Click the link below or open your Bible to the passage and read through the reading at least once, paying attention to what is happening in the text. ​

Have I become jaded to the world? Do I see everything as a fight that needs to be fought on my own?

Am I avoiding persecution because I don't trust that God will be on my side? 

Do I trust in the Lord's goodness and mercy enough to defend Him and risk persecution? 

"God is on my side."

"I am worth fighting for."

​"I trust in you."

This Sunday begins Holy Week. Are you ready? Take a look at your Lenten penances and how the last six or so weeks have been. Think of something you can do to set apart your Holy Week. Maybe that's an extra day of fasting, a week without meat, hours each day without your phone, an extra 15 minutes of daily prayer. Begin today.

Where’s the mind and heart this Lent?

In the Gospel this morning, Jesus and the Jews got in a pretty heated discussion. The Jews think He is possessed and crazy because of His claims to be greater than Abraham and the prophets. They wonder who He is and why He speaks so confidently of his relationship with the Father. In the midst of all this Jesus affirms His union with the Father by saying, "I do know Him, and I keep His word."

Holy week is quickly approaching, but here is something during these last days of Lent for us to reflect on in regards to our own union with God - "Do I know Him, and keep His word?" There are certainly voices surrounding us daily that sow seeds of doubt, saying, "We cannot know the Lord and keep his word." These voices are manifest in many ways... "Don’t spend extra time in prayer, you will be bored and distracted throughout; keep watching all the noisy TV shows because His voice is so hard to hear anyway." Or what about keeping His word? A typical response may be, "Oh, this is tough to do in a world of temptations, don’t worry, keeping His word is just a suggestion anyway." These few examples are lies! 

There is nothing more important and fruitful for our lives than to get to know God better and being more focused on keeping His word. On this last week of Lent, let’s resolve to approach Him in prayer, receive the sacraments frequently, and live according to His commands.

Do you know God and keep His word? Do you have a relationship with God that you maintain through prayer, especially prayer with the Scriptures? Do you follow God's loving commands?

What is your greatest distraction from prayer? How can you overcome it?

​How can you more faithfully and fully devote your heart to God today? 

"I want to know You."

"I love You."

"I will follow You."

Go to Mass and Reconciliation today or some time this week. Try going to a daily Mass in addition to Sunday Mass. Let your heart be opened to God's unending love and mercy that He so earnestly and urgently wants to give you. Through these sacraments, redirect your heart to God, to knowing Him and His commands of love, as you continue to prepare for Easter. 

Use the following meditation to help you reflect more deeply on the Scripture (you may want to read the passage again).

​They’ll know we are Christians by our love by our loveeee, yes, they’ll know we are Christians by our love. I’m guessing many of you have belted that song in Mass before…And to be honest after years of singing it… It’s kind of cheesy. When I read about great Christians, I think about people who gave up everything for the faith—I think about the saints. Maybe your favorite saint was a martyr, who shed their blood to help spread the message of the gospel. Maybe your favorite saint was a mystical religious, who gave up having a traditional family in order to enter into years of deep prayer. Maybe your favorite saint had such a bright mind that even today, years after their life, their writings bring peace amidst the turmoil of life. I think the reason that song above is cheesy is because we forget what love really means with Jesus.

Love isn’t just a giggle and a peaceful disposition. Love seeks action. It’s hard to jump into loving with both feet if we don’t have all the details of this love. What action? When? How? Will it hurt me? Will I be able to do it? Do not be afraid, a Father does not leave His children abandoned. Instead of stretching to get all our questions answered, I want to draw our minds to the last line of the gospel: “I did not come on my own, but He sent me.” Jesus was sent by the Father, and so He did the Father’s work.

​Brothers and sisters, you didn’t choose this Lenten journey on a whim, you were sent. At your baptism you were indelibly marked; God has chosen you and now in each moment He sends you forth. Where is He sending us this Lent? He is sending us into our normal everyday lives, but the difference is, He’s sending us in order that we might love. We’ve been on this journey of Lent for quite a few weeks now; maybe your goals turned out to be harder than you thought or maybe life just got to busy. But each day, you are being sent by the Father into radical love. Your love might not look like the martyrs or the mystics, but the daily choice to go and do what our Father asks…is radical. Today, stand tall as you enter again into your daily sacrifices—not in order that others notice what you are doing, but instead so that Love itself radiates from you. Each soul we encounter, if we say yes to the Father who sends us, will know we are Christians by our Love. They will desire the one who sent you. They will come to know Love itself—and that my dear friends, is the reason we have been sent.

These questions are to be used to talk to God; have a conversation with the Lord about these questions and what is going on in your heart as you pray today.

​How have you shown love to others this Lent in a deeper way?

What motivates you to love?

​How has this Lent been challenging you to grow?

In this step, you listen. Stop talking, let God speak to your heart. You may repeat one of these short phrases to focus your mind on the Lord.

"God is Love."

"I am sent by Love."

"I am made for Love."

In light of today's reading and your time spent in prayer with the Lord, what concrete action or actions will you take to let this encounter with the Lord bear fruit in you today?

​Reconsider your motivation behind your Lenten fasts, and seek new ways to allow real Love to shine through you in these final days of Lent.

​Today’s first reading follows the Israelites into the desert after their great exodus from Egypt. It’s a story we’re all familiar with- Moses comes before Pharaoh and demands that the Israelite people, held captive for over four hundred years, be released into freedom. Pharaoh lets them go after some crazy events unfold and God’s people escape into the desert beyond the Red Sea. It’s a great story of God’s providence and love for his people, who even though they were sinners, were deserving of being set free from their captivity. So- the people get to the desert and things are great, right? 

The passage from the book of Numbers today shows us an inside view of how this was no vacation for the Israelites. Even in the midst of God’s great action of freeing his people from slavery, we see Israel acting like grumpy children, complaining that their new circumstance isn’t as good as their lives in Egypt. How ungrateful! But this reading isn’t just meant to make Israel seem like a bunch of brats- it’s meant to show us a reality that runs through all of our own lives.

In the midst of God’s love for us and his ever-active care and provision, we often act out like the Israelites did while in the desert. Maybe we’ve experienced some sort of conversion where we leave our old life behind to follow the Lord, but in the midst of giving up old habits, we find that living with the Lord isn’t as “fun” or “exciting”. Maybe we’re realizing that God is calling us to a deeper and more disciplined life and when it gets hard we lash out at him and blame him for making life harder on us. We are often just as ungrateful for the profound and essential mercy that God pours out on us as Israel was.

The story doesn’t stop with Israel’s grumblings, though. God shows once again the amazing love he has for his people by allowing them to turn their hearts back to him. It wasn’t out of wickedness that God set the serpents into the midst of the people for them to die- he provided a chance for them to repent, turn back to him, and be saved once more! Today God is calling you in the same way. In the midst of the difficulties that can come in following him, he is reminding you that his love remains- all we have to do is turn back to him and leave our grumbling behind. 

How do you grumble against God's provision for your life?

How is God calling you to turn back to him today?

​How is God providing for you?

"Thank you for loving me."

"Jesus, I trust in you."

"You are enough."

Take time today to ask the Lord to reveal the ways you most often complain and grumble about your life. Spend time writing down all of the ways you are grateful for God's love and provision for your life.