Lent week 1

Today's Grace

I ask for the gift of confidence that God is at work in my life and my future.

 

Having prayed over the ways that God has been working in my life, how God does not hold my past against me, how God invites us into a future full of life and creativity and promise, I place my life in God's hands and ask to move forward into this prayer experience with hope and joy.

 

Scripture/Reading

Reading via the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops website.

 

Isaiah 58:9b-12
Thus says the LORD:
If you remove from your midst oppression,
false accusation and malicious speech;
If you bestow your bread on the hungry
and satisfy the afflicted;
Then light shall rise for you in the darkness,
and the gloom shall become for you like midday;
Then the LORD will guide you always
and give you plenty even on the parched land.
He will renew your strength,
and you shall be like a watered garden,
like a spring whose water never fails.
The ancient ruins shall be rebuilt for your sake,
and the foundations from ages past you shall raise up;
"Repairer of the breach," they shall call you,
"Restorer of ruined homesteads."  

Reflection Questions

1. The reading today exhorts me to, "remove from your midst oppression, false accusation and malicious speech...bestow your bread on the hungry...satisfy the afflicted." How might I carry out this exhortation in some concrete way at this moment in my life? How might I be called to do this today? I speak with God about this.
2. Do I have confidence that God can do great work in my life? Do I trust God enough to act boldly? I speak with God about this.  

Reflection

Music: "A Song of Hope" by John Foley, SJ: https://www.ocp.org/products/10649. (Click on the "Listen" button next to "A Song of Hope")