Malankara World

Great Lent Today

Day 6 - First Saturday of Great Lent

Daily Lent Prayer

"Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth shall declare your praise."

Collect:

Almighty ever-living God,
look with compassion on our weakness
and ensure us your protection
by stretching forth the right hand of your majesty.
Through our Lord, Jesus Christ, your son
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.

The Readings

Isaiah 58: 9b-14; Psalm 86: 1-2, 3-4, 5-6; Luke 5: 27-32

In His Steps - A Lenten Series

Today: At the Temple: Born Under the Law

Daily Meditation:

A Saturday of Lent
and more on "True Fasting."
Each of the Saturdays of Lent are more upbeat and "lighter" in tone.
We are preparing for Sunday.

Our reading from Isaiah 58 continues,
as does our self-examination
regarding what true fasting is for us this Lent.

What patterns will I change?

Daily Reflection

by Jeanne Schuler
Philosophy Department, Creighton University

What lies Hidden in the Ordinary

“If you remove from your midst oppression …Then light shall rise for you in the darkness, and the gloom shall become for you like midday.” (Isaiah 58:9-10)

Religion has rhythms. Crawling out of bed, we pause to pray. Meals begin with a blessing. Some days we fast. Recalling the saints brings cheer: we are not alone. During long drives, we turn off the radio and recite the rosary. On Sundays we celebrate Mass and sometimes leave Church humming hymns. Rituals welcome the young, anoint the sick, heal heavy hearts, and bid farewell to the dead. Catholics learn to read the Bible and a thinking faith is encouraged. Before sinking into sleep, we dart through the dying day for glimpses of God’s face.

Sometimes the rhythm is dull like a tired drum beat. Sometimes rituals are haunting in new ways. But religion goes further. It pushes us out into the world. Hearing stories of war, violence, and injustice, our complacency is shaken. The theologian Dorothy Soelle calls religion the cure for banality. From the pews, we are called into the streets to speak out. Through faith we are connected to all things.

Today’s readings reveal the cure for the gloom that settles upon us: watch your words, be mindful of the Sabbath, do not divide people, share food with the hungry, and take no delight in the misfortunes of the wicked. Give sinners a chance and partner with God in renewing this earth. Life is too short to rage against demons and bad guys.

Ritual can grow stale; authority can stifle the spirit. But the split between spirituality and religion is overdrawn. Faith must be lived through steps taken each day. From religion, we draw strength from all who search for God and struggle to make sense out of this earth and beyond. Their journeys show me who I am.

What becomes ordinary does not dim the beauty of being here. Like Levi, we can hear a new call and say Yes.

Source: Creighton University's Online Ministries

Preface for Meditation
by Prince Mathew

With prayer and fasting, the bride – the Church – began the uphill way to follow the beloved bridegroom – Christ - on the steep slope of Golgotha. This could be, in few words, the meaning and the purpose of the liturgical setting of Great Lent: through the divine services and ascetic practices, the Church taking by the hand each and every faithful guides them to an existential participation in the sacred passion of the Lord, carrying with Him the cross and sharing its weight and burden.

If the Cross of Christ was an act of absolute self-denial, an act of thorough eradication of every seed of selfishness and absolute dedication to the Father’s plan, then, the Church guides the faithful to the same experience through the various liturgical and ascetic practices of the Lenten period. Jesus’ death and resurrection is recalled in word and sacrament in Holy Week and Easter. " On this lent days, only a true believer can appreciate and follow Him by going through the days of Jesus sufferings from the time when Jesus seized in the Garden of Gethsemane and crucified on Calvary, and His joyful resurrection and His appearances to the disciples.

Throughout His life, Jesus hungered and thirsted like us all. He lived in a world that often opposed him; his enemies were many and strong. Nor would he use his mighty power for himself. Serving others, his life was given to all. And because he never forsook his vision of right or feared to speak the truth, it was only a question of time before the desert became a cross. No act of fate made him die; he died because of the way he lived. The cross became the treasure of Christian believers, a sign of God’s power and love, a tender book of Jesus Christ, a mirror reflecting all of human life.

Bible Reading

Fifty-Day Gospel Planner
(Read all Gospels during the Great Lent)

Evening

Morning

Before Holy Qurbana

Holy Qurbana

Gospel Readings:

Matthew 10:24-38 (KJV)

24The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord.

25It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household?

26Fear them not therefore: for there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known.

27What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light: and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops.

28And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

29Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father.

30But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.

31Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows.

32Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven.

33But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.

34Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.

35For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.

36And a man's foes shall be they of his own household.

37He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.

38And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me.

John 15:17-16:3

17These things I command you, that ye love one another.

18If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.

19If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.

20Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.

21But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that sent me.

22If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloak for their sin.

23He that hateth me hateth my Father also.

24If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father.

25But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause.

26But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:

27And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning.

John 16

1These things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not be offended.

2They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.

3And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me.

John 4:46-54 (KJV)

46So Jesus came again into Cana of Galilee, where he made the water wine. And there was a certain nobleman, whose son was sick at Capernaum.

47When he heard that Jesus was come out of Judaea into Galilee, he went unto him, and besought him that he would come down, and heal his son: for he was at the point of death.

48Then said Jesus unto him, Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe.

49The nobleman saith unto him, Sir, come down ere my child die.

50Jesus saith unto him, Go thy way; thy son liveth. And the man believed the word that Jesus had spoken unto him, and he went his way.

51And as he was now going down, his servants met him, and told him, saying, Thy son liveth.

52Then enquired he of them the hour when he began to amend. And they said unto him, Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.

53So the father knew that it was at the same hour, in the which Jesus said unto him, Thy son liveth: and himself believed, and his whole house.

54This is again the second miracle that Jesus did, when he was come out of Judaea into Galilee.

Verse for the Day:

St. Matthew 10:33- "But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven".

Source: Malankara World

Intercessions:

Let us always and everywhere give thanks to Christ our Savior, and ask him with confidence:
Lord, help us with your grace.

May we keep our bodies pure,
- as temples of the Holy Spirit.

May we offer ourselves this morning to the service of others,
- and do your will in all things throughout the day.

Teach us to seek the bread of everlasting life,
- the bread that is your gift.

May your Mother, the refuge of sinners, pray for us,
- and gain for us your loving forgiveness.

Closing Prayer:

Loving creator,
I am not asking to overcome my weakness,
but to use it in some way to glorify you.

Let me be aware of
the many ways you reach out to help me today
and let me stand in awe of the power
that you use in such loving ways.

May the Lord bless us,
protect us from all evil
and bring us to everlasting life.
Amen.

Source: Creighton University Online Ministries

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