Daily Catholic Reflection: Tuesday March 28, 2022, Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Lent, Year C

Ez 47:1-9, 12

Psalm 46:2-3, 5-6, 8-9

Jn 5:1-16                 Full Readings

Saint Ludovico of Casoria

Life Flows From Jesus

Brethren, today’s readings speak of the healing power of water. Next to air, water is the other element that living organisms most need to survive and thrive. Human beings, animals and plants cannot go for so long without water before they die. Communities, nations have been known to go to war in order to secure access to water, and many people and animals, as we watch news, are dying of drought because of lack of water. Some of the water shortage is  as a result of human error, and numerous communities across the globe are experiencing water shortage. Humans, animals and plants in those places are threatened with extinction. We may not be able to do much to solve the water problems of the world. But we can at least do all in our power to meet the water needs of those around us – “I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink.”

Daily catholic Reflection: Monday 28, 2022, Monday of the Fourth Week of Lent, Year C

Is 65:17-21

Psalm 30:2 and 4, 5-6, 11-12a and 13b

Jn 4:43-54                     Full Readings

Saint Catharine of Bologna

A New Heaven and New Earth

Brethren, today's readings give us hope amidst the world which has totally lost hope, light to the dark world of today, and a way to the world which has lost its way. The Lord in first Reading promises to make a new Heaven and a new  Earth, that is, a new Life. This new life consists of forgetting the past suffering and restoration of Joy and Gladness,  many years of good living and thus no more infant deaths because dying before 100 will be like a curse, no more weeping but rejoicing in the Lord forever and thus peace will reign.

Brethren, this reading comes at a time when we really need this hope, when we need the answer to our problems and the answer is only returning to God who will renew our lives to live in peace, Harmony and good health. Even those who trust in science, science also needs God in order to enlighten the minds of scientists to find the everlasting solution to some of our problems especially sickness and pandemics like coronavirus. If the Lord does not build the house, in vain do the builders labour and if the Lord does not watch over in vain do the watchmen stay overnight. Dear brethren our only hope is in God who promises new life and fulfills it in Jesus Christ as we see in the Gospel. 

 

The new life that God promises includes the healing from all our spiritual wounds and all body illnesses which Jesus manifests in the Gospel. The healing of the son of the Court Official in the Gospel is the true indication of the new life that God gives. Jesus healed the fever of his son even without going to his house, there is power in the word of God. May we ask him to heal us too of all our illnesses both physical and spiritual.

 

However, as we rejoice in this promise, we have to remember that it is only fulfilled by our response to it, our response through Faith in God. Without faith in God, situations will even worsen. Reflect today on how you have not been faithful to God, not putting trust in Him the way we place it in other things. Reflect also on those instances where you have demanded signs and miracles so that you may believe in God, while not recognizing the small things happening in our lives as great miracles. Pray that your faith will increase your faith daily and give you a new heaven and earth, full of joy and gladness.

Let us Pray

Lord, please increase my faith.  Help me to see You acting in my life and to discover Your perfect love in all things.  As I see You at work in my life, help me to know, with greater certainty, Your perfect love. In a special way, I pray for the restoration of the whole world to its state of peace and Harmony both of mind and body. We repent for all we have done and ask you God to not give us utterly but through your mercy forgive us and look down on us as you answer our prayers.  Jesus, we trust in You. Amen. 

 

Blessed Lenten season

 

Daily Catholic Reflection: Sunday March 27, 2022, Fourth Sunday of Lent Year C

Jos 5:9a, 10-12

Ps 34:2-3, 4-5, 6-7.

2 Cor 5:17-21

Lk 15:1-3, 11-32           Full Readings  or Readings for the Second Scrutiny

Saint Gregory of Narek

Coming Back to Our Senses

Brethren, the fourth Sunday of Lent is traditionally called Laetare Sunday. It is called so following the first word of the opening antiphon: "Rejoice, Jerusalem and all who love her. Be joyful, all who were mourning, exult and be satisfied at her consoling breast." Laetare means Rejoice and therefore this Sunday is a Sunday of joy. It marks the half of the Lenten season (though strictly speaking, it is on Thursday of the third Sunday of Lent)  and Easter is enticingly near. The vestments worn by the celebrant are rose-colored, not violet. This Sunday is also important because it is the day of the second scrutiny in preparation for the baptism of adults at the Easter Vigil. Laetare Sunday is paralleled to Gaudete Sunday.

Daily Catholic Reflection: Wednesday, March 9, 2022, Wednesday of the First Week in Lent, Year C

Jon 3:1-10

Psalm 51:3-4, 12-13, 18-19

Lk 11:29-32                           Full Readings

Saint Frances of Rome

No More Sign than Jesus

Brethren, the sign of Jonah is mostly understood by Matthew to mean the resurrection of Jesus after three days in the tomb, just as Jonah emerged from the belly of the sea beast after three days. But the story of Jonah has lovely value also for itself. The nub of the whole Book of Jonah comes in today’s reading. It is a satire, written of course by a Jew, but mocking the Jews for their complacency and their conviction that the Chosen Race were the only ones to be saved. The message is obvious: the gentiles are more responsive to the word of God than it is to the Jew. We, as Christians, have to be careful because we have all the gospel truth but if we don't take it seriously, other people who even have never heard the Gospel will inherit the kingdom of God first.

Daily Catholic Reflection: Tuesday, March 8, 2022, Tuesday of the First Week of Lent

Is 55:10-11

Psalm 34:4-5, 6-7, 16-17, 18-19

Mt 6:7-15                         Full Readings

Saint John of God

How to Pray

Brethren, today Jesus warns us about the way we pray. When we pray, we should not use many words, beat around the bush but we should be direct to the point. Jesus provides us with the model of all prayer: "The Lord's Prayer." The Lord's prayer is the most common said and known prayer; and a prayer which Jesus Himself gave us. Because it’s so familiar, we can sometimes find ourselves reciting this beautiful prayer thoughtlessly, babbling like the pagans. Most of us just pray it for sake without paying attention to what it contains and what it means. As As St. Edmund reminds us, “It is better to say one Our Father fervently and devoutly than a thousand with no devotion and full of distraction.” Today let us try to reflect on this prayer more deeply.

Daily Catholic Reflection: Monday, March 7, 2022, Monday of the First Week of Lent

Lv 19:1-2, 11-18

Psalm 19:8, 9, 10, 15

Mt 25:31-46            Full Readings

Saints Perpetua and Felicity

Christ is in Every Person

Today's readings my dear brethren have a double importance: firstly a strong call for almsgiving and following God's law (first reading) in this Lenten season; and secondly, a criterion which God will use to judge us at the end of time on the judgement day. God has only one criterion of judging us here on earth and at the end of time: how we love others. Our lives are successes or failures on the basis of what we have done to alleviate hunger, thirst, exile, nakedness, disease, prison. Jesus tells us that our religion is summed up in the diligence and zeal with which we fight against these situations. To drive home this truth even more, he uses the image of the final judgement not only to show us what will happen at the end of the world, but also to teach us what should really count in our lives. Two striking points are stressed in today's gospel which we must take serious.

Daily Catholic Reflection: Sunday 6 March, 2022, First Sunday of Lent, Year C

Dt 26:4-10

Ps 91:1-2, 10-11, 12-13, 14-15.

Rom 10:8-13

Lk 4:1-13                          Full Readings

Saint Mary Ann of Jesus of Paredes

Overcoming Temptations

On every first Sunday of Lent, we are presented with the Gospel of Jesus being led to the desert by the Holy Spirit to be tempted by Satan as a preparation for his ministry. Today we read the Lukan version of the story of temptations. we can ask ourselves, Is temptation good?  Certainly it’s not a sin to be tempted.  Otherwise our Lord could never have been tempted Himself. But He was. And so are we and we have to. As we enter into the first full week of Lent, we are given the opportunity to ponder the story of Jesus’ temptation in the desert, and mostly likely on how he overcame all these temptations where we withdraw the strength to overcome our daily temptations.

Daily Catholic Reflection: Friday 4 March, 2022, Friday after Ash Wednesday

Isaiah 58:1-9a;

Psalm 51:3-4.5-6ab.18-19; R.19bc;

Matthew 9:14-15 Full Readings

Saint Casimir

 The Fruits of True Fasting

Brethren, it is the first Friday of lent and Fridays of lent are days for fasting and denying ourselves not only meat but all things which stop us from coming closer to our God. Today's readings give us the way we should fast truly and what fruits should characterise our fasting. Most times we think denying ourselves food or anything pleasurable thing is what really fasting means but it far more than this. Firstly fasting should be a spiritual exercise bringing us closer to God by leaving all the pleasures of the world and focusing on God alone. Secondly, true fasting leads us to charity. Some of us may fast but then keep the food or anything we have fasted from for another day. This is is not what fasting entails; what we have fasted from should be collected and given out as in form of charity, for fasting should make us feel with those who do not have when we pass through the experience of self-denial. Through self denial, we should feel what those who don't have everyday feel, and then be moved to help them.

Daily Catholic Reflection: Thursday 3, 2022, Thursday after Ash Wednesday

Deuteronomy 30:15-20;

Psalm 1:1-2.3.4and6;

Luke 9:22-25 Full Readings

Saint Katharine Drexel

Choose Life or Death

Brethren, today's readings present to us the fundamental choices we have to make as Christians: to choose Life or Death as we see in the first reading, and to choose the world or choose to save our souls, as presented in the Gospel. With the former, choosing life means following God's commandments and choosing death means disobedience to God who is the source of life. With the latter, choosing the world and its pleasures means you let God outside your life for God is opposed to the world and you are going to lose your soul but choosing to save your soul means to carry your cross daily and follow Jesus. Reflect today on what you want to choose todays and move with it through this Lenten period.

Daily Catholic Reflection: Wednesday 02, Mach 2022, Ash Wednesday

Joel 2:12-18

Psalm 51:3-4, 5-6ab, 12-13, 14 and 17

2 Cor 5:20-6:2

Mt 6:1-6, 16-18                                 Full Readings

Saint Agnes of Bohemia

Rend Your Hearts, and not Your Garments

Brethren, today we start our annual observance of the Lenten period, a period of forty days, a time for intense preparation of our hearts (and bodies) to receive the light of the risen Christ on Easter. The forty days of Lent is the annual retreat of the people of God in imitation of Jesus' forty days in the wilderness while he was being tempted. Forty is a significant number in the Scriptures. Moses went to the mountain to seek the face of God for forty days in prayer and fasting. The people of Israel were in the wilderness for forty years in preparation for their entry into the promised land. Elijah fasted for forty days as he journeyed in the wilderness to the mountain of God. We are called to journey with the Lord in a special season of prayer, fasting, almsgiving, and penitence (expressing true sorrow for sin and wrongdoing) as we prepare to celebrate the feast of Easter, the Christian Passover of Jesus' victory over sin, Satan, and death.