Jesus Gathers Us Together to Be as One. 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 33 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 hope and love. 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 Jesus gathers us together to be as one. I want to follow you all the way to Calvary, Jesus, and I want to do it with my whole heart.
AMEN.
Saturday of the Fifth week of Lent (Liturgical Year I)
Jesus Gathers Us Together to Be as One
A Reflection for Prayerful Meditation
Let’s begin Day 33 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, a passage from Jeremiah, 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.
Jesus Gathers Us Together to Be as One
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 going to visit the people of Judah during the time of the prophet Ezekiel. Our passage comes after the people of Judah were exiled to the Babylonian empire because they abandoned the worship of God and turned to idolatry. Here we see the prophet Ezekiel prophecy that God will cleanse them, give them a new heart and spirit, and bring them back to the promised land.
Let’s now go with Ezekiel to his place of prayer. Here he will be taken up by the Holy Spirit and brought to a valley filled with dry bones. While experiencing this vision of the Lord, Ezekiel hears his voice. The Lord says to him, “Son of man, can these bones live?”
Next we hear Ezekiel prophesying to the bones, and they come together. Then tendons and flesh appear on them. Finally, breath enters into them and brings them to life.
Slowly imagine yourself physically there in the scene. What do you hear? See? Feel? Sense? Now we are ready to hear what the LORD has to say about these dry bones and the children of Israel.
Jesus Gathers Us Together to Be as One
I Will Cleanse Them So They May Be My People
Ezekiel 37:21-28
Thus says the Lord GOD: I will take the children of Israel from among the nations to which they have come, and gather them from all sides to bring them back to their land. I will make them one nation upon the land, in the mountains of Israel, and there shall be one prince for them all. Never again shall they be two nations, and never again shall they be divided into two kingdoms.
No longer shall they defile themselves with their idols, their abominations, and all their transgressions. I will deliver them from all their sins of apostasy, and cleanse them so that they may be my people and I may be their God. My servant David shall be prince over them, and there shall be one shepherd for them all; they shall live by my statutes and carefully observe my decrees.
They shall live on the land which I gave to my servant Jacob, the land where their fathers lived; they shall live on it forever, they, and their children, and their children’s children, with my servant David their prince forever.
I will make with them a covenant of peace; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them, and I will multiply them, and put my sanctuary among them forever. My dwelling shall be with them; I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Thus the nations shall know that it is I, the LORD, who make Israel holy, when my sanctuary shall be set up among them forever.
Reflection:
Let us take a moment to reflect on the message in the First Reading.
Can you envision this covenantal promise from God, where he fulfills his promise to show mercy to his people who committed apostasy with all kinds of sins of idolatry? Do you recall when we learned about hesed, and what it truly means?
Now let’s personalize this passage from our First Reading…
Be Completely Real…
I want you to apply this to your own life. Many of us struggle with forgiving ourselves when we commit sins against God and are deeply ashamed. As we read about the children of Israel and we study the covenantal love of God, we should see how deeply faithful he is, no matter how far we have strayed, and how deeply he loves us and longs for us to return to him in worship with fidelity. Try to take what you have learned this Lent about God’s merciful love toward the people of Israel and Judah and trust that he loves you just as equally and desires you just as fervently. Contemplate his covenantal love for you.
Give the Holy Spirit time to respond.
Be honest with the Lord. Self-reflect on that many times in your life when you took his loving presence for granted, when you rejected it for the things of this world, and when you have offended him with you sinfulness, lack of love, and neglect. If the Holy Spirit brings something to mind begin a dialogue with the Lord.
In the next part we will read a passage from Jeremiah. Read this passage twice. The first time read it as it is written. The second time, every time you see the following words: Israel, Jacob, them, they, or their, replace them with your name. Let us continue our mental prayer with today’s reading from Jeremiah:
Jesus Gathers Us Together to Be as One
God gathers His Flock and Shepherd's Them
Jeremiah 31:10-13
Hear the word of the LORD, O nations,
Proclaim it on distant isles, and say:
He who scattered Israel, now gathers them together,
He guards them as a shepherd his flock.
The LORD shall ransom Jacob,
he shall redeem him from the hand of his conqueror.
Shouting, they shall mount the heights of Zion,
they shall come streaming to the LORD’s blessings:
Then the virgins shall make merry and dance,
and young men and old as well.
I will turn their mourning into joy,
I will console and gladden them after their sorrows.
Visualize Christ…
Next, we are going to imagine ourselves in a secret meeting place that is near and around the Temple in Jerusalem. We are among the Sanhedrin, which is comprised of 71 lofty members of the Jewish court. We see numerous priests, scribes, and elders here. They have come to discuss the problem of Jesus and are all arguing amongst themselves. They want to do away with him.
Now we are ready to take our image 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?
Jesus Gathers Us Together to Be as One
If We Leave Him Alone All will Believe in Him
John 11:45-56
Many of the Jews who had come to Mary and seen what Jesus had done began to believe in him.
But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. So the chief priests and the Pharisees convened the Sanhedrin and said, “What are we going to do? This man is performing many signs. If we leave him alone, all will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our land and our nation.”
But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing, nor do you consider that it is better for you that one man should die instead of the people, so that the whole nation may not perish.” He did not say this on his own, but since he was high priest for that year, he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation, and not only for the nation, but also to gather into one the dispersed children of God.
So from that day on they planned to kill him.
So Jesus no longer walked about in public among the Jews, but he left for the region near the desert, to a town called Ephraim, and there he remained with his disciples.
Now the Passover of the Jews was near, and many went up from the country to Jerusalem before Passover to purify themselves. They looked for Jesus and said to one another as they were in the temple area, “What do you think? That he will not come to the feast?”
Are You Listening?
Take a moment now to speak from your heart to the Lord. You may want to hold an image of him or a crucifix as you take a few moments to contemplate how they plotted to kill him in a prayer of silence.
Pray the next Lenten Meditation
Day 34 Lenten Meditation
From Darkness to Light, Jesus Sets Prisoners Free
“From Darkness to Light, Jesus Sets Prisoners Free” – join us in our 34th Lenten reflection for Liturgical Year I