Lenten Meditations: Tuesday 20 February
| Tues Feb 20 |
am: 45 pm: 47, 48 |
Gen 37:12-24 | 1 Cor 1:20-31 | Mark 1:14-28 |
TUESDAY- LENT I: St. Leo of Catania, Bishop (789)
LITURGICAL THEME FOR THE DAY: Saint Leo was bishop of the city of Catania, in Sicily. He was famed for his benevolence and charity, and his Christian love for the poor and the vagrant. The Lord granted him the gifts of healing various illnesses. He was especially steadfast in defending the faith against the paganism and sorcery still prevalent in those regions.
MEDITATION OF THE DAY: Thanks to the team of Andrew Lloyd Weber and Tim Rice this story of Joseph and his Amazing Color Coat is known worldwide and sadly some are amazed when they find out it is in fact from the bible, the Old Testament. The story to people of faith is not new. In the story we meet the youngest of 12 sons and he is the beloved. Not surprisingly as happens in families there is jealousy and strife.
The brothers strip Joseph of his beautiful robe and throw him into an empty well or cistern. Joseph’s brothers, deceive their father. They have taken Joseph’s special coat and dipped it in the blood of a slaughtered goat, then sent the coat to Jacob. Their father, of course, draws the obvious conclusion that Joseph is dead, killed by a wild animal. Despite all of this, God continues to be at work in the lives of Jacob and his family as the story presses on.
Each of us could tell a story like this about our families or families that we know. Each of us knows well jealousy, greed, power favoritism in our family systems. Who in this story do we identify with the most? Who do we find the most problematic? These are hard questions because all of us had circumstances get out of hand over something that we would like to go back and change but once it occurred we felt as if we had play it out so that there was some continuity albeit false. That never serves us well as it did not serve the members of the 12 tribes of Israel
PRAYER OF THE DAY: “Lord Jesus, I sin. Grant that I may never cease grieving because of it, never be content with myself, never think I can reach a point of perfection. Kill my envy, command my tongue, trample down self. Give me grace to be holy, kind, gentle, pure, peaceable, to live for Thee and not for self, to copy Thy words, acts, spirit, to be transformed into Thy likeness, to be consecrated wholly to Thee, to live entirely to Thy glory. Amen
Lenten Discipline: Forgive one who has betrayed you in person or in writing, once this is accomplished ask forgiveness from one you have betrayed.
ANCIENT WISDOM/PRESENT GRACE: “‘Let it be understood that those who are not found living as He taught are not Christian- even though they profess with the lips the teaching of Christ.”- Justin Martyr (The First Apology).
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