Lenten Meditations: Monday 27 March
| Mon Mar 27 |
am: 89:1-18 pm: 89:19-52 |
Jere 16:10-21 | Rom 7:1-12 | John 6:1-15 |
MONDAY OF LENT IV- Blessed Harriet Monsell, Religious Foundress, 1883 (transferred)
LITURGICAL THEME FOR THE DAY: Today we remember, Mother Harriet Monsell who of Irish descent (née O’Brien) was born in 1811. After the death of her husband, Fr. Monsell she went to work in a penitentiary at Clewer in the UK. Under the guidance of the local Vicar, T T Carter, she was professed as a Religious in 1852 and became the first Superior of the Community of St John the Baptist. Under her care, the community grew rapidly and undertook a range of social work in a variety of locations, with foundations in India and America by the 1880s. The sisters cared for orphans, ran schools and hospitals, and opened mission houses in parishes. In 1875 Mother Harriet retired as Superior through ill-health, moving to a small hermitage in Folkestone, where she died on Easter Day 1883.
MEDITATION OF THE DAY: In this fourth week of Lent, we are mindful that we are on a journey one of repentance and renewal with the hope that the Redeemer of us all will do just that redeem us. Psalm 89 resonates the essence of our journey by recalling God’s unfailing love, which was expressed through the Lord’s covenant with David. The Lord promised: “I will establish your descendants as kings forever; they will sit on your throne from now until eternity” (89:1-4). Even if David’s descendants rejected the Lord, he would still be faithful to David and deliver redeem and restore. We like the psalmist are called to put our trust in God on this journey. No doubt like Mother Harriet did in establishing her religious community. She like us must be mindful of the covenant despite the struggles and disappointment we may encounter.
PRAYER OF THE DAY: O Lord, You told us that “The harvest indeed is great but the laborers are few. Pray, therefore, the Lord of the harvest to send laborers into His fields.” We ask You to strengthen us as we follow the vocation to which You have called each of us to. May we be open and responsive to the call of serving You. We ask this through Christ Our Lord. Amen.
ANCIENT WISDOM/PRESENT GRACE: “At the center of the religious life is a peculiar kind of joy, the prospect of a happy ending that blossoms from necessarily painful ordeals, the promise of human difficulties embraced and overcome.” –Professor Huston Smith
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