Monday, February 13, 2012

Opening Prayer Series: 6th Sunday of Year B

The Collect for the Sixth Sunday of Year B reads as follows:

Let us pray,
O God, who teach us that You abide
in hearts that are just and true,
grant that we may be so fashioned by Your grace
as to become a dwelling pleasing to You.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ Your Son,
who lives and reigns with You in the unity of the Holy Spirit 
one God for ever and ever.

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

  1. Do I desire for the Lord to teach me to abide in Him?
  2. How can I increase that desire this coming week?
  3. What might my heart look like when it is just and true?
  4. What areas of my heart need God's forgiveness?
  5. What would a dwellling pleasing to God be like in me?
  6. How will I co-operate with God's grace this week as to become a dwelling pleasing to You?

Today's Gospel shows the compassion of Jesus towards the leper ( and to all who society considers outcasts).  However, He asks the leper to go to the priest to make the offering for his healing. Instead the leper spread his good news everywhere so that Jesus became the 'leper' Himself .
''He could no longer go openly into the town, but had to stay outside"

What do we experience when we experience the compassion and love of Jesus?  Are we like the leper and do not follow what Jesus asks of us as evidence of our recovery?  Perhaps, we go to the Sacrament of Reconcilation, but say our penance in a hurried fashion. Through the priest, the penance that we are given is for our recovery.

The touch of Jesus is powerfu,l and yet gentle. He wants to say to each of us " Of course I want to, be healed". 

Let us ask Him in faith this coming week for our physical, emotional and spiritual healing.




No comments:

Post a Comment