LENT 2024 Week Two
This week God tells the disciples "This is my beloved Son. Listen to Him". God desires to share this message with us. Something which over the centuries we still have difficulty grasping. In this years’ Lenten message Pope Francis urges us to listen to the cry of our oppressed sisters and brothers.
‘Let us ask ourselves: Do we hear that cry? Does it trouble us? Does it move us? All too many things keep us apart from each other, denying the fraternity that, from the beginning, binds us to one another.
During my visit to Lampedusa, as a way of countering the globalization of indifference, I asked two questions, which have become more and more pressing: “Where are you?” (Gen 3:9) and “Where is your brother?” (Gen 4:9). Our Lenten journey will be concrete if, by listening once more to those two questions, we realize that even today we remain under the rule of Pharaoh. A rule that makes us weary and indifferent. A model of growth that divides and robs us of a future. Earth, air and water are polluted, but so are our souls. True, Baptism has begun our process of liberation, yet there remains in us an inexplicable longing for slavery. A kind of attraction to the security of familiar things, to the detriment of our freedom.’
Read the complete Lent 2024 message HERE
Readings
Gen 22:1-2, 9a, 10-13, 15-18: The sacrifice of Abraham, our Father in faith.
Psalm 115:10, 15-19 R: I will walk in the presence of the Lord in the land of the living.
Rom 8: 31b-34: God did not spare His own Son.
Glory and praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ!
From the shining cloud the Father’s voice is heard: this is my beloved son, hear him.
Glory and praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ!
Mark 9:2-10: This is my Son, the beloved, listen to Him.
Music suggestions
O Lord, my God (How great thou art) by Karl Boberg, trans: SK Hine.
Blest be the Lord by Daniel L. Schutte.
If God is for us by John Foley.
Homily suggestions
Listen. You are God’s beloved.
Love one another.
So we go…together
Homily Studio podcast for a 30-minute conversation about the scriptures for Sunday can be found at this link during the week leading up to 25 February. HERE
Through the desert God leads us to freedom. (Lent 2024)
Prayer
E te Atua o nga maunga, God of the mountains, we stand in awe of you! Sometimes life is tough and your plan for us is not clear. We choose to follow Your instruction to listen to Jesus more. Let us to be transformed by your light so that those we encounter will draw closer to you.
Āmene
(from Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand Prayer card 2024.)
Church of Transfiguration, Mt Tabor, Israel.
Note that the golden mosaic is illuminated by reflected sunlight briefly each year on the feast of the Tansfiguration.
Photo Attribution: "Church of Transfiguration, Mount Tabor, Israel" by Koshy Koshy licensed under CC BY 2.0.