do not seek the praise that comes from the only God?
Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father: the one who will accuse you is Moses, in whom you have placed your hope. For if you had believed Moses, you would have believed me, because he wrote about me.
But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?”
Reflection:
Let us meditate on what Jesus means when he says, “You search the scriptures, because you think you have eternal life through them; even they testify on my behalf. But you do not want to come to me to have life.”
Do I believe Jesus continues what He did on Calvary every day, in every Mass, to redeem and purify a sinful and suffering Church, and to atone for the sins of the world?
Moses lifted up the Bronze Serpent so that the Israelites who were bitten by venomous snakes would be saved from temporal death. He brought them the law and he led them toward the promised land. By the mercy of God, the Israelites were miraculously fed manna from heaven so they wouldn’t starve in the desert.
I will not forget the God who saves me. I see, Jesus; I see.
Now listen to the second part of Jesus’ teaching, “For if you had believed Moses, you would have believed me, because he wrote about me.”
This passage to me is entirely Eucharistic.
Let’s Pray:
Yes, Jesus, I see the foreshadowing in Moses. I see all the typology. I will not forget what you did, Jesus. You were lifted up like the Bronze Serpent to save me from eternal damnation and separation from God.
I will not forget what you said, Jesus. You called yourself the Bread of Life. Lord, you give us life when we receive you in the Eucharist, Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity. You feed us with your glorified Body so that we can have life in us…. an abundant life.
I see the connections. I understand what Moses prophesied. I believe Moses. I understand ancient temple worship and how it prefigures the Mass. Thank you, Jesus. AMEN.
Take a moment to ask Jesus questions from your heart. Give the Holy Spirit time to respond. Wait on the Lord. Has he shown you something? You may want to write it down.
Let us continue our mental prayer with a meditation from Saint Peter Julian Eymard:
I will not Forget the God Who Saves Me
The Family Feast
By St. Peter Julian Eymard (The Real Presence)
WE HAVE a Father in Heaven, and we address this prayer for bread directly to Him. But our Lord Jesus Christ has begotten us to the life of grace, to the supernatural life, and has thereby merited the title of Father. Our heavenly Father lives in Heaven; Jesus lives in this church. He is our Father on earth, and He wants to fulfill all the duties of a good father towards His children.
A FATHER lives with his family. He is the center and pivot of it. All its members are under his protection and act under his orders. He is the leader, the head of the family. He has supreme authority, even over the mother, who represents what there must be of tenderness in the direction of the family….
A FATHER feeds his children. He works unremittingly and wears himself out providing them with daily bread. Our Lord feeds you with the Bread of life. He earned this good Bread for it with His death: this Bread is His very Self, His adorable Flesh and Blood. A father who gives his very self to his children! In what family has such a marvel of devotedness ever been seen?
Ah! Our Lord does not want His children to owe their bread to anyone but Himself! No, no! Neither Angels nor Saints will give you the bread you need! Jesus alone sowed the wheat from which that bread is made. He baked it in the fire of suffering. He Himself offers it to you. See what a loving Father He is! On the eve of His death He had His small family with Him, the beginning of the large family He has now.
At the Last Supper He gave this heavenly Bread to each one of His children and promised them that to the end of time, all His children would have this Bread to eat. How delicious indeed is this Bread! It has “in it all that is delicious.” It is God Himself, God, the Bread of orphans. It does not nourish the body, it is true; but it fills the soul with grace and love. It enriches the soul and gives it the strength to repel its enemies, to perform good works, and to grow up for Heaven.
And with what kind-heartedness He gives it to us! We must work much to earn the bread of the body; we must pay for it. But this Bread cannot be paid for; it exceeds all cost. Our Lord gives it. All He requires is that we have a pure heart and the life of grace in us. Prepare yourselves therefore to receive it often, and for that, be pure. The purer you are, the more fruit you will gather from it and the more delicious you will find it.
Come and eat of this good Bread. Our Lord is glad to have you come and ask Him for it, just as a father is happy to know that his children will not lack bread….
And when your turn comes to go to adoration, give Him your little speech. Be sure to draw it from your own heart; do not borrow it from strangers. Talk to Him in your own way; He will answer you. And listen well to what He will say to your heart.
Offer Him a few good desires as your bouquet of choice flowers. Then make some act of virtue and offer Him some little sacrifices as a present.
All this is most real. These are the relations you ought to have with our Lord. Are you not His family?
Are You Listening?
Contemplate the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. Ask yourself if you cherish this gift of Self. Have you forgotten the God who saves you? Or do you have a deep and abiding love for him, especially when he comes to you in holy Communion to give you life and communicate his love?
Next, let us meditate for a moment on the words of Exodus 32. Listen to the prayer of Moses. Reread this passage a second time, praying the words from your own heart. Then take a moment to speak to Jesus. What do you want to tell him?
Pray the next Lenten Meditation
Day 26 Mental Prayer Meditation
You are my Refuge Lord Deliver Me from Trouble
You are my refuge Lord Jesus Christ. I know you and where you are from. I trust you. Lord deliver me from trouble and rescue me from all distress.
One Response
Thank you for this treasure, I’ve only just started reading it