MARCH 10, 2018 : SATURDAY OF THE THIRD WEEK OF LENT

Saturday of the Third Week of Lent
Lectionary: 242

Reading 1HOS 6:1-6

"Come, let us return to the LORD,
it is he who has rent, but he will heal us;
he has struck us, but he will bind our wounds.
He will revive us after two days;
on the third day he will raise us up,
to live in his presence.
Let us know, let us strive to know the LORD;
as certain as the dawn is his coming,
and his judgment shines forth like the light of day!
He will come to us like the rain,
like spring rain that waters the earth."

What can I do with you, Ephraim?
What can I do with you, Judah?
Your piety is like a morning cloud,
like the dew that early passes away.
For this reason I smote them through the prophets,
I slew them by the words of my mouth;
For it is love that I desire, not sacrifice,
and knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

Responsorial Psalm  PS 51:3-4, 18-19, 20-21AB

R. (see Hosea 6:6) It is mercy I desire, and not sacrifice.
Have mercy on me, O God, in your goodness;
in the greatness of your compassion wipe out my offense.
Thoroughly wash me from my guilt
and of my sin cleanse me.
R. It is mercy I desire, and not sacrifice.
For you are not pleased with sacrifices;
should I offer a burnt offering, you would not accept it.
My sacrifice, O God, is a contrite spirit;
a heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.
R. It is mercy I desire, and not sacrifice.
Be bountiful, O LORD, to Zion in your kindness
by rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem;
Then shall you be pleased with due sacrifices,
burnt offerings and holocausts.
R. It is mercy I desire, and not sacrifice.

Verse Before The Gospel PS 95:8

If today you hear his voice,
harden not your hearts.

GospelLK 18:9-14

Jesus addressed this parable
to those who were convinced of their own righteousness
and despised everyone else.
“Two people went up to the temple area to pray;
one was a Pharisee and the other was a tax collector.
The Pharisee took up his position and spoke this prayer to himself,
‘O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity — 
greedy, dishonest, adulterous — or even like this tax collector.
I fast twice a week,
and I pay tithes on my whole income.’
But the tax collector stood off at a distance
and would not even raise his eyes to heaven
but beat his breast and prayed,
‘O God, be merciful to me a sinner.’
I tell you, the latter went home justified, not the former;
for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled,
and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

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Meditation: "God, be merciful to me a sinner!"

How can we know if our prayer is pleasing to God or not? The prophet Hosea, who spoke in God's name, said: "I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice" (Hosea 6:6). The prayers and sacrifices we make to God mean nothing to him if they do not spring from a heart of love for God and for one's neighbor. How can we expect God to hear our prayers if we do not approach him with humility and with a contrite heart that seeks mercy and forgiveness? We stand in constant need of God's grace and help. That is why Scripture tells us that "God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble" (James 4:6; Proverbs 3:34).

Jesus reinforced this warning with a vivid story of two people at prayer. Why did the Lord accept one person's prayer and reject the other's prayer? Luke gives us a hint: despising one's neighbor closes the door to God's heart. Expressing disdain and contempt for others is more than being mean-minded. It springs from the assumption that one is qualified to sit in the seat of judgment and to publicly shame those who do not conform to our standards and religious practices. Jesus' story caused offense to the religious-minded Pharisees who regarded "tax collectors" as unworthy of God's grace and favor. How could Jesus put down a "religious person" and raise up a "public sinner"?

Jesus' parable speaks about the nature of prayer and our relationship with God. It does this by contrasting two very different attitudes towards prayer. The Pharisee, who represented those who take pride in their religious practices, exalted himself at the expense of others. Absorbed with his own sense of self-satisfaction and self-congratulation, his boastful prayer was centered on his good religious practices rather than on God's goodness, grace, and pardon. Rather than humbling himself before God and asking for God's mercy and help, this man praised himself while despising those he thought less worthy. The Pharisee tried to justify himself before God and before those he despised; but only God can justify us. The tax collector, who represented those despised by religious-minded people, humbled himself before God and begged for mercy.  His prayer was heard by God because he had true sorrow for his sins. He sought God with humility rather than with pride.

This parable presents both an opportunity and a warning. Pride leads to self-deception and spiritual blindness. True humility helps us to see ourselves as we really are in God's eyes and it inclines us to seek God's help and mercy. God dwells with the humble of heart who recognize their own sinfulness and who acknowledge God's mercy and saving grace. I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and humble spirit (Isaiah 57:15). God cannot hear us if we boast in ourselves and despise others. Do you humbly seek God's mercy and do you show mercy to others, especially those you find difficult to love and to forgive?

"Lord Jesus, may your love and truth transform my life - my inner thoughts, intentions, and attitudes, and my outward behavior, speech, and actions. Where I lack charity, kindness, and forbearance, help me to embrace your merciful love and to seek the good of my neighbor, even those who cause me ill-favor or offense. May I always love as you have loved and forgive others as you have forgiven."

A Daily Quote for Lent: God's mercy is our only hope, by Augustine of Hippo, 354-430 A.D.

"Driven out of paradise by You and exiled in a distant land, I cannot return by myself unless You, O Lord, come to meet me in my wandering. My return is based on hope in your mercy during all of my earthly life. My only hope, the only source of confidence, and the only solid promise is your mercy." (excerpt from Commentary on Psalm 24,5) 

www.dailyscripture.net

SATURDAY, MARCH 10, LUKE 18:9-14
Lenten Weekday
(Hosea 6:1-6; Psalm 51)

KEY VERSE: "For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted" (v 14).
TO KNOW: The Pharisees were a sect within Judaism who carefully observed the written law. In opposition to the Sadducees, the Pharisees also followed the traditional oral law, the 613 decrees beyond the Ten Commandments. Pharisees regarded themselves as the "separated ones" because of their staunch adherence of the law in contrast to, what they assumed, was the sinful behavior of the rest of humanity. Jesus tells the story of two individuals who went to the Temple to pray. One was a Pharisee and the other a tax-collector (Publican). The arrogant Pharisee regarded himself as superior to others, especially the tax-collector whom he held in contempt. He smugly stated his virtues and did not ask pardon from God for his sins. The tax-collector, on the other hand, recognized his sinfulness, and humbly prayed that God would forgive him. Jesus pronounced the tax-collector justified before God because he repented of his sins and confessed his need for salvation.
TO LOVE: Does my pride get in the way of acknowledging my sins?
TO SERVE: Pray the ancient Jesus Prayer: Lord Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.​

www.togetherwithgodsword.com

Saturday 10 March 2018

St John Ogilvie.

Hosea 5:15 – 6:6. Psalm 50(51):3-4, 18-21. Luke 18:9-14.

It is steadfast love, not sacrifice, that God desires—Psalm 50(51):3-4, 18-21. 

God be merciful to me, a sinner!

With today’s Gospel in mind, the poet Richard Crashaw (1613–1649), a Cambridge don who lost his position when he converted to Catholicism during the English Civil War, wrote:

Two went to pray? Oh, rather say/One went to brag, the other to pray;/One stands up close and treads on high/Where the other dares not send his eye/One nearer to God’s altar trod,/The other to the altar’s God.

Had the Pharisee followed the example of the psalmist, he would have sung God’s praises; instead he sang his own. Had he followed the publican’s example, he might have confessed his own many sins, beginning with his overweening pride. As Jesus said on another occasion: ‘All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted’ (Matthew 23:12).

www.pray.com.au

Saint Dominic Savio

Saint of the Day for March 10

(April 2, 1842 – March 9, 1857)

Saint Dominic Savio’s Story

So many holy persons seem to die young. Among them was Dominic Savio, the patron of choirboys.

Born into a peasant family at Riva, Italy, young Dominic joined Saint John Bosco as a student at the Oratory in Turin at the age of 12. He impressed Don Bosco with his desire to be a priest and to help him in his work with neglected boys. A peacemaker and an organizer, young Dominic founded a group he called the Company of the Immaculate Conception which, besides being devotional, aided John Bosco with the boys and with manual work. All the members save one, Dominic, would, in 1859, join Don Bosco in the beginnings of his Salesian congregation. By that time, Dominic had been called home to heaven.

As a youth, Dominic spent hours rapt in prayer. His raptures he called “my distractions.” Even in play, he said that at times, “It seems heaven is opening just above me. I am afraid I may say or do something that will make the other boys laugh.” Dominic would say, “I can’t do big things. But I want all I do, even the smallest thing, to be for the greater glory of God.”

Dominic’s health, always frail, led to lung problems and he was sent home to recuperate. As was the custom of the day, he was bled in the thought that this would help, but it only worsened his condition. He died on March 9, 1857, after receiving the Last Sacraments. Saint John Bosco himself wrote the account of his life.

Some thought that Dominic was too young to be considered a saint. Saint Pius X declared that just the opposite was true, and went ahead with his cause. Dominic was canonized in 1954.

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Reflection

Like many a youngster, Dominic was painfully aware that he was different from his peers. He tried to keep his piety from his friends lest he have to endure their laughter. Even after his death, his youth marked him as a misfit among the saints and some argued that he was too young to be canonized. Pope Pius X wisely disagreed. For no one is too young—or too old or too anything else—to achieve the holiness to which we all are called.

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The Liturgical Feast of Saint Dominic Savio is October 9.

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Saint Dominic Savio is the Patron Saint of:

Choirboys
Juvenile delinquents

www.franciscanmedia.org

LECTIO DIVINA: LUKE 18,9-14

Lectio Divina: 

 Saturday, March 10, 2018

Season of Lent

1) OPENING PRAYER

Lord our God,
You yourself remind us through Your holy people
that all our religious practices,
even the eucharistic sacrifice,
are not worth anything
if we use them to bend You our way.
God, may we come to You
in humility and repentance,
ready to encounter You in love
and to turn toward You.
Accept us as Your sons and daughters,
together with Jesus Christ,
your Son and our Lord for ever.

2) GOSPEL READING - LUKE 18:9-14

Jesus addressed this parable to those who were convinced of their own righteousness and despised everyone else. “Two people went up to the temple area to pray; one was a Pharisee and the other was a tax collector. The Pharisee took up his position and spoke this prayer to himself, ‘O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity — greedy, dishonest, adulterous — or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week, and I pay tithes on my whole income.’ But the tax collector stood off at a distance and would not even raise his eyes to heaven but beat his breast and prayed, ‘O God, be merciful to me a sinner.’ I tell you, the latter went home justified, not the former; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

3) REFLECTION

• In today’s Gospel, Jesus, in order to teach us to pray, tells the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. Jesus has a different way of seeing things. He saw something positive in the tax collector, of whom everybody said, “He does not know how to pray!” Jesus, through prayer, lived so united to the Father that everything became an expression of prayer for Him.

• The way of presenting the parable is very didactic. Luke gives a brief introduction which serves as the key for reading. Then Jesus tells the parable and at the end Jesus Himself applies the parable to life.

• Luke 18:9: The introduction. The parable is introduced in this way: “He spoke the following parable to some people who prided themselves on being upright and despised everyone else!” This statement is Luke’s. It refers to the time of Jesus, but it also refers to our own time. There are always people and groups of people who consider themselves upright and faithful and who despise others, considering them ignorant and unfaithful.

• Luke 18:10-13: The Parable. Two men went up to the Temple to pray: one a Pharisee, the other a tax collector. According to popular opinion at that time, the tax collectors were not esteemed at all, and they could not address themselves to God because they were impure. In the parable, the Pharisee thanks God because he is better than others. His prayer is nothing other than a praise of himself, an exaltation of his good qualities and contempt for others and for the tax collector. The tax collector does not even raise his eyes, but he beats his breast and says, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” He puts himself in his own place, where he stands before God.

• Luke 18:14: The application. If Jesus had allowed people to express their opinion and say which of the two went home justified, all would have answered, “the Pharisee!” At that time, this was the common opinion. Jesus thinks in a different way. For Him, the one who returns home justified, in a good relationship with God, is not the Pharisee, but rather the tax collector. Jesus turns all things upside down. It is certain that the religious authorities of that time were not pleased with Jesus’ application of the parable.

• Jesus prays. Luke informs us, especially, about Jesus’ prayer life. He presents Jesus in constant prayer. The following is a list of texts of Luke’s Gospel, in which Jesus appears in prayer: Lk 2:46-50; 3:21; 4:1-12; 4:16; 5:16; 6:12; 9:16,18,28; 10:21; 11:1; 22:32; 22:7-14; 22:40-46; 23:34; 23:46; 24:30). In reading Luke’s Gospel you can find other texts which speak about the prayer of Jesus. Jesus lived in contact with the Father. To do the will of the Father was the breathing of His life (Jn 5:19). Jesus prayed very much and insisted that people and His disciples do the same, because from union with God springs truth, and the person is able to discover and find self, in all reality and humility. In Jesus prayer was intimately bound to concrete facts of life and to the decisions which He had to make. In order to be faithful to the Father’s plan, He sought to remain alone with Him in order to listen to Him. Jesus prayed the psalms. He did it like any other pious Jew and He knew them by heart. Jesus even succeeded in composing His own psalm. It is the Our Father. His whole life was constant prayer: “By himself the Son can do nothing; He can do only what He sees the Father doing!” (Jn 5:19,30). To Him can be applied what the psalm says: “All I can do is pray!” (Ps 109:4).

4) PERSONAL QUESTIONS

• Looking into the mirror of this parable, am I like the Pharisee or like the tax collector?

• Do we “pray always” or do we turn everything we do into prayer? Which is more sincere?

• There are people who say that they do not know how to pray, but they speak with God all the time. Do you know any people like this?

• The Eastern Church has the “Jesus Prayer”, which would be based on this passage, and is used to “pray always”. Do I pray with the same intent: “Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me, a sinner.”

5) CONCLUDING PRAYER

Have mercy on me, O God, in Your faithful love,
in Your great tenderness wipe away my offenses;
wash me clean from my guilt,
purify me from my sin. (Ps 51:1-2).

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