Jesus have mercy on me and thoroughly wipe out my guilt. 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 6 of our Lenten Challenge with this opening prayer:
TRUST AND BELIEVE...
Lord,
I believe you want to give me the grace to go deeper in prayer this Lent. Help me to be present to you in these next 15 minutes with my heart fully open and willing to receive that grace.
Jesus, have mercy on me in my brokenness and heal me of my shame. I am sorry for every sin that I have committed which is of grave matter, sins that I have committed with full knowledge, when I knew I was doing something evil, and sins that I committed with full consent of my will, not out of force or duress. Jesus, forgive me and thoroughly wipe out all my guilt.
I know I have sinned against you in countless ways throughout my life. I want to begin anew, and having repented of all the evil I have done in my life up to now; I want to spend the rest of my days loving you with all my heart. I can’t make it up to you, but I want to at least try. Let me try to love you now as I should have done all my life. Please Jesus, wipe out my guilt and heal me of my shame.
Lord, give me the grace I need as I strive to complete these 40 days of daily Lenten reflections. I am choosing to take up my cross and humbly follow you all the way to Calvary and I want to to be freed from my feelings of guilt and shame.
AMEN.
Wednesday of the 1st Week of Lent (Liturgical Year II)
Jesus Have Mercy on Me and Thoroughly Wipe Out my Guilt
A Reflection for Prayerful Meditation
Join me in a prayerful meditation for your Lenten journey that contemplates God’s mercy.
Jesus Have Mercy on Me and Wipe Out my Guilt
Prayer to the Holy Spirit
TRUST AND BELIEVE...
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 open my heart Jesus which is in need of renewal.
Holy Spirit, please help me forgive myself. Give me the grace to overcome the shame I feel for the past sins that I deeply regret.
If I have a sin that is unknown to me that I must still confess, please gently show my broken heart. I surrender all to you. I give you all the remaining days of my life to love you and to serve you. Holy Spirit, please help my broken soul heal and truly accept your love.
Breath on me as I spend these next 15 minutes fixated on today’s Mass readings. 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, trusting in His mercy on me and letting go of all my guilt and shame.
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?
Jesus Have Mercy on Me and Wipe Out My Guilt
The Mercy of God
Jonah 3:1-10
The word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time: “Set out for the great city of Nineveh, and announce to it the message that I will tell you.”
So Jonah made ready and went to Nineveh, according to the LORD’S bidding. Now Nineveh was an enormously large city; it took three days to go through it.
Jonah began his journey through the city, and had gone but a single day’s walk announcing, “Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed,” when the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast and all of them, great and small, put on sackcloth.
When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in the ashes. Then he had this proclaimed throughout Nineveh, by decree of the king and his nobles: “Neither man nor beast, neither cattle nor sheep, shall taste anything; they shall not eat, nor shall they drink water. Man and beast shall be covered with sackcloth and call loudly to God; every man shall turn from his evil way and from the violence he has in hand. Who knows, God may relent and forgive, and withhold his blazing wrath, so that we shall not perish.”
When God saw by their actions how they turned from their evil way, he repented of the evil that he had threatened to do to them; he did not carry it out.
Reflection:
Let us take a moment to reflect on the message in the first reading.
Do you recall the story from the book of Jonah, how the Lord commissioned Jonah the prophet to tell the Ninevites to repent or they would perish? At first Jonah made an evil choice. He fled the call of the Lord in disobedience and joined a ship to Tarsus. But the Lord followed Jonah and dealt with his disobedience by allowing a great storm. Jonah told the men to throw him overboard to appease the wrath of God.
In the passage above we see that Jonah has turned his life around and eventually did do the will of God. Notice the grace that flowed to an entire nation when Jonah obeyed the Lord.
Jesus, help us to always desire your will in our lives so that grace can flow in our lives and the lives of those you put in our path. AMEN.
Now let’s personalize this passage from our first reading…
Have you ever made a choice that you knew was against the will of God? Did the consequence of your actions cause a storm? Do you hold regret? Do you often wonder how your life would have been different had you obeyed God? Can you now see God’s hand in guiding you from your bad decision to the right decision according to his will for you?
Don’t be afraid to reflect on past sins or how you might be committing habitual sins today. The gift that Christ wants to give you is peace of mind and tremendous joy through union with the Holy Spirit. Repentance brings you into communion with Christ and will begin an entirely new chapter in your life.
Be Completely Real...
Talk to the Lord about His hand in your life. Listen with your heart and give the Holy Spirit time to respond. What is the Lord saying to you right now?
Let us continue our mental prayer with today’s Gospel:
Visualize Christ...
Now we will contemplate the Lord by listening to him speak to us in the Gospels. We are journeying with Jesus and his disciples on the road toward Jerusalem. We are traveling through a town where a large crowd, upon hearing that Jesus has come, begins to grow. Seeing the crowd start to gather, Jesus signals to us that he wants to speak to them. As you scan the crowd you see several Pharisees present, and this troubles you because you know they oppose Jesus….
Jesus Have Mercy on Me and Wipe Out My Guilt
Something Greater than Jonah is Here
Luke 11:29-32
While still more people gathered in the crowd, Jesus said to them, “This generation is an evil generation; it seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it, except the sign of Jonah.
Just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be to this generation. At the judgment the queen of the south will rise with the men of this generation and she will condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and there is something greater than Solomon here.
At the judgment, the men of Nineveh will arise with this generation and condemn it, because at the preaching of Jonah they repented, and there is something greater than Jonah here.”
Let us meditate on what Jesus means when he says, “This generation is an evil generation; it seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it, except the sign of Jonah.”
Let’s Pray:
Jesus, let me see your hand in my life and all the ways you comfort me, guide me, protect me, and show me mercy. Help me be holy, Jesus, and full of gratitude. Please, Jesus, have mercy on me a sinner. AMEN.
Reflection
The people of Jesus’ time wanted a sign to prove he is the Messiah, so that they would have faith. In their arrogance and skepticism, they wanted undeniable proof, before they would open their hearts or change their lives.
Jesus, it wasn’t until after they crucified you that the sign was revealed. On the third day you rose again, and your Church was born 10 days after your ascension into heaven. Thank you Jesus for the gift of eternal life. AMEN
Reflection
Now listen to the second part of Jesus’ teaching, “the men of Nineveh will arise with this generation and condemn it, because at the preaching of Jonah they repented.”
Jesus warns us about the grave consequences of human arrogance, and the inability to recognize God in our midst.
Take a moment to ask Jesus questions from your heart….
Maybe you want to ask him how to recognize sins you commit regularly that you need to stop. Give the Holy Spirit time to respond. Sometimes we are not aware of our sins due to ignorance. Wait on the Lord. Ask him to reveal to you things that need changing in your life. Linger on it. Ponder the weight of it. Ask for humility. Be honest with Jesus and tell him your fears. Linger a moment and wait for his response. Has he shown you something? You may want to write it down.
Let us continue our mental prayer with a repentance prayer from Psalm 51:
Jesus Have Mercy on Me and Wipe Out My Guilt
A Prayer of Repentance
Psalm 51:3-4.12-13.18-19
Have mercy on me, O God, in your goodness;
in the greatness of your compassion wipe out my offense.
Thoroughly wash me from my guilt
and of my sin cleanse me.
A clean heart create for me, O God,
and a steadfast spirit renew within me.
Cast me not out from your presence,
and your Holy Spirit take not from me.
For you are not pleased with sacrifices;
should I offer a burnt offering, you would not accept it.
My sacrifice, O God, is a contrite spirit;
a heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.
Are You Listening?
Take a moment and imagine you are on the ship at sea and the storm is overwhelming. You feel this is the end and you will certainly die. You look onto the water. There is the figure of a man and he appears to be walking on the water. As he comes toward you all of a sudden you see him. It’s Jesus!
Contemplate Jesus holding out his arms toward you. He tells you to get out of the boat and come. Do you obey him? Are you more afraid of living without him in the storm or of getting out of the boat and trusting in his love? He knows what awaits you, and he is resolute and determined to prove his love by keeping you from death. He gazes at you and he says to you, “It is I, be not afraid.” Are you going to reply like Peter did and ask him to invite you out into the water?
You have a choice. Are you getting out of the boat? Are you going to trust in Jesus?
Pray the next Lenten Meditation
Day 7 Mental Prayer Meditation
The Keys to the Kingdom of Heaven, Given for our Salvation
Let us prayerfully reflect on the words of Jesus to the Apostle Peter, to whom he gave the keys to the kingdom of heaven for the sake of our eternal salvation.