Opening Prayer Series: Third Sunday of Year C

OPENING PRAYER SERIES.

OPENING PRAYER

The Opening Prayer of the Mass for the Third Sunday of Lent reads as follows:

Let us pray

(for confidence in the love of God)

Father,

You have taught us to overcome our sins

by prayer, fasting and works of mercy.

When were discouraged by our weakness,

give us confidence in Your love.

REFLECTION QUESTIONS

In making this prayer tangible for my life during this week, the following reflection questions emerged:

1. What does being confident in the love of God mean to you?
2. In what area/s of your life does your confidence in God's love weaken?
3. What are the sins/weaknesses that you find hard to overcome?
4. How are you using the Lenten tools of prayer, fasting and works of mercy in your Lenten journey?
5. What is the root cause of your discouragement in your weakness?
6. How might I gain more confidence in God's love this week?
7. What is the meaning of repentance and how might you obtain it this week?

GOSPEL REFLECTIONS

The Gospel message is very clear this week- we are invited to take seriously our need to repent. We are encouraged to be ready- we do not know the hour or the day. Yet, God is kind and merciful and like the kind gardener gives us another year to dig and put the manure around it and bear fruit.  As Catholics, we know the fruit we are meant to be bearing as set out in Galatians 5:22-25:

 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such there is no law.
 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.  If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.

As we enter into our third week of our Lenten journey, let us continue to make progress.  If we have had a patchy start like myself, then starting again is the best option. God gives us another chance to make a fresh start, since Easter is still 4 weeks away.  Let us get digging and root out the weeds of sin/ weaknesses in our lives as we repent. Let us nourish and water the good soil within us with the confidence of God's love