Lent 5th Week - March 22-27

Mar 22nd, Monday: John 8: 1-11: 1 but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2 Early in the morning he came again to the temple; all the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them. 3 The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery and placing her in the midst 4 they said to him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. 5 Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such. What do you say about her?”

5th Week of Lent, Saturday, March 27

 5th Week of Lent, Saturday, March 27

Ezekiel 37:21-28 / John 11:45-56

 

Jesus does remarkable things: Many people put their trust in him.

There's a scene in My Fair Lady in which Eliza Doolittle grows weary of Freddy's daily letters, telling her how much he loves her. In a burst of frustration, she begins to sing the song "Show Me." In the song she says she's sick of words. She's sick of all this talk of stars "burning above." "If there's really any love burning in your heart, show me." (adapted) Jesus had done everything he could do to show the Jews his love for them. Some Jews eventually saw it and "began to believe in him"; many others did not.

5th Week of Lent, Friday, March 26

 5th Week of Lent, Friday, March 26

Jeremiah 20:10-13 / John 10:31-42 

The Jews rebuke Jesus; "You, a man, are making yourself God.” 

One night the Philadelphia Orchestra, under the baton of Leopold Stokowski, was performing a Beethoven overture. In it, a part for a trumpet is played offstage. When the time came for the offstage trumpet, there was no sound. Stokowski was furious. Again, the time came for the offstage trumpet. Again, there was only silence. After the overture ended, Stokowski stormed off the stage to find the trumpet player. There he was, his arms pinned to his side by a burly security guard who said, "This nut was trying to play his horn while your concert was going on out there." In a similar way, the people were frustrating God's plan by failing to recognize Jesus' role in it.

5th Week of Lent, Tuesday, March 23

Numbers 21:4-9 / John 8:21-30
Jesus warns the Pharisees; "Where I am going you cannot come. "

When Jesus said, "Where I am going you cannot come," the Pharisees wondered if he was planning to take his own life. Rabbis held that people who took their life went to the deepest part of the nether world. This shows how terribly the Pharisees had misread Jesus and how far from the truth they were. What Jesus actually meant was that he was returning to his Father in heaven. Spiritual blindness is a terrible sin. It implies a deliberate closing of one's eyes to the truth. This seems to have been the situation of the Pharisees. This is why Jesus told the Pharisees, "You will die in your sins."

5th Week of Lent, Monday, March 22

5th Week of Lent, Monday, March 22
Daniel 13:41-62 / John 8:12-20
People bring a sinner to Jesus; Jesus forgave the sinner.

 

These lines by an unknown poet strike a universal chord:  "How I wish that there was some wonderful place Called the Land of Beginning Again, Where all our mistakes and all our headaches . . .

Lent Sunday 5 B - The Seed must die ---and ----be Lifted Up

"When I am lifted up..."

Check the Sundays gone by: First the devil lifts him up in the desert, then the Father lifts him up at Mt. Tabor, then Jesus "lifts up" ordinary people - Jews and Gentiles - who came to the temple to worship at the Passover by chasing away those who made his Father's house into a den of thieves and then we had Moses lifting up the bronze serpent in the desert as a symbol of raising people from the snake bites. First one was to tempt (worldly gratification), second was to comfort (spiritual consolation in prayer), third to cleanse and liberate people (mission, ministries) and the fourth was healing and salvation.

4th Week of Lent, Wednesday, March 17

  4th Week of Lent, Wednesday, March 17

Isaiah 49:8-15 / John 5:17-30 

Jesus speaks to the people; "I seek not my will but God's." 

Hikers and mountain climbers sometimes experience incredible highs. A Swiss hiker describes such a high. It took place on the sixth day of a hike with a group of friends. All of a sudden, she had the feeling of being raised out of herself. She says: "I felt the presence of God…

Lent 4th Week: March 15-20:

 Lent 4^th Week: March 15-20: 

March 15 Monday: Jn 4:43-54: USCCB video reflections 

http://www.usccb.org/bible/reflections/index.cfm 

https://catholic-daily-reflections.com/daily-reflections/ 

Fr. Tony (http://frtonyshomilies.com/(L/21).

The context: According to John’s Gospel, after facing rejection by his hometown, Nazareth, Jesus went to Jerusalem in Judea for the Passover feast. From Jerusalem, Jesus returned to Galilee and to his headquarters, Capernaum, where people received him as a miracle-working preacher and

Lenten Penitential Service-1

 Lenten Penitential Service-1

 

Presider:

Grace and peace be with you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ who laid down his life for our sins.

           All:     Glory to him forever. Amen

Lent 4th Sunday B - Must be Lifted up

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First the devil takes him up the pinnacle of the temple to be tested. Then as if it were the angels take him up the mountain to be consoled. In Lent, we experience both desolation and consolation. From the wild beasts to the benign friends. Then the Lord goes into the temple to cleanse it. That's into each of us: the animals, the haggling and the scheming part of us.