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.