Lenten Reflection – 10 March – Tuesday of the Second Week of Lent, Readings: Isaiah 1:10, 16-20, Psalm 50:8-9, 16-17, 21, 23, Matthew 23:1-12
“Lord, open my lips, and my mouth shall declare your praise.”
Daily Meditation:
The eyes of the Lord look on the lowly to make them glad. But the face of the Lord turns away from the proud to humble them. The lowly always receive pity from God… Make yourself small before everyone and you will be raised up higher than this world’s princes. Make all creatures go before you, embrace them, humble yourself before them, and you will be honoured more than those who make an offering of gold. Descend lower than your own self and you will see God’s glory within you.
For where humility sprouts, God’s glory spreads… If you have humility in your heart, God will reveal His glory to you in it… St Isaac the Syrian of Nineveh (c 613-c 700) Bishop of Nineveh, Monk at Mosul
But to the wicked God says:
“What right have you to recite my statutes,
or take my covenant on your lips?
For you hate discipline
and you cast my words behind you.
Psalm 50:16-17
Intercessions:
God the Father has given us His only Son, the Word made man,
to be our food and our life. Let us thank him and pray:
May the word of Christ dwell among us in all its richness.
Help us in this Lenten season to listen more frequently to Your word,
-that we may celebrate the solemnity of Easter with greater love for Christ, our paschal teacher,
-that we may encourage those in doubt and error to follow what is true and good.
Enable us to enter more deeply into the mystery of the Anointed One,
-that our lives may reveal Him more effectively.
Lift us out of the mire of pride and honour
-that we may seek only Christ’s Cross as our mantle of humility.
Purify and renew Your Church in this time of salvation,
-that it may give an even greater witness to You.
Closing Prayer:
God in heaven and in my life,
guide me and protect me.
I so often believe I can save myself
and I always end in failure.
Lead me with Your love away from pride
and guide me on the right path.
May Your Spirit inspire the Church
and make us an instrument of your love and guidance.
Thank You for Your care for me,
for Your example which teaches me the way of humility
and self-abnegation.
May the Lord bless us,
protect us from all evil
and bring us to everlasting life.
Amen
God’s Sign
“God’s sign is His humility.
God’s sign is that He makes himself small.
He becomes a child.
He lets us touch him and He asks for our love.
How we would prefer a different sign,
an imposing, irresistible sign of God’s power and greatness!
But His sign summons us to faith and love
and thus it gives us hope – this is what God is like.
He has power, He is Goodness itself.
He invites us to become like Him.
Yes indeed, we become like God,
if we allow ourselves
to be shaped by this sign,
if we ourselves learn humility
and hence true greatness;
if we renounce violence
and use only the weapons
of truth and love.”
AnaStpaul 
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