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Thursday, Third Week of Lent B (March 11 /2021)
Your Daily Blessing: May God hear you speedily from mount Zion! Amen.
Read Jer 7:23-28; Lk 11:14-23; pray psalm 95[94].
NARRATION: In the first reading, we God pleading through Jeremiah, “listen to my voice;” but instead, “they did not obey, nor did they pay heed. They walked in the hardness of their own evil hearts; and turned their backs, not their faces, to me.”
Yesterday I pointed out that we can neither keep God’s commands nor please him except by his grace. That grace is given to us through prayer. And St. Chrysologus has helped us understand that an ‘effective prayer’ must include fasting and mercy. I now present you the second part of his homily, a continuation from yesterday:
“Let this be the pattern for all men when they practice mercy: show mercy to others in the same way, with the same generosity, with the same promptness, as you want others to show mercy to you.
Therefore, let prayer, mercy and fasting be one single plea to God on our behalf, one speech in our defence, a threefold united prayer in our favour. Let us use fasting to make up for what we have lost by despising others. Let us offer our souls in sacrifice by means of fasting.
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There is nothing more pleasing that we can offer to God, as the psalmist said in prophecy: A sacrifice to God is a broken spirit; God does not despise a bruised and humbled heart. Offer your soul to God, make him an oblation of your fasting, so that your soul may be a pure offering, a holy sacrifice, a living victim, remaining your own and at the same time made over to God.
Whoever fails to give this to God will not be excused, for if you are to give him yourself you are never without the means of giving…” Tomorrow I will add the last part that explains the role of mercy to the effectiveness of our prayers.
PRAYER: Dear Lord, Sometimes I have wondered why my prayers has no effect or no answers. Thank you for opening my eyes to the rules of effective prayer! Help me to pray better! Amen
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