Catholic Calendar for Sunday, February 13, 2005
The First Sunday of Lent

Scripture from today's Liturgy of the Word:
Genesis 2:7-9,3:1-7
Psalm 51:3-6,12-14,17
Romans 3:12-19
Matthew 4:1-11

A reflection on today's Sacred Scripture:

"Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. He fasted for forty days and forty nights..." Matthew 4:1

The desert is a most desirable hostel for beloveds. This quiet, distraction-free environment, allows through unitive prayer and increasingly, self-emptying fasting, more room for All in one.


Jesus reveals in His desert fasting prayer, His total conforming of thought, will and desire in love to His Father. Love with one's whole heart, mind, soul and strength sheds more of self to take in more of the beloved.


Jesus perseveres without any 'thing' to sustain Him, consuming only the bread of grace. The will of Jesus strengthens for the next more painful yet loving step in self denial. His hunger is satisfied by the joy that obedience by doing the will of God brings to Him.


The soul, ravenous to the point of death with longing and desire for the presence of God, Who is the Bread that alone satisfies that hunger, who, once fed with His Love, tastes a satisfaction that it never wants to lose, nor take for granted.


The soul's most parched thirst for the holiness that makes one's soul pleasing to this Love for which one is ravenous, knows that precious quenching that His covenantal love bestows. To hunger for the Lord and be satisfied with the sweetness of His Love, makes one beg to hunger and thirst always so as never to lose awareness that He is All in all.


O Lord,
thank you for the gift of prayer and fasting this Lent
to strengthen our will
to grapple with temptations
to satisfy bodily lusts,
to resist imprudence which compromises life,
and to avoid pride which replaces the presence of Love.
We know that replacing Love
means one no longer hungers or thirsts for You:
our True Bread and Drink.
Amen.


- Mary Williams
(www.impactbydesign.biz)

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posted by joachim at 4:53 AM