Your Works are Holy and Your Ways are Just. 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 24 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 humility and contrition. 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 your works are holy and your ways are just. I want to follow you all the way to Calvary, Jesus, and I want to do it with my whole heart.
AMEN.
Wednesday of the Fourth week of Lent (Liturgical Year I)
Your Works are Holy and Your Ways are Just
A Reflection for Prayerful Meditation
Let’s begin Day 24 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.
Your Works are Holy and Your Ways are Just
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 about to read Isaiah chapter 49, and in the beginning of this chapter, there is a prophecy. We are introduced to a Servant who is going to restore Israel and be a Servant to all nations. I want you to picture Isaiah preaching this message to the Israelites still in Babylonian exile.
Imagine how hard it was for them to have faith that their people would be restored. I want you to hear these promises and know that this Servant who is spoken about, and called from the womb, is Jesus Christ, and we know he is bringing salvation to the Israelites and the world. So let us read this prophecy with an image of Christ in our hearts and minds.
Imagine yourself physically there in the scene. Feel the excitement in your heart knowing that even though the people don’t understand, you know what is in store for the future of mankind….
Your Works are Holy and Your Ways are Just
You Build Highways through The Mountains
Isaiah 49:8-15
In a time of favor I answer you, on the day of salvation I help you; and I have kept you and given you as a covenant to the people, To restore the land and allot the desolate heritages, Saying to the prisoners: Come out! To those in darkness: Show yourselves!
Along the ways they shall find pasture, on every bare height shall their pastures be. I will cut a road through all my mountains, and make my highways level. Sing out, O heavens, and rejoice, O earth, break forth into song, you mountains. For the LORD comforts his people and shows mercy to his afflicted.
Reflection:
Let us take a moment to reflect on the message in the First Reading.
Did you hear the prophecy and see very clearly that this message was about Jesus? Maybe you pictured Jesus as you heard the words. Your experience with the Lord gave you a unique perspective about this prophetic message from God. Did you know that this prophecy was given about 700 years before the birth of Christ?
Now let’s personalize this passage from our First Reading…
Be Completely Real…
Think about a struggle you are having in your life. Take a moment to let God enter into this suffering with you. Allow yourself to consider how the Lord sees your situation. Imagine he looks at you in the same way he spoke to the Israelites about their time in exile.
Give the Holy Spirit time to open your heart so that you can receive God’s grace.
Be honest with the Lord. Ask him to cut through all your mountains and make the highways level for you, so that you can carry your cross and bear this trial with full faith in him. Tell him you want faith to see his presence and promise to you in the same way you already see the outcome of his presence and promise to the Israelites in Isaiah 49. Tell him you believe that he will never forget you.
In the next part we will read a prayer of adoration from Psalms. Pray this with love and gratitude.
Let us continue our mental prayer with today’s Responsorial Psalm:
Your Works are Holy and Your Ways are Just
You are Near Me When I Call on You in Truth
Psalms 145:8-9, 13-14, 17-18
The LORD is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger and of great kindness.
The LORD is good to all
and compassionate toward all his works.
The LORD is faithful in all his words
and holy in all his works.
The LORD lifts up all who are falling
and raises up all who are bowed down.
The LORD is just in all his ways
and holy in all his works.
The LORD is near to all who call upon him,
to all who call upon him in truth.
Visualize Christ…
Next, try to put yourself in the presence of Christ by visualizing Jesus in an intimate way. Take a moment to close your eyes and picture him looking at you. You may want to imagine a favorite image of him coming alive and speaking to you. In this way you will be able to visualize Jesus in a personal way and this will help you understand how much he loves you and feel connected to him when you pray.
Now we are ready to take our image of Jesus and visualize today’s Gospel Reading. 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?
Your Works are Holy and Your Ways are Just
The Father Gives All judgment to the Son
John 5:17-30
Jesus answered the Jews: “My Father is at work until now, so I am at work.”
For this reason the Jews tried all the more to kill him, because he not only broke the sabbath but he also called God his own father, making himself equal to God.
Jesus answered and said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, a son cannot do anything on his own, but only what he sees his father doing; for what he does, his son will do also.
For the Father loves his Son and shows him everything that he himself does, and he will show him greater works than these, so that you may be amazed.
For just as the Father raises the dead and gives life, so also does the Son give life to whomever he wishes. Nor does the Father judge anyone, but he has given all judgment to his Son, so that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.
Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes in the one who sent me has eternal life and will not come to condemnation, but has passed from death to life. Amen, amen, I say to you, the hour is coming and is now here when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For just as the Father has life in himself, so also he gave to his Son the possession of life in himself. And he gave him power to exercise judgment, because he is the Son of Man.
Do not be amazed at this, because the hour is coming in which all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and will come out, those who have done good deeds to the resurrection of life, but those who have done wicked deeds to the resurrection of condemnation.
I cannot do anything on my own; I judge as I hear, and my judgment is just, because I do not seek my own will but the will of the one who sent me.“
Are You Listening?
Contemplate Jesus looking at you right now. Can you imagine him speaking to you? What is he saying? Is he reminding you that he is a God of both mercy and justice? Are you reminded of the children of Israel who were sent into exile because they turned away from God? Can you see how Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s promise in Isaiah? Reflect on how the Lord has never forgotten you and consider all the times you have forgotten him in the past. Do you hear his voice in your conscience? What is he saying to you?
Take a moment now to speak from your heart about your desire to hear his word and believe in him. Tell him you want to live your life doing good deeds. Ask the Holy Spirit for an increase in the gift of fear of the Lord, knowing that God exercises justice as well as mercy.
Pray the next Lenten Meditation
Day 25 Lenten Meditation
The Intercession of the Saints Makes Your Mercy Flow
“The Intercession of the Saints Makes Your Mercy Flow” – join us in our 25th Lenten reflection for Liturgical Year I