Lenten Meditations: Sunday 17 March 2024
| Sun Mar 17 |
am: 118 pm: 145 |
Exodus 3:16-4:12 | Rom 12:1-12 | John 8:46-59 |
THE FIFTH SUNDAY OF LENT: St. Patrick, Bishop & Missionary of Ireland, 461
LITURGICAL THEME OF THE DAY: Saint Patrick, the Apostle of the Irish, was seized from his native Britain by Irish marauders when he was sixteen years old. Though the son of a deacon and grandson of a priest, it was not until his captivity that he sought out the Lord with his whole heart.
In his Confession, the testament he wrote towards the end of his life, he says, ‘After I came to Ireland — every day I had to tend sheep, and many times a day I prayed — the love of God and His fear came to me more and mo re, and my faith was strengthened. And my spirit was so moved that in a single day, I would say as many as a hundred prayers, and almost as many at night, and this even when I was staying in the woods and on the mountain; and I would rise for prayer before daylight, through snow, through frost, through rain, and I felt no harm.”
After six years of slavery in Ireland, he was guided by God to make his escape, and afterward struggled in the monastic life in Aesir in Gaul [now France], under the guidance of the holy Bishop Germanus. Many years later he was ordained bishop and sent to Ireland once again, about the year 432, to convert the Irish to Christ. His arduous labors bore so much fruit that within seven years, three bishops were sent from Gaul to help him shepherd his flock. His apostolic work was not accomplished without much ‘weariness and painfulness,’ long journeys through difficult country, and many perils; he says his very life was in danger twelve times.
When he came to Ireland, it was a pagan country; when he ended his earthly life some thirty years later, about 461, the Faith of Christ was established in every corner. The work of St Patrick and his brethren has been called the most successful single missionary venture in the history of the Church.
BIBLICAL MEDITATION OF THE DAY: The Daily Office Lessons for Lent 5 are worthy of our thought and may help us in the final surge towards Holy Week. Paul reminds us that our response in serving the Body of Christ is a pretty good indicator of our spiritual barometer. In verse 2 he makes a statement that is difficult for us at times: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” We are reminded again that God doesn’t wish to have a portion of our being. Rather, He wants our whole being dedicated to him, to be “living sacrifices”. That is quite a transformation for us who if we live in this culture are asked to sacrifice a little of ourselves. The great spiritual tradition of the church through the church fathers and the contemplatives reminds us that transformation is a lifelong process through which God calls us to conform more and more to the image of His own Son.
ANCIENT WISDOM/PRESENT GRACE: “The best theology is rather a divine life than a divine knowledge”—Bishop Jeremy Taylor
PRAYER OF THE DAY: Almighty God, who in your providence chose your servant Patrick to be the apostle of the Irish people, to bring those who were wandering in darkness and error to the true light and knowledge of you: Grant us so to walk in that light, that we may come at last to the light of everlasting life; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and ever. Amen
LENTEN LYRICS: Saint Patrick’s Breastplate
LENTEN DISCIPLINE –Spend some time making a lengthy walk or hike to a place that you find spiritually renewing or refreshing as many in Ireland do at Croagh Patrick or Glendalough. Read the Lorica of St. Patrick and consider how you are called to bring good news to people who perhaps have enslaved and caused you pain but now you seek to bring them a grace they do not know.
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