Lenten Meditations: Thursday 7 March 2024

Mar 7, 2024 by Jill

THURSDAY OF LENT III –   Perpetua & her Companions, Martyrs at Carthage, 292

LITURGICAL THEME FOR THE DAY: Vibia Perpetua was a young, married noblewoman of Carthage and Felicity was her slave. Saturas was possibly a priest and there were two other men, Saturninus and Revocatus, the latter also a slave. Felicity was pregnant. It seems most of them were catechumens when arrested and only baptized later in prison. They were condemned as Christians by the Roman authorities and dispatched to the public arena, there to be mauled by wild animals. They all survived and were then taken to be executed by the sword. Before this, they all exchanged the Kiss of Peace and affirmed their faith in Christ, the Son of God.

BIBLICAL MEDITATION OF THE DAY:  In the Psalm for the Morning, 42, it seems King David is longing for God’s presence anew in verses 1-2. Some people in contemporary spirituality believe that this type of inner longing occurs at the moment of conversion. Some spiritual masters like Thomas Merton and Richard Foster have made the case that the longing increases as we grow and mature. The more we come to know the Lord, the more we realize how little we know him and how much we desire Jesus in his fullness. Some of the great mystics have made the compelling case that the desire to find God and to see him and to love him is the one thing that matters.

Perhaps at this point in Lent, it would be well with our souls to ask “Just how often in life do our souls long and pine for the Lord the way a deer might pant for streams of water in a dry and arid land? For some of us, the answer is when we have known pain and discouragement, while for others that drives them even further away. Sadly, for many of us, the realization that we do need God to live life to the fullest doesn’t occur until we are hurting. The witness here may be that others who are watching us who are not deep in the faith will determine whether they can take God at his word by how well they see us witnessing the very words and truth that we claim is part of who and what we are. They want to see within us that we refuse to let the tears of life have the last word. Even in these difficult days, we can remember back to times of God’s presence (42:4) and we were singing songs of praise to God. That remembrance is not empty longing but a recovery of the promises of God’s love and mercy that can get lost in the mire of this world.

PRAYER OF THE DAY: O God the King of saints, who strengthened your servants Perpetua and Felicitas and their companions to make a good confession, staunchly resisting, for the cause of Christ, the claims of human affection, and encouraging one another in their time of trial: Grant that we who cherish their blessed memory may share their pure and steadfast faith, and win with them the palm of victory; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever.

ANCIENT WISDOM/PRESENT GRACE: ‘The believing have, in love, the character of God the Father by Jesus Christ, by whom, if we are not in readiness to die into his suffering, his life is not in us. – St. Ignatius of Antioch, (from the Letter to the Magnesians 5)

Lenten Lyrics Perpetua’s Song by Michael Dooley (in Latin and English) https://youtu.be/jcHMkWAZDYk?si=0Q-4KYeuR63OPPwN

LENTEN DISCIPLINE – Reflect on the challenges and choices you have in your life to express a sincere and truthful celebration of the Gospel. Keep a journal of when you have been sincere in the faith and perhaps the times you may have been disingenuous about your faith and practice. Pray that the Holy Spirit will fill you with the conviction to bear witness to your baptism just as St. Perpetual and her companions did without compromise.

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