2nd Week of Lent 2025 - Tuesday - Conversion of the Pharisee within

Do I practice my faith out of genuine love for God and neighbor, or am I more concerned about how others perceive me?

Do I judge and burden others harshly, pointing out their faults while neglecting my own need for conversion?

Have I allowed pride or self-righteousness to creep into my heart, distancing me from God and others?

In today’s Gospel, Jesus sharply criticizes the Pharisees—not because they lacked religious devotion, but because their hearts were filled with pride, hypocrisy, and the desire to be praised by others. They followed the rules outwardly, yet inwardly their hearts were far from God. Lent is a season to honestly confront the ways these same pharisaic attitudes may exist within us and to courageously root them out.

Jesus highlights three dangerous attitudes among the Pharisees: hypocrisy, pride, and the misuse of authority. The Pharisees loved recognition and respect. Their actions—long tassels, widened phylacteries, and honored seats—were not motivated by love of God but by love of self. Their piety was an outward show, not inward devotion. 

Our Lenten scripture this morning challenges us to root out the Pharisee within by embracing authentic humility—humility, not merely as an ideal, but as a daily discipline.

Humility means honestly acknowledging our weaknesses and turning to God’s mercy. It means setting aside self-importance and serving others joyfully. Lent especially calls us to acts of quiet charity and unseen sacrifices, not for praise, but because we truly seek Christ’s way.

Today, Jesus invites each of us to seek the conversion of the Pharisee within—to abandon pride, to renounce hypocrisy, and to walk in humble service. For, as Jesus promises, “Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, but whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” Only by rooting out the attitudes of pride and self-righteousness from our hearts can we truly become disciples who reflect Christ’s humble and merciful love.

May this Lent help us grow in humility and sincerity, as we learn again to walk in the humble footsteps of Christ for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

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Seeking God’s will in all things, let us humbly present our petitions to our merciful Father.

For the Church throughout the world, that we may faithfully preach the Gospel not only in words but through humble and loving service.

For leaders of nations and those in authority, that they may exercise their responsibilities with integrity, humility, and genuine concern for the good of all, especially the weakest among us.

For our parish community, that during this Lenten season we may sincerely examine our hearts, rooting out attitudes of pride, hypocrisy, and judgmentalism, and grow in humble love and service to others

For the health of Pope Francis, and for all who carry heavy burdens, especially those burdened by guilt, shame, or discouragement or serious illness, that they may encounter compassionate hearts and experience Christ’s mercy and healing

For all the faithful departed, that having humbled themselves before the Lord, they may be exalted in the joy and peace of heaven, especially N.

Father, help us to humble ourselves before you and root out all that separates us from your love. Hear and answer these prayers we offer today with hearts sincerely seeking you, through Christ our Lord.

2nd Sunday of Lent 2025 - More than a superficial faith

 There’s a story about a wealthy king who wanted to find a bride. And not just any bride, the king wished to marry a woman who would love him, not for his wealth and power, but for who he was as a man. He knew that if he rode through the streets in his royal robes, with trumpets announcing his intentions, his quest would be compromised. This would attract a superficial bride.

So, he set aside his crown and dressed as a simple peasant. He lived among his subjects, working alongside them, and shared in their struggles. And in time, he met a woman who loved him not for what he owned, but for who he was. Only then did he reveal his true identity.

In today’s Gospel, Peter, James, and John are given an extraordinary grace: they see Jesus transfigured in dazzling white, standing with Moses and Elijah. It is a revelation of His divine glory, a brief unveiling of who He truly is. And yet, Jesus does not remain in that state. He does not go back down the mountain glowing, proving to the crowds that He is the Son of God.

We might wonder: why not. If he wished to attract disciples, why didn’t Jesus appear like that all the time? Why doesn’t He display His full power to the whole world and remove all doubt?

While it seems logical that if Jesus displayed His divine glory all the time, people would believe, but the Scriptures repeatedly show that miracles and divine manifestations do not automatically lead to lasting faith, hope, or love.

The Israelites in the Wilderness saw the parting of the Red Sea, manna from heaven, and God's presence on Mount Sinai, yet they still doubted and turned to idolatry.

Many who witnessed Jesus healing the sick, feeding thousands, and even raising the dead still did not follow Him. In John chapter 11, the chief priests and Pharisees respond to the resurrection of Lazarus not with faith, but with a plot to kill both Jesus and Lazarus.

If people could witness these direct interventions of God and still reject Him, then even if Jesus appeared in transfigured glory to the whole world, many would still dismiss it as an illusion, exaggeration, or something that could be explained away.

God desires a relationship with each of us, not based on mere compulsion or overwhelming evidence, any way, but on our choice to believe, and hope, and love Him.  If God simply overpowered us with His glory, it might force knowledge of his existence, but we would lose our ability to have faith. "Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe" Jesus says after his resurrection.

The Transfiguration was a moment of divine revelation, but it was not the ultimate proof of Jesus' deepest identity. For ultimately, He is the one sent by God not to overpower humanity through undeniable proof of God’s existence, but rather to show the depths of God’s love to those with eyes to see and ears to hear.

Jesus did not walk around permanently transfigured in dazzling light because that dazzling light would have veiled and obscured—his identity as incarnate love willing to undertake supreme suffering for his beloved. 

His identity is revealed most fully, not in the transfiguration, but in the crucifixion. His identity is love. God is love. And there is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 

Notice that this was even the topic the Lord was discussing with Moses and Elijah while he was transfigured. He spoke of how he had to go to Jerusalem to suffer and die to deliver us from the slavery of sin and death. But he goes willingly because he loves us and wants to see us free.

If God’s goal was simply to make us believe in Him, he could have done so easily. Just like the king in the story could have easily found a bride through crown and treasury. But Jesus desired a bride who would love Him with true love. And he goes to the cross to show His love for us, his bride. 

And of course he goes to the cross to give us an example to follow—to in fact show us the road to heaven—the road we must follow. We must take up our cross and follow him in all things. 

To be Christian is not simply to walk around with the idea that God exists in our heads. Rather, to be Christian—to be heirs of the kingdom—is to conform ourselves in thought, word, deed, in obedience to God, to Jesus Christ—to love as he loves—to work for the good of others at cost to ourselves. True love is costly, as our Lord shows us. But we have been redeemed so that we may be transformed into love with Christ.

How are we to experience this transformation? Again, I stress the importance of our Lenten practices of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving during this season. Prayer, fasting, and almsgiving signal our openness to the transformation God wants for us.

Prayer: it’s not just about asking for things; it is about aligning our hearts with God’s will. Through prayer, we allow God to reveal Himself to us—not in overwhelming signs, but in the quiet of our hearts, where He gently calls us to trust Him.

Fasting: it’s not simply an act of self-denial or discipline; it is a concrete way of expressing our hunger for something greater than what the world offers. When we give up certain foods, comforts, or habits, we remind ourselves that our deepest satisfaction is found in God alone.

Almsgiving is not the cold fulfillment of a religious obligation, rather it shifts our focus from self to others. When we give to those in need—not just from our excess, but in a way that costs us something—we imitate Christ-like love. Our almsgiving signals that we are allowing Christ’s love to transform us into people who give of themselves as He did.

Prayer, fasting, and almsgiving are not ends in themselves. They are signs of our willingness to be changed. Through them, we tell God: “I want to know You” “I want to be freed from what holds me back” “I want to love as You love”.

Again, it is not through some undeniable sight of Christ’s divinity that God transforms us. But choosing those actions to become like Jesus in his self-giving. By choosing to pray, fast, repent and engage in works of charity, our spiritual sight is made pure to know God’s presence with us in this life and to behold God’s glory in eternity for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

1st Week of Lent 2025 - Friday - Transformation of heart and behavior

Several times this first full week of Lent, we read from Jesus’ great Sermon on the Mount. 

On Tuesday, Jesus taught his disciples how to pray—that Christian prayer is much more than babbling, like the pagans. We are to prayerfully turn our hearts to the Father, seeking His Will, His sustenance, His forgiveness and ability to forgive, and his protection from evil. Our prayer is to be deepened and purified during this Lenten season.

Today, we hear that not only our prayer, but our hearts and minds are to be purified as well. Not only are we to avoid grave sins like murder: we are to be purified from the slightest hint of any attitude that leads to murder. We are to avoid anger toward our brother, we are to avoid calling him belittling names, and we are to seek to reconcile with him even before fulfilling some of our other religious duties.

Here is yet another teaching from the Sermon on the Mount that our conversion must be more than skin-deep, our conversion to Christ means more than just giving lip service to ideas like forgiveness and peacemaking. 

We are to be purified from inner attitudes that lead to sin, injustice, division, and malice. We are to seek to actively overcome our inhibitions towards working for peace. In fact, we are to actively cultivate those dispositions where we are ready to go out and make peace even when it costs us something. 

If you don’t, what does the Lord say, “you will not be released until you have paid the last penny.” If we are unwilling to purify our hearts and actively work for peace there is a sort of debt, there is something missing. And we will not be able to progress spiritually in this life or likely from purgatory into heaven in the next life until that purifying has taken place.

From what the saints say, it is more pleasant to work for that purification in this life, than in purgatory. So we should do it now. My guess is that this is issue is a major stumbling black in the spiritual life for a lot of Christians: the unwillingness to make peace with those who have offended us, with whom there is some sort of open wound.

I get it, it’s hard, it’s uncomfortable, it’s humbling. “Why should I have to be the one to make peace?” Because we are Christian and the Lord told us to.

Again our readings remind us, that Lent is not simply about performing exterior deeds of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, but is aimed at inner transformation, where we can think with the mind of Christ, and more importantly, love with his heart, for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

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We should pour forth prayers at all times dear brothers and sisters but above all in these days of lent we ought to watch more intently with Christ and direct our petitions more fervently to God.

For the Church, that this Lent may be a time of deep interior purification, leading each believer to more fully embrace the mind and heart of Christ.

For those struggling to forgive or reconcile with others, that they may find the courage, humility, and strength to actively seek peace

For those preparing for baptism and reception into the Church at Easter, that their hearts may grow pure and radiant through prayer, fasting, and acts of charity, we pray to the Lord.

For Holy Father Pope Francis, in this time of illness, and for all the sick, suffering, and those who carry heavy burdens, that they may experience the comforting presence of God, who draws near to those who earnestly seek Him, we pray to the Lord.

For the faithful departed, for the deceased members of our family, friends, and parish, for all the souls in purgatory, that through our prayers and sacrifices, they may swiftly enter the eternal peace of God’s presence.

Grant we pray our Lord that your people may turn to you with all their heart, so that whatever they dare to ask in fitting prayer they may receive by your mercy.

1st Week of Lent 2025 - Tuesday - Minds made radiant with yearning for God

 Listen again carefully to this morning’s Collect prayer, as it contains some profound lessons for our Lenten journey. 

“Look upon your family, Lord, that, through the chastening effects of bodily discipline, our minds may be radiant in your presence with the strength of our yearning for you.”

Through the bodily disciplines of Lent, our minds are made radiant with the strength of our yearning for God. This is some rich spiritual theology which helps us understand why we are undertaking this Lenten journey.

We might be tempted to think that our spiritual disciplines are simply ends in themselves—that the point of our fasting is just to fast because Jesus fasted, or that the point of prayer is just to pray just because Jesus prayed.

But this collect reveals that something deeper occurs when we engage in the Lenten practices. Our disciplined spiritual practices have a profound effect upon us. 

Prayer, fasting, and almsgiving deepen our yearning for God. We hunger for God, we have a deep desire to know, love, and serve God, and the Lenten practices deepen that desire. And this spiritual yearning isn’t weak sentimentality; this yearning for God reorients our lives more directly to God. It purifies our hearts so that we come to value God above all else.

Prayer fasting and almsgiving make our minds radiant—we receive illumination, clarity, purity as we draw closer to the fire of God. This is why the saints radiate God’s presence because they have drawn close to God through spiritual disciplines that we typically only dabble with. For the more intensely we desire God, the more we set aside lesser desires. When we deeply long for God, distractions fade away, our minds open up to divine illumination, and then that same divine illumination can be detected in our manner of life.

This is why in the Gospel the Lord teaches his disciples, when you pray, don’t just babble. Our prayer is so important, because through it we begin to desire the things that God desires, our wills grow in proximity to His most holy will.

Similarly, Isaiah in our first reading speaks about the word of God showering down upon the soul and making it fertile and fruitful. Our prayer, as well as our fasting and almsgiving are meant to change us, to convert us, and make us deeply yearn for God who alone satisfies the hungry heart.

May we respond generously to the call to the Lenten observances, that our minds may be radiant in God’s presence with the strength of our yearning for Him, for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

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We should pour forth prayers at all times dear brothers and sisters but above all in these days of lent we ought to watch more intently with Christ and direct our petitions more fervently to God.

For the Church, that through prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, she may grow in holiness, reflecting God's radiant presence to the world, we pray to the Lord.

For those preparing for baptism and reception into the Church at Easter, that their hearts may grow pure and radiant through prayer, fasting, and acts of charity, we pray to the Lord.

For all Christians, that their prayer may be genuine and heartfelt, aligning their wills more closely with the holy will of God, we pray to the Lord.

For those struggling to sustain their Lenten commitments, that they might be strengthened by God’s grace and find renewed meaning and clarity in their spiritual practices, we pray to the Lord.

For all who have become lukewarm or indifferent in their faith, that this Lent they may rediscover the joy of longing for God above all things, we pray to the Lord.

For the sick, suffering, and those who carry heavy burdens, that they may experience the comforting presence of God, who draws near to those who earnestly seek Him, we pray to the Lord.

For the faithful departed, that their yearning for God may be fulfilled in eternal communion with Him in heaven, we pray to the Lord.

Grant we pray our Lord that your people may turn to you with all their heart, so that whatever they dare to ask in fitting prayer they may receive by your mercy.

2nd Week of Lent 2024 - Tuesday - Repentance and Inner Transformation

 

Throughout the season of Lent, the Church's liturgy resounds with God’s call for sinners to repent. And this morning we read from the powerful first chapter of the prophet Isaiah. 

Isaiah chapter 1 is set during a time of great turmoil and moral decay in the Kingdom of Judah. This period was marked by political instability, social injustice, and religious idolatry—some cultural similarities perhaps, to our own day.

The chapter begins with God's accusation against the people of Judah. They are described as rebellious children who have forsaken the Lord and turned away from Him, which has resulted in the moral decay and corruption of society.

Despite the harsh accusations, the chapter also contains the call to repentance. God invites the people to "wash and make themselves clean" and to turn away from their evil deeds. God is willing to forgive and restore his people, if they genuinely repent.

Another theme of that first chapter is to turn away from empty religious ritual to a true worship of God that is demonstrated through truly just and righteous works, such as defending the oppressed and caring for the widow and the orphan. 

This theme is continued in the Gospel today, where the Lord Jesus condemns the pharisees for their empty, hypocritical religious leadership. Their idea of religion was a bunch of empty show—lip service, fine garments, seats of power. But they neglected that God desires not empty show, but the transformation of hearts which is demonstrated in genuine care for people in need. 

In a sense, the Pharisees rejected our deepest need, our need for a savior, the need for inner transformation that can only come through humility. 

In order to not be condemned like the Pharisees, we must learn and practice humility before God. We must acknowledge our sins and our need for a savior, we must identify those parts of our lives where we have refused conformity to the heart of Christ, where we have resisted his truth and goodness.

God’s desire to save us must be met by our cooperation with his saving will—through humble repentance, right worship, detachment from sin and selfishness, and charity toward those we are able to help, for the glory of God and the salvation of souls. 

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For the whole Christian people, that in this sacred Lenten season, they may be more abundantly nourished by every word that comes from the mouth of God.

For the whole world, that in lasting tranquility and peace our days may truly become the acceptable time of grace and salvation.

For sinners and those who neglect right religion, that in this time of reconciliation they may return wholeheartedly to Christ. And that tomorrow's Evening of Confession may be a time of profound mercy and renewal for our parish and Diocese.

For ourselves, that God may at last stir up in our hearts aversion for our sins and conviction for the Gospel.

For all who have died, and for all the poor souls in purgatory, and for X. for whom this Mass is offered.

Grant, we pray, O Lord, that your people may turn to you with all their heart, so that whatever they dare to ask in fitting prayer they may receive by your mercy. Through Christ Our Lord.