The Church of Saint Anthony of Padua

Yet even now—oracle of the LORD— return to me with your whole heart, with fasting, weeping, and mourning. Rend your hearts, not your garments, and return to the LORD, your God, For he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love, and relenting in punishment. Perhaps he will again relent and leave behind a blessing, Grain offering and libation for the LORD, your God. Blow the horn in Zion! Proclaim a fast, call an assembly! Gather the people, sanctify the congregation; Assemble the elderly; gather the children, even infants nursing at the breast; Let the bridegroom leave his room, and the bride^* her bridal tent. Between the porch and the altar^* let the priests weep, let the ministers of the LORD weep and say: “Spare your people, LORD! do not let your heritage become a disgrace, a byword among the nations! Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’” Then the LORD grew jealous^* for his land and took pity on his people.

Heavenly Father, as we enter into this holy Lenten season, send your Holy Spirit to guide our hearts into an encounter with your Son, who through his life, suffering, death, and resurrection shows us your immense merciful love for each one of us. In our sinfulness, give us healing, and in our suffering, give us comfort. Transform our hearts through prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, and lead us into closer union with Jesus. Amen.

Opening Prayer Heavenly Father, may our thoughts, words, and deeds throughout this meeting serve to draw us into an encounter with your Son, who shows us how to love. Send your Holy Spirit to guide us as we pray and reflect together. Through our Lenten reflections on prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, help us to cooperate with your healing of our hearts in our relationships with you, with ourselves, and with others. Amen.

Matthew 7:7-12
The Answer to Prayers.
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.
For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. Which one of you would hand his son a stone when he asks for a loaf of bread, or a snake when he asks for a fish? If you then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good things to those who ask him.
The Golden Rule.
Do to others whatever you would have them do to you. This is the law and the prophets.

1. This week’s theme is “the desert.” As we look deep within our hearts, even at what might bring us anxiety or guilt, Sr. Miriam emphasizes that Jesus tells us, “I am with you. You are never alone.” How does knowing that Jesus is with you and loves you as you face difficult truths within yourselves give you comfort or courage?

2. In the Gospel of Matthew reading, Jesus assures us that God wants us to turn to him in prayer and that he wants to give us what we truly need. Sr. Miriam discusses God’s faithfulness and trustworthiness in Tuesday’s meditation. What does this teach you about prayer? How have you experienced God’s faithfulness to you in your own prayer lives?

3. In Thursday’s meditation, Sr. Miriam says, “Prayer is not mere words; prayer is life itself.” What do you think of this statement? How can this truth inspire your own lives of prayer?

4. Sr. Miriam says in Saturday’s meditation that God wants healing for us. In what ways do you seek God’s healing this Lent?

Heavenly Father, as we look within ourselves and reflect on our relationships with you, thank you for your reminders of your

love and faithfulness. Guide us this Lent to strengthen our prayer lives so we can grow in trust in you, our Father who loves

us and wants what is best for us. Transform our hearts in openness, humility, and hope, so we can grow ever closer to you and

your Son, Jesus. Amen.

Opening Prayer Heavenly Father, may our thoughts, words, and deeds throughout this meeting serve to draw us into an encounter with your Son, who shows us how to love. Send your Holy Spirit to guide us as we pray and reflect together. Through our Lenten reflections on prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, help us to cooperate with your healing of our hearts in our relationships with you, with ourselves, and with others. Amen.

Hear the word of the LORD, princes of Sodom! Listen to the instruction of our God, people of Gomorrah! Wash yourselves clean! Put away your misdeeds from before my eyes; cease doing evil; learn to do good. Make justice your aim: redress the wronged, hear the orphan’s plea, defend the widow. Come now, let us set things right, says the LORD: Though your sins be like scarlet, they may become white as snow; Though they be red like crimson, they may become white as wool. If you are willing, and obey, you shall eat the good things of the land; But if you refuse and resist, you shall be eaten by the sword: for the mouth of the LORD has spoken!

1. In Monday’s meditation, Sr. Miriam says, “Fasting helps reorder our loves so we can have the proper end in sight and live in true freedom.” What do you think of this statement? How have your own experiences of fasting reflected this growth in freedom and reordering of your loves?

2. Sr. Miriam mentions a saying in healing circles in Wednesday’s meditation: “Suffering that is not transformed is transmitted.” How can bringing your past sufferings to God and asking for redemption and transformation bring healing to your lives?

3. Twice this week Sr. Miriam speaks of Satan as a “sniper” who “uses our brokenness, sinfulness, and weakness to inflict suffering upon ourselves and others.” How have you experienced your own weaknesses causing suffering for others? How might you turn to God to remind you of your goodness and to heal your relationships first with yourselves and then with others?

4. In the reading from Isaiah, how does the prophet connect self-cleansing with working for justice for others and living sinfully with war? How do these themes relate to Sr. Miriam’s reflections this week on how our own sins and sufferings can affect others, as well as how our self-healing can transform our relationships?

Heavenly Father, may our thoughts, words, and deeds throughout this meeting serve to draw us into an encounter with your Son, who shows us how to love. Send your Holy Spirit to guide us as we pray and reflect together. Through our Lenten reflections on prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, help us to cooperate with your healing of our hearts in our relationships with you, with ourselves, and with others. Amen.

He then 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.”

1. In Sunday and Monday’s meditations, Sr. Miriam explains how our fasting can give us clues about where in our lives we need healing. How have you experienced this to be true so far this Lent? How does the humility of the tax collector in the reading from the Gospel of Luke show us how being honest with God in our self-reflection can lead us to healing and grace?

2. “When we fast from one thing, we need to feast on something else,” says Sr. Miriam in Tuesday’s meditation. What are your thoughts on this statement? How can you find ways to create new habits while you fast, whether from food, media, occasions of sin, or something else?

3. Thursday’s meditation draws our attention to God’s understanding. Sr. Miriam talks about how we all have people in our lives who love and understand us, but only God understands our hearts fully. Does this give you comfort? How might this knowledge help you in your Lenten journeys of transformation in your relationships with God, yourself, and others?

4. On Friday, Sr. Miriam encourages us to reflect on the holy desires that lay beneath our disordered desires. Would anyone like to share their own reflections and how you might hope to nurture those holy desires in a different way?

Heavenly Father, as we fast this Lenten season, help us see the areas in our lives we need to change so we might live more fully in your grace. Remind us of your love for us, and guide us toward ways we can create new habits that will help us love you, ourselves, and others more completely. We ask this through your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Heavenly Father, may our thoughts, words, and deeds throughout this meeting serve to draw us into an encounter with your Son, who shows us how to love. Send your Holy Spirit to guide us as we pray and reflect together. Through our Lenten reflections on prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, help us to cooperate with your healing of our hearts in our relationships with you, with ourselves, and with others. Amen.

John:
After this, there was a feast^* of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem at the Sheep [Gate]^* a pool called in Hebrew Bethesda, with five porticoes.  In these lay a large number of ill, blind, lame, and crippled. One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been ill for a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be well?” The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; while I am on my way, someone else gets down there before me." Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your mat, and walk.” Immediately the man became well, took up his mat, and walked. Now that day was a sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who was cured, “It is the sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to carry your mat.”^e He answered them, “The man who made me well told me, ‘Take up your mat and walk.’” They asked him, “Who is the man who told you, ‘Take it up and walk’?” The man who was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had slipped away, since there was a crowd there. After this Jesus found him in the temple area and said to him, “Look, you are well; do not sin any more, so that nothing worse may happen to you.” The man went and told the Jews that Jesus was the one who had made him well.

1. This week we turn to almsgiving and our relationship with others. In the scripture passage from the prophet Isaiah, we read how God promises to comfort and show mercy to his people. How does this passage remind you of Jesus’s many healings during his time on earth, such as the one described in John 5? What does Jesus’s example teach you about the importance of seeking the good of others, even when it might mean sacrifice from ourselves? 

2. Sr. Miriam explains that almsgiving can come in many forms. In Tuesday’s mediation, she mentions “our presence and undivided attention to another” as one of the best ways we can give alms. What are some simple ways in your everyday life that you can practice almsgiving and greater love for others?

3. In Thursday and Friday’s meditations, Sr. Miriam speaks of the spiritual and corporal works of mercy as ways to practice almsgiving. She notes that Jesus says those who do (or don’t do) these acts do (or don’t do) them for him. This Lent, how can you better practice the works of mercy, whether at home, at work, or in works of charity outside your everyday places?

4. On Saturday Sr. Miriam talks about “patience” and “bearing wrongs” as a way to love like Jesus, who forgave even from the Cross. What are your thoughts on the healing nature of this spiritual work of mercy, and how you might practice it more fully this Lent?