A REFLECTION FOR EACH DAY OF LENT 2023
It is about praying every day. Every day you can start the prayer time with the “opening prayer for each day”; then, carefully reading the “text of each day”, talks with God and with Mary; Finally, finish by praying the “final prayer.”
Two previous ideas:
1. NO RUNNING: It is short; Don’t be in a hurry to finish. It’s not reading and that’s it.
2. WHAT IS NOT WRITTEN: Do you know what is the best thing about this text? What is not written and you tell him; the conversation you personally have with him.
INITIAL PRAYER FOR EACH DAY
My Lord, Jesus Christ, I firmly believe that you are here; In these few minutes of prayer that I begin now, I want to ask you and thank you.
TO ASK YOU for the grace to realize more that You live, listen to me and love me; So much so that you wanted to die freely for me on the cross and renew that sacrifice every day at Mass.
AND THANK YOU with works how much you love me: I am yours, for you I was born! what do you want, Lord, from me?
CLOSING PRAYER
It doesn’t move me, my God, to love you
the sky that you have promised me,
nor does hell move me so feared
to stop offending you.
You move me, Lord; move me to see you
nailed to the Cross and mocked.
Move me to see your body so wounded
move me your affronts and your death.
Move me, finally, your love, in such a way,
that even if there was no sky, I would love you,
And even if there was no hell, I was afraid of you.
You don’t have to give me because I love you;
Well, although what I hope will not wait,
the same thing that I love you I would love you.
Day 1. ASH WEDNESDAY (February 22, 2023)
Why Lent? How absurd! If you look closely, we men are continually with the I in our mouths: what if they told me, if I always have to do it, if they have mana for me, if it was mine or for me, if I scored the goal, if I I told him and then …. if I feel like it, what will they think of me, … and a thousand more phrases that conjugate Yo, Me, Mo with different verbs.
And today, Ash Wednesday, the Church reminds us: dust you are and to dust you shall return. Do you know what that means? God created Adam’s body from earth, and our body will return to earth at death. And our soul return to God:
a) If you are a person who has loved God, you will be enjoying God forever.
b) And if it is a person who has loved the ME, the MO and the TO ME, they will not be able to be in Heaven because only those who have loved and love God can go there; and these also now forever.
That is why Lent begins like this: we have to go on loving God and forgetting -killing- the Self. It is time to remember that my body will turn to dust; remember that I have to take care of the life of my soul; ask for more forgiveness for my sins; prepare myself to receive the salvation and love of Jesus that we commemorate in Holy Week.
Tell Our Lady that you would like to live Lent as She wants you to. And ask her to remember you and help you do this time of prayer with love these 40 days. You will make Jesus happy. She deserves it.
Now is the important moment, in which you speak to God with your words, telling him something of what you have read. When you have done that, finish with the closing sentence.
Day 2. THURSDAY 23 february from 2022
Mass. In the middle of the afternoon, Jorge enters the kitchen like a hurricane and says to his wife: “Hello, darling… I’m going to change. Felipe and I are going to play a tennis match before it gets dark.” . “But, Jorge! -Objects his wife- it’s very late and I had prepared an excellent dinner: beef Burgoise, and vegetables, and a lemon tart.” “I’m sorry, darling,” Jorge replies, “have a sandwich in a bar. Take it yourself…”
Five minutes later, Jorge is already on his way. His wife can’t help crying.
“He doesn’t love me,” she sobs, contemplating the excellent dinner she had prepared for her husband.
Any woman reading this will sympathize with Jorge’s wife and even many men will agree with her, without thinking that almost all of us are guilty of a similar lack of consideration, and to a much greater degree.
Lack of consideration for Jesus. Contempt for love that she has lavished on us. Indifference before the Great Banquet -the Eucharist, the Communion- to which it invites us.
Do you go to Mass whenever you can? Do you advance the study to be able to go to be with your Friend accompanying him in the Passion, that is the Mass? What a good resolution: during Lent I will go to Mass whenever I can, every day I can.
What is not written is now when you can tell them, commenting on the text you have read and the questions. Then finish with the closing prayer.
Day 3. FRIDAY 24 of february from 2023
Refuse excuses. Cardinal Mindszenty was a cardinal in Hungary when this country was taken over by the communists. They immediately put him in jail, where he spent many years, years that were martyrdom. He was released from prison when Hungary became independent from Communist Russia; He was already very old and died soon after.
During the many years he spent in prison, he was an example as a Christian for his strength and fidelity to God and the Church. An example is, for example, his firmness in living abstinence, which is the commandment of the Church that tells us Christians over 14 years of age to live the mortification of not eating meat on Fridays throughout the year. As you know, outside of Lent, abstinence from meat can be replaced by another penitential act (prayer, mortification or alms); but not during Lent.
Every Friday, and only on Fridays, they gave him meat for lunch and dinner. The cardinal knew perfectly well that in his circumstances that law of the Church did not oblige him, but he never ate that meat. He freely wanted to live that mortification.
In his “memoirs” he writes this dialogue with the Commandant of the prison, one day when the policeman could not stand that attitude any longer:
– Do you think that it is the prisoners who dictate the regulations in the prison?
– Nope; I don’t believe such a thing.
– Then eat what you are given.
– On Fridays I don’t eat meat.
– Do not give him anything else.
– Nor do I ask you to give me another meal. But if it gives me meat, I won’t eat it on Fridays.
– In that case, I will punish you.
– I am willing to accept any punishment.
That day the food was left on the table. They took her away shortly before dinner, which also consisted of a little meat. The scene was repeated on successive Fridays, until they ended up giving it to her on Sundays.
You can now tell God what follows, but realizing that you are speaking to Him and He is listening to you.
Lord, how many times I have compassion for myself, and I look for excuses not to mortify myself, or not to obey my mother the church. Sometimes, because of sports or studying, I am able to make an effort and suffer, and yet when I have to do it for you, I back down. If I loved you more, I would be more generous and stronger. I love you, Lord, but I want to love you more. The next time an excuse comes to mind when faced with mortification, I will reject it “because I love you.” And, specifically, to be abstinent from eating meat because I love you.
Day 4. SATURDAY 25 of february from 2023
His Cross and my Cross. Christ’s cross was not just the tree he carried and died on. The cross of Jesus was, along with that, the pain of loneliness, the injustices he suffered, the insults he received… Those of that moment and those of all history. The pain he feels for what I have done wrong today against another person, or against myself or against him. That is his cross. That is why I am RESPONSIBLE FOR THE CROSS OF JESS.
And my daily cross, the one I have to pick up to follow him, is not a wooden log. My cross is the pain of illness, the injustices I suffer, fatigue at work, the pain of fighting against laziness, the effort to be generous -because it is difficult for me to give my things-. My Cross is to work well when I don’t feel like it. And knowing how to trample on me and obey when I don’t want to, and…
My cross is the PAIN THAT SOMETIMES SUPPOSES TO ACT IN ACCORDANCE WITH LOVING GOD, WITH LOVING OTHERS -more than myself- and WITH LOVING MYSELF WELL in order to perfect myself and not destroy myself?
During this Lent, Lord, I want to pick up my daily cross because I want to follow you. Be generous, my God!
Keep talking to God with your words
Day 5. SUNDAY 26 of february from 2023
confession. Mom and Dad are busy working in the garden and beg little Sophia, her daughter, to set the table. Sofia, who is watching her favorite TV show, says yes, but she continues in front of the TV, so that when her parents come home, the table is not set. That displeases her parents, but it doesn’t offend them, because in Sofía’s disobedience there has been little interest, carelessness, little malice, going their own way in something small.
One night, however, Vanesa, the eldest daughter, already at the door, confronts her parents and tells them: “I’m tired of you telling me what time I have to come back. I’ll come back whenever I feel like it, whether you like it or not.” !”. And she, slamming the door, she disappears. In this case, it is clear that there is greater malice, a wanted and wanted disobedience, which brings with it contempt for parents and rejection of their authority. There is a difference between Sofa’s disobedience and Vanesa’s. Well then, such is the difference that exists, from God’s point of view, between mortal sin and venial sin; an immeasurable difference. Mortal sin kills the presence of God in me; it breaks and destroys my relationship with God: I slam the door and disappear.
Lord, I ask you to help me realize more and more that my sins are acts of mine that hurt you, moments in which I ignore you, I choose what is good for me, leaving you or others aside. ; and therefore my sins hurt you. Give me pain for my sins, pain for love.
Do you wait more than a day to confess if you have committed a mortal sin? Do venial sins really hurt you? My mother, rather die than sin!
Keep talking to God with your words
Day 6. MONDAY 27 of february from 2023
God is affected by everything, because he sees everything. Philip, one of the apostles, was a friend of Nathanael, and tells him that he wants to introduce him to Jesus, because he was the Son of God. Nathanael doubts very much that a carpenter from a small town like Nazareth could be the Messiah. But Felipe introduces him to him, and with a phrase from Jesus, Nathanael converted. And this was the sentence: WHEN YOU WERE UNDER THE FIG TREE, I SAW YOU.
Nathanael must have done something under the fig tree. We don’t know what. He had done it alone, something no one knew about. But it turns out that, despite having made sure to be alone, it turns out that Jess saw him. And someone who sees what only I know and do, it has to be God. That is why Nathanael answers Jesus: You are the Son of God.
This morning when you woke up, God was watching you. And what you have thought when that friend has told you such a thing, God has seen. And what you have kept so that they do not ask you, God has seen it. And that effort to smile at I know you don’t like him, God has seen it… AND AS GOD SEES EVERYTHING OF YOURS, EVERYTHING OF YOURS AFFECTS HIM.
My God, let me realize that all day and all night I am in Your presence. How many joys can I give you in one day! And how much pain can I cause you in one day too! I think you see me and you hear me! Thank you, and increase my faith.
Keep talking to God with your words
Day 7. TUESDAY 28 of february from 2023
Sin. Whenever I talk about sin, especially mortal sin, the sad memory of a tragedy I witnessed one day comes to mind. A three-year-old boy was running across the lawn in the garden of his house, chased by his mother: “Come here, Jimmy!” She shouted. “Don’t go through the hedge!” But Jimmy…