Jesus my Cornerstone, the stone that the builders rejected. 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 14 of our Lenten Challenge with this opening prayer:
TRUST AND BELIEVE...
Jesus my Cornerstone,
In you is all life. You are the Word. Everything that came to be has come into existence through you. Everything in my life has come to pass because you will it. Yet you are the stone that the builders rejected. Let me never reject you, Jesus my Cornerstone. Let me never remove you from my life. You are the foundation of my entire existence. My whole life is in you. You are the Word that directs my path.
You are the living Word that has come down from heaven to dwell within me. I owe my very existence to you and I recognize my nothingness without your presence in my life. Jesus my Cornerstone, give me fortitude. Let me endure all suffering that you give me to establish in me a meek and humble heart. You are my firm foundation, my rock, my Father in this life, the source of my very breath. Give me peace even when my future is uncertain, Jesus my Cornerstone.
Help me have real faith in you so that I do not despair when faced with suffering and uncertainty about my future. Jesus my Cornerstone, the foundation of my life is built on my relationship with you.
AMEN.
Friday of the 2nd Week of Lent (Liturgical Year II)
Jesus My Cornerstone: the Stone that the Builders Rejected
A Reflection for Prayerful Meditation
Join me in a prayerful meditation for your Lenten journey with Jesus, the one they rejected.
Jesus, My Cornerstone:
The Stone the Builders Rejected
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.
Holy Spirit, please make me strong and courageous, firm in faith, and unwavering in my desire to please you.
I ask for courage and fortitude so that I can trust you during my trials and tests. Holy Spirit, help me worship you with fidelity. You know my heart and mind, and how I seek to take control of things in my life. Help me to separate myself from all worldly attachments and spend this time with my heart and mind completely fixated on you.
Lord, you know all my weaknesses and that I can’t hear your voice 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.
Breath 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 make Jesus my Cornerstone this Lent.
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 My Cornerstone:
the Stone that the Builders Rejected
They Hated Him So Much
Genesis 37:3-4.12-13,17-28
Israel loved Joseph best of all his sons, for he was the child of his old age; and he had made him a long tunic. When his brothers saw that their father loved him best of all his sons, they hated him so much that they would not even greet him.
One day, when his brothers had gone to pasture their father’s flocks at Shechem, Israel said to Joseph, “Your brothers, you know, are tending our flocks at Shechem. Get ready; I will send you to them.”
“I am ready,” Joseph answered.
The man told him, “They have moved on from here; in fact, I heard them say, ‘Let us go on to Dothan.'”
So Joseph went after his brothers and caught up with them in Dothan. They noticed him from a distance, and before he came up to them, they plotted to kill him. They said to one another: “Here comes that master dreamer! Come on, let us kill him and throw him into one of the cisterns here; we could say that a wild beast devoured him. We shall then see what comes of his dreams.”
When Reuben heard this, he tried to save him from their hands, saying: “We must not take his life. Instead of shedding blood,” he continued, “just throw him into that cistern there in the desert; but don’t kill him outright.” His purpose was to rescue him from their hands and restore him to his father.
So when Joseph came up to them, they stripped him of the long tunic he had on; then they took him and threw him into the cistern, which was empty and dry. They then sat down to their meal. Looking up, they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, their camels laden with gum, balm and resin to be taken down to Egypt.
Judah said to his brothers: “What is to be gained by killing our brother and concealing his blood? Rather, let us sell him to these Ishmaelites, instead of doing away with him ourselves. After all, he is our brother, our own flesh.”
His brothers agreed.
They sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver. Some Midianite traders passed by, and they pulled Joseph up out of the cistern and took him to Egypt.
Reflection:
Let us take a moment to reflect on the message in the first reading.
What part of this passage from Genesis sticks out to you?
“When his brothers saw that their father loved him best of all his sons, they hated him so much that they would not even greet him.”
Just like Jeremiah, the weeping prophet, Joseph is also another ‘type’ of Christ foreshadowed in the Old Testament. We know that the Lord cared for Joseph and later delivered him. As we follow Joseph’s life we learn he is eventually made second in command to the Pharoah in Egypt. He was blessed by God and prospered despite his brothers’ sinful envy and evil betrayal, being sold into slavery and given years of trials. God’s anointing was on Joseph, and in his heart he wanted to please the Lord.
Now let’s personalize this passage from our first reading…
Who in this story do you most identify with? Do you favor one child over all the others like Israel? Have you been the victim of envy like Joseph? Have you unsuccessfully tried to solve a family conflict through making bad a compromise like Rueben? Or have you rationalized committing a lesser evil against a loved one like Judah?
Ask the Holy Spirit to show you.
Take a few moments to be in silence with the Lord. What is the Holy Spirit speaking to your heart?
Let’s Pray:
Holy Spirit, my Advisor, and the Spirit of Truth, help me see the spiritual consequences of my decisions and repent of the times I have failed to seek your will and caused spiritual harm to others and myself. Help me to make peace in my family where there is division. AMEN.
Be Completely Real...
Has the Holy Spirit pricked your conscience about a particular family member? Remain with the Lord for a while, asking him questions and listening with your heart.
Now we will contemplate the Lord by listening to him speak to us in the Gospels.
Visualize Christ
Jesus is back inside the Temple, three years after having driven out the money changers at the start of his ministry. The corruption has returned to this place. This is the final week of Jesus’ earthly life….
Jesus My Cornerstone:
the Stone that the Builders Rejected
He knew They were Attempting to Arrest Him
Matthew 21:33-43,45-46
Jesus said to the chief priests and the elders of the people: “Hear another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a hedge around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a tower. Then he leased it to tenants and went on a journey.
When vintage time drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to obtain his produce. But the tenants seized the servants and one they beat, another they killed, and a third they stoned.
Again he sent other servants, more numerous than the first ones, but they treated them in the same way.
Finally, he sent his son to them, thinking, ‘They will respect my son.’ But when the tenants saw the son, they said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and acquire his inheritance.’ They seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him.
What will the owner of the vineyard do to those tenants when he comes?”
They answered him, “He will put those wretched men to a wretched death and lease his vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the proper times.”
Jesus said to them, “Did you never read in the scriptures: ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; by the Lord has this been done, and it is wonderful in our eyes’? Therefore, I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that will produce its fruit.
When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they knew that he was speaking about them. And although they were attempting to arrest him, they feared the crowds, for they regarded him as a prophet.
Reflection:
Let us meditate on what Jesus means when he says, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; by the Lord has this been done, and it is wonderful in our eyes.”
It strikes me how some things never change when it comes to our sinful nature. The scribes and Pharisees were threatened by the truth that Jesus preached. They had no answer to rebut him with, and rather than open their hearts to dialogue and understanding, rather than humble themselves, they plotted to kill him.
They feared what he said. They feared what he might do. They feared the lack of control he brought to their lives. They desired power and control over the truth of Christ.
Ask yourself, in what ways do I hide from the truth that Jesus is revealing to my conscience? In what area do I struggle with pride? Are their things I’m not willing to give up and surrender to Jesus? Am I guilty of denying a painful truth about a sinful habit that God wants to chisel away at?
Let’s Pray:
Jesus my Cornerstone, build within me a firm foundation of virtue. Hammer and chisel away my sinful nature. Teach me to be meek and humble. Give me the fortitude to endure every trial. Fill my heart with firm faith and peace that passes all understanding. AMEN.
Let us continue our mental prayer with a meditation from Saint Padre Pio.
Jesus My Cornerstone:
the Stone that the Builders Rejected
Hammer and Chisel
From the Letters of St. Padre Pio
Every soul destined for eternal glory can be considered most aptly as a stone for building an eternal edifice. The builder who seeks to put up a dwelling in the best way should first polish the stones that will be used in the construction. He does this with blows of hammer and chisel. In the same way, our heavenly Father works on chosen souls who, from all eternity, by his supreme wisdom and providence, have been destined for building up the eternal dwelling.
The soul, if it wants to reign with Christ in eternal glory, must be polished with hammer and chisel strokes, which the divine Artificer uses to prepare the stones, that is, the chosen souls. What are these hammer and chisel strokes? Darkness, my sister, fears, temptations, sadness of spirit and spiritual fears, which reek like a sickness, and bodily discomfort.
Give thanks to the infinite piety of the eternal Father who, in this way, leads your soul to salvation. Why not glory in these benevolent conditions from the best of all fathers? Open your heart to the celestial doctor of souls and, full of confidence, surrender yourselves into his most holy arms: as a chosen one, he leads you to follow Jesus closely on Mount Calvary. With joy and emotion in my soul I ponder how grace is working in you.
Do not forget that the Lord has arranged everything your soul experiences. If this benevolent Spouse of your soul hides from you, he does so not, as you think, because he wants to take revenge on your wickedness, but because it tests your fidelity and constancy even more, and, besides, heals you of some diseases not considered as such by carnal eyes, that is to say, those diseases and faults to which not even the just person is immune. Indeed, Scripture says in the book of Proverbs: “Seven times a righteous man falls.”
Believe me, if I did not see you so afflicted, I would not be as happy, because I would think that the Lord wanted to give you fewer gems. Get rid of, as temptations, the doubts that assail you. Also expel the doubts with regards to the purpose of your life: to do that is not to listen to the divine summons, and to resist the sweet invitations of the Bridegroom. All these things do not come from a good spirit but from a bad one. These are diabolical ploys that try to separate you from perfection or, at least, hinder the journey towards it.
Do not lose heart!
Reflection:
Are you in desolation right now? Do not ruminate on a single doubt that comes to your mind about the purpose of your life or the calling Jesus gave you when you were in a time of consolation. Get rid of all temptation to doubt through constant prayer. Remember what Padre Pio wrote in this letter. These come from an evil spirit and not the Lord.
Contemplate Jesus as your Cornerstone. He is the builder who is creating you. He knows all. If he chooses to hammer and chisel away at your vices, then so be it. Thank him for every test, every darkness he has given you to endure, every temptation you have had to overcome.
Let’s Pray:
Jesus my Cornerstone, you have arranged everything. Thank you for every trial, temptation, and time of desolation. Make me holy. AMEN.
Meditate on how much Love it took for Jesus to endure be arrested, scourged, mocked, crowned with thorns, and crucified. Think about the stigmata of St. Padre Pio. Suffering is a gift from God to perfect us in holy love.
Humbly ask the Lord to give you courage and fortitude and holy love, to help you overcome all obstacles to grace. Take a moment right now to ask Jesus to increase your faith during your current trial and give you the strength to carry your cross with love.
Are You Listening?
Take a moment and imagine yourself in the pit of despair, lowered into a cistern and abandoned by your brothers. You are in a situation similar to Joseph’s. Let’s go there in your imagination right now.
You have no way out. You are trapped in a pit, it is getting dark and the temperature is dropping. You have no coat; it was stolen from you.
You have no hope. You are in complete misery.
Fear overcomes you and panic sets in. You begin to ruminate about animals coming to devour you. You consider how you might starve to death. You imagine murderers will come and kill you. You believe life is over, and you despair beyond all hope, almost wanting to die, resigned to the fact that there is no human way possible you will come out of this situation.
Night falls and you sit in silence, anticipating how long until death comes. You try to pray. You cry out to God but your prayer is angry and distrusting. It is anything but love because you are only thinking about self-love and self-preservation and you lack faith.
At dawn you begin to hear footsteps in the sand, they make a slow swishing sound. The steps begin to get louder and louder until they seem to be just over the hole at the top of the cistern.
You shout, “Hello!!”
But the steps fall quiet and you hear no reply.
You call out, “I am dying down here!”
A moment goes by and finally you see a face.
It is Jesus!
You cry out, “Teacher! Don’t you care that I am perishing? I called to you and you did not answer me!”
Jesus replies, “Quiet, be still. Now Rise!”
You begin to feel your body rise to the surface, out of the hole.
Then Jesus says, “Why are you terrified? Do you not yet have faith?”
Do you lack faith? When faced with darkness and trial do you wallow in misery or do you pray with faith? Do you trust that Jesus will come and that he loves you?
Pray the next Lenten Meditation
Day 15 Mental Prayer Meditation
The Eternal Father has Brought me Back to Life
This mental prayer contemplates the Eternal Father in the parable of the prodigal son. It also praises the Eternal Father who has also brought me back to life.