The Betrayal of Jesus for Love of Money. 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 36 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 gratitude and hope in my salvation. 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 the betrayal of Jesus for love of money. I want to follow you all the way to Calvary, Jesus, and I want to do it with my whole heart.
AMEN.
Wednesday of Holy Week (Liturgical Year I)
The Betrayal of Jesus for Love of Money
A Reflection for Prayerful Meditation
Let’s begin Day 36 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.
The Betrayal of Jesus for Love of Money
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 return to the prophecy of the suffering servant. As you read this passage, it will sound like the words are coming from the suffering servant himself. Imagine this prophetic voice coming from Jesus Christ himself. Picture him speaking these words to you in his resurrected body. Visualize Jesus reading this passage from a scroll. Imagine yourself physically there in the scene, watching Jesus speak these words. What do you hear? See? Feel? Sense?
The Betrayal of Jesus for Love of Money
Do Not Let Me Turn Away My Heart, Lord
Isaiah 50:4-9
The Lord GOD has given me a well-trained tongue, That I might know how to speak to the weary a word that will rouse them. Morning after morning he opens my ear that I may hear; And I have not rebelled, have not turned back. I gave my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who plucked my beard; My face I did not shield from buffets and spitting.
The Lord GOD is my help, therefore I am not disgraced; I have set my face like flint, knowing that I shall not be put to shame. He is near who upholds my right; if anyone wishes to oppose me, let us appear together. Who disputes my right? Let him confront me. See, the Lord GOD is my help; who will prove me wrong?
Reflection:
Let us take a moment to reflect on the message in the First Reading.
Did you envision yourself hearing Jesus read Isaiah’s prophecy of his crucifixion? Did it amaze you that this prophecy was so accurate, and descriptive? What does his voice of authority sound like to you? What emotion does it create in your heart to hear these words?
Now let’s personalize this passage from our First Reading…
Be Completely Real…
Are you weary? Do you need Jesus to speak to your heart and rouse you? Ask the Lord to open your heart to his word and your ear to hear his voice. Linger in the presence of the Lord for a little bit in the prayer of silence.
Give the Holy Spirit time to respond.
Did the Lord speak to your heart? If so, you may want to journal about it. If you did not hear a word, do not be discouraged. Enter into a prayer of gratitude. Say to the Lord, “You are my help, and I will not be disgraced as long as I turn to you. Thank you, Jesus for being near me always, and upholding me in my darkest moments.”
In the next part we will read a passage from Psalms. Prayerfully meditate on this passage, with the conviction of the Holy Spirit in your heart.
Let us continue our mental prayer with today’s Responsorial Psalm:
The Betrayal of Jesus for Love of Money
Let Me Meditate on the Law of the Lord
Psalms 69:8-10, 21-22, 31, 33-34
For your sake I bear insult,
and shame covers my face.
I have become an outcast to my brothers,
a stranger to my mother’s sons,
because zeal for your house consumes me,
and the insults of those who blaspheme you fall upon me.
Insult has broken my heart, and I am weak,
I looked for sympathy, but there was none;
for consolers, not one could I find.
Rather they put gall in my food,
and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.
I will praise the name of God in song,
and I will glorify him with thanksgiving.
“See, you lowly ones, and be glad;
you who seek God, may your hearts revive!
For the LORD hears the poor,
and his own who are in bonds he spurns not.”
Visualize Christ…
Next, we will go to the Last Supper to spend time with Jesus and the disciples. It is Spy Wednesday. Today we enter into the betrayal of Jesus by Judas Iscariot, who agreed to betray Jesus on this day by becoming a spy who would turn him into the authorities who wanted to arrest and put Jesus to death for blasphemy. Try to put yourself in this scene. Take a moment to close your eyes and picture Judas traveling to the Temple to discuss how to hand him over. Really enter into this moment, imagining the weight of it.
Put yourself in this scene much like you did in the First Reading. Read this passage twice, the second time more slowly, pausing on a word or phrase that speaks to your heart. Then prayerfully speak to Jesus about what stirred your heart. What do you want to tell him?
The Betrayal of Jesus for Love of Money
Let Me Deny Myself and Take up My Cross
Matthew 26:14-25
One of the Twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, “What are you willing to give me if I hand him over to you?” They paid him thirty pieces of silver, and from that time on he looked for an opportunity to hand him over.
On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the disciples approached Jesus and said, “Where do you want us to prepare for you to eat the Passover?”
He said, “Go into the city to a certain man and tell him, ‘The teacher says, My appointed time draws near; in your house I shall celebrate the Passover with my disciples.'”
The disciples then did as Jesus had ordered, and prepared the Passover. When it was evening, he reclined at table with the Twelve.
And while they were eating, he said, “Amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me.”
Deeply distressed at this, they began to say to him one after another, “Surely it is not I, Lord?”
He said in reply, “He who has dipped his hand into the dish with me is the one who will betray me.
The Son of Man indeed goes, as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed. It would be better for that man if he had never been born.”
Then Judas, his betrayer, said in reply, “Surely it is not I, Rabbi?”
He answered, “You have said so.”
Are You Listening?
Can you imagine knowing Judas would betray you for all of time, and still accepting him as a disciple anyway? Can you imagine walking with him, teaching him, dining with him, and loving him unconditionally for three years of ministry, knowing he would turn you over for 30 pieces of silver? Can you love like this?
We are all called to imitate Christ.
Take a moment now to speak from your heart to the Lord about betrayal and forgiveness. What is coming to your mind? Have you been betrayed? Have you forgiven? Has someone betrayed you? Have you forgiven them? Linger in prayer with Jesus and enter into his heart. Imagine the grief he felt on this day and feel it with him.
Pray the next Lenten Meditation
Day 37 Lenten Meditation
The Passover of the Lord is Our Salvation
“The Passover of the Lord is Our Salvation” – join us in our 37th Lenten reflection for Liturgical Year I