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One of the elders said: If a person settles in a certain place and does not bring forth the fruit of that place, the place itself casts him out, as one who has not borne its fruit.
- “The Wisdom of the Desert,” by Thomas Merton
(What fruit has come from the place where you live or work?)
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WIS 2:1A, 12-22; PS 34:17-18, 19-20, 21 AND 23
JN 7:1-2, 10, 25-30
Jesus moved about within Galilee;
he did not wish to travel in Judea,
because the Jews were trying to kill him.
But the Jewish feast of Tabernacles was near.
But when his brothers had gone up to the feast,
he himself also went up, not openly but as it were in secret.
Some of the inhabitants of Jerusalem said,
"Is he not the one they are trying to kill?
And look, he is speaking openly and they say nothing to him.
Could the authorities have realized that he is the Christ?
But we know where he is from.
When the Christ comes, no one will know where he is from."
So Jesus cried out in the temple area as he was teaching and said,
"You know me and also know where I am from.
Yet I did not come on my own,
but the one who sent me, whom you do not know, is true.
I know him, because I am from him, and he sent me."
So they tried to arrest him,
but no one laid a hand upon him,
because his hour had not yet come.
USCCB lectionary
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Reflection on the Scripture |
"There shall always be rejoicing and happiness in what I create." —Isaiah 65:18
If the Lord creates a calling for you, you can find joy in it. If He calls you to life-long celibacy, you have cause for rejoicing. If the Lord gives you and your spouse ten children, rejoice in the sacrifice of having a large family. When He calls us to repent, we share in the great joy of heaven over one sinner who repents (Lk 15:7). When the Lord gives us the privilege of being persecuted for the Gospel, we should rejoice in the measure we share in His sufferings (1 Pt
4:13).
There's more joy in suffering with Jesus than in having pleasure without Him. True joy depends on this: "Did the Lord create it? Is it His will?" Therefore, joy is not feeling good but obeying the Lord (see Ps 40:9). This makes it possible to rejoice always (1 Thes 5:16). No one and nothing can take our joy from us (Jn 16:22).
We can't always feel good, but we can always obey God and thereby always rejoice. In fact, not only can we rejoice in the Lord but also rejoice with the divine joy of the Lord. We can actually have Jesus' joy (Jn 15:11). Moreover, this divine joy will be our strength (Neh 8:10).
"Rejoice in the Lord always! I say it again. Rejoice!" (Phil 4:4)
Prayer: Father, this Lent may the joy in my life reach fever pitch (Acts 8:8)
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Promise: "He and his whole household thereupon became believers." —Jn 4:53
Presentation Ministries
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Abandonment to Divine Providence
- by Jean-Pierre de Caussade
CHAPTER II. THE DIVINE ACTION WORKS UNCEASINGLY FOR THE SANCTIFICATION OF SOULS.
SECTION VIII. Experimental Science
That which is sent to us at the present moment is most useful for it is intended especially for us.
Reading and seeing become fruitful and possess virtue and light only by the acquisition of this divine science, otherwise they are like dough to which leaven is necessary, and the salt of experience to season it. And since without this salt, we have only vague ideas to act upon, we are like visionaries, who, though knowing the roads that lead to all the towns, yet lose their way going to their own house.
We must listen to God from moment to moment to become learned in the theology of virtue which is entirely practical and experimental. Do not attend therefore to what is said to others, but listen to that which is said to you and for you; there will be enough to exercise your faith because this interior language of God exercises, purifies, and increases it by its very obscurity.
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