Divine Mercy Chaplet novena

Today is Good Friday. The Novena of Divine Mercy is an opportunity to pray for all of mankind and all sinners. The Divine Mercy Chaplet is my favorite devotion. It is so simple, but it encompasses and reflects Jesus’ sacrifice for us.

From EWTN:
The message of mercy is that God loves us — all of us —
no matter how great our sins. He wants us to recognize that
His mercy is greater than our sins, so that we will call upon
Him with trust, receive His mercy, and let it flow through us to
others. Thus, all will come to share His joy. It is a message
we can call to mind simply by remembering ABC.

A — Ask for His Mercy. God wants us to approach
Him in prayer constantly, repenting of our sins and
asking Him to pour His mercy out upon us and upon
the whole world.

B — Be merciful. God wants us to receive His mercy
and let it flow through us to others. He wants us to
extend love and forgiveness to others just as He does
to us.

C — Completely trust in Jesus. God wants us to know
that the graces of His mercy are dependent upon our
trust. The more we trust in Jesus, the more we will
receive.“

You can find several audio versions of the divine mercy chaplet here and here

Lent Challenge, Day 29: Luke 17-18

Today’s reading contained several stories and parables that exhibit the nature and benefits of faith. I was struck by the story of the ten lepers (Mt 17:11-19) When they saw Jesus approaching, they all dropped down to their knees and begged for him to heal them. Without a question, Jesus healed them all. Yet, only one of the ten thanked him for it. This makes me wonder if there are things in my life that are gifts from God, that I don’t thank him for. Am I focusing on the physical/outward healing that has come with my conversion, and am I abandoning the inward healing that Jesus offers? I certainly hope not, and I will challenge myself to show gratitude for all of the ways that Jesus touches my life.

My favorite verse in Chapter 17 was verse 21. “The Kingdom of God is within you.” It isn’t necessary to anticipate the day that God returns to us, because he is already present inside of us. We don’t need to look outside of ourselves to experience the power and presence of God in our hearts and lives. I am grateful for that.

Lent Challenge, Day 24: Luke 6-7

In today’s reading, I was struck most by the Jesus’ take on forgiveness. The woman who appeared to have the most outward sin gained the greatest forgiveness from Jesus. In the eyes of God, 100% righteous living isn’t necessarily required. How exactly could you know the goodness of God, really know it, if you know nothing of sin, if you have no need for forgiveness? We shouldn’t force others to dwell on their own sins by denying them our own forgiveness. We shouldn’t force others to dwell on their sins by reminding them and everyone else of it constantly, like this pharisee did to the sinful woman. It is impossible to understand forgiveness if we are unable to understand sin.

I constantly ask myself, and I’m sure most Christians ask themselves, what can I do to love God more? Luke 7 tells us that the first step towards loving God more is to understand sin. As we all continue to grow in our faith, guided by the Scriptures, and as we gain a better understanding about how Satan and our own sinful desires chip away at our relationship with God, even subtly, we will in fact grow closer to Christ our Savior, and become more able to express our love for him. Because love, afterall, is the only thing that can come out of forgiveness.

Lent Challenge: Luke 1

Even though I’ve read Luke 1 many times, this time around it felt different.

When Zachariah questioned Gabriel ( “How can I know this will happen? I’m an old man now, and my wife is also well along in years.”), he silenced him. However, when Mary questioned it (”But how can I have a baby? I am a virgin.”), Gabriel did not silence her.

Obviously, God doesn’t hold us all to different standards. Though both questioned what was about to happen in our lives, God’s reaction suggests that Mary never doubted God’s ability. Though their words sounded similar, God could see into Mary’s heart, and He knew that she believed, even if she didn’t understand. And despite what I would imagine to be a strange answer to her question, she accepted God’s Will, no matter what.

Back from break

I just got back from spring break. I didn’t do anything too exciting. I visited Vanderbilt University. I was really impressed with their facilities and faculty. Deciding where to go to grad school will be very difficult. I will be visiting Penn State in a couple weeks, just to make my life more difficult before April 15.

I haven’t been posting any comments at Rob’s challenge, but I have been reading. We finished Matthew last week, and are now working through Mark. While in Nashville, I bought Scott Hahn’s “A Father Who Keeps His Promises,” which I will be adding to my lent reading list. I’ve read two chapters, and I am enjoying it so far.

Matthew 17-18

Today’s reading was from Matthew 17-18. I am always moved by the description of the Transfiguration. In Matthew 17:8 states “When they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus.” How much easier would our lives be if all we saw was Jesus? Instead of peers, tempting us to sin, or our own reflections. Rather than desiring to please ourselves or whoever it is that we see, we would only see Jesus, and everything we’d do would be for his glory.

We are also reminded in this reading that even the disciples lacked faith at times. Their inability to drive the demons out of the child was probably a sort of ego check for the disciples. They had lost sight of who was actually performing the exorcisms. Luke’s description of this is a helpful companion to this reading (I couldn’t help but jump ahead).

In Chapter 18, Jesus states that the childlike will inherit the Kingdom of Heaven. Is he speaking of humility? Or innocence/purity? All of the above? Or is it something else?

He also speaks of forgiveness in this chapter. Jesus dismisses the idea of legalism. There isn’t a maximum number of times that one should forgive others. We should forgive one another freely as we expect God to freely forgive us. Just as we wouldn’t want a superficial forgiveness from God, we should forgive others from our hearts.

Lent Challenge: Day 5

Today’s reading was from Matthew 10-11. The key word for today’s reading seems to be “unsettling.” I agree that today’s reading was unsettling to a degree. It reminds us that the entrance to the kingdom of heaven is very narrow. While many of us in our hearts desire to be with our eternal Father in heaven, we allow worldly sins to envelope our souls. Many people become so comfortable in the idea that Jesus died for our sins, past, present, and future, that we forget that we are still obligated to aim to live a holy life. Matthew 10 states that despite the doubts and sins that may surround the disciples, that as long as the disciples (and we) maintained loyalty and faith to the Son of God, that His message would remain unblemished.

In Matthew 11, Jesus reaffirms to both John the Baptist and the common people that he is, in fact, the one who had been prophesized about. He seems outraged that despite the fact that they all knew that the Messiah was coming since they were children, and that they had seen his miracles in the flesh, that they still refused to turn from their sin. Rather than being concerned with their sin, they were looking for a politician in Jesus. They were searching for a certain image, and as such rejected what I would think would be the most important thing: that he was the son of God, and the message that he brought.

Now, obviously, it isn’t that simple. If I were to find myself in the physical presence of God, I would be terrified. Even if I had no sins, my imperfections would be amplified in comparison. It would become blatantly obvious that I was in need of a savior, because I am aware of my own sins. But for those who don’t recognize their own sins, or those who minimize their sins, I can imagine that being in the physical presence of God was not as threatening. They were obviously confident enough to continue with their normal sinful lives afterwards. For those of us who are aware of our sins, who understand the burden of our sins, Jesus offers us rest in exchange for our faith and trust. If Jesus is capable of relieving us all of our burdens in an eternally significant way, there is no doubt that he can do the same in our everyday lives.

Lent Challenge: Day 8

Today’s reading was from Matthew 17-18. I am always moved by the description of the Transfiguration. In Matthew 17:8 states “When they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus.” How much easier would our lives be if all we saw was Jesus? Instead of peers, tempting us to sin, or our own reflections. Rather than desiring to please ourselves or whoever it is that we see, we would only see Jesus, and everything we’d do would be for his glory.

We are also reminded in this reading that even the disciples lacked faith at times. Their inability to drive the demons out of the child was probably a sort of ego check for the disciples. They had lost sight of who was actually performing the exorcisms. Luke’s description of this is a helpful companion to this reading (I couldn’t help but jump ahead).

In Chapter 18, Jesus states that the childlike will inherit the Kingdom of Heaven. Is he speaking of humility? Or innocence/purity? All of the above? Or is it something else?

He also speaks of forgiveness in this chapter. Jesus dismisses the idea of legalism. There isn’t a maximum number of times that one should forgive others. We should forgive one another freely as we expect God to freely forgive us. Just as we wouldn’t want a superficial forgiveness from God, we should forgive others from our hearts.

Lent Challenge: Day 1

Rob’s Lent Challenge is off to a great start! Today’s reading was Matthew 1-2, which includes the genealogy of Jesus’ stepfather Joseph, and the events leading up to and following the birth of Jesus from the perspective of Joseph. It emphasizes the very human aspects Jesus and his family, how Joseph had doubts about the whole ordeal. The moral of the story is that despite the doubts, despite the fears, despite what others would think of him and his wife, Joseph allowed his faith in God to prevail.

There are loads of great comments on today’s readings on the challenge page.

I will be heading to Cleveland tomorrow, so I won’t be around to blog about the readings for the rest of the week. I hope to post my thoughts on those readings when I return on Sunday.

Here we go…

My official Lent goals:

1) Pray the liturgy of the hours twice a day.
2) Pray the divine mercy chaplet once per week.
3) Read The Cloister Walk by Kathleen Norris and Prayers and Devotions by Pope John Paul II daily.
4) Read and contemplate the 4 Gospels in the New Testament.