During this Season of Lent, let us join together in reading and meditating on these Bible passages each day from Sacred Space.
March 1: Mark 10: 28-31
What God offers to us, and what Jesus offers to his disciples, is the sheer generous gift of God’s love to all! Let us give thanks!
March 2: Ash Wednesday: Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18
Jesus calls for generosity—Give! Share! Lend! When someone is looking for help, do not pass by on the other side!
March 3: Luke 9: 22-25
Jesus tells his disciples that he must undergo great suffering, be rejected and killed, and on the third day be raised. He says to them, “If you want to become my followers, take up your cross daily and follow me…those who lose their life for my sake will save it…”
What we share in love and in God cannot be taken away.
March 4: Matthew 9: 14-15
The Lord of all joy suffers in his people. True prayer brings us near to others and near to God, near to those in pain, and near to ourselves.
March 5: Luke 5: 27-32
Jesus calls us into a change of life, focusing on his love and his word. May our time of prayer be a time of healing and forgiveness.
March 6, First Sunday of Lent: Luke 4: 1-13
Jesus was tested throughout his ministry. He is not unable to sympathize with us in our weakness, for he was tested in every respect as we are, yet without sin.
March 7: Matthew 25: 31-46
This parable of Jesus is about opening our eyes here and now to the needs of our neighbors—the hungry, the homeless, the refugee, the lonely…Jesus identifies with each one. If I turn away from my brothers and sisters in need, I turn away from Jesus.
March 8: Matthew 6: 7-15
Let us pray this prayer that Jesus taught us slowly, focusing on each phrase. Prayer is a time of relaxing into the mystery of God’s love, letting go of our tensions, and worries, and distractions.
March 9: Luke 11; 29-32
Jonah is the sign of God’s care for all. His call was to go to a far country that did not know him or his God. Jonah is also a sign of God’s care for us individually—his care was for Jonah’s safety. Jonah’s strength was in his trust in God. Prayer is a time of allowing trust in God to grow and become a central part of our being.
March 10: Matthew 7: 7-12
Prayer opens the heart to good things from God. Prayer time makes us people of more love. True prayer brings peace of mind and heart and the peace of knowing we are loved and called into following Jesus’ way.
March 11: Matthew 5: 20-26
True religion is the religion of the heart. Jesus saw the good in the Pharisees but challenged them against any hypocrisy. He goes on to encourage us to live by one of the most difficult spiritual principles—to forgive and be reconciled with others. Pay attention to the way we deal with each other; seek reconciliation with each other above all.
March 12: Matthew 5: 43-48
The love Jesus lived by is a freeing love. We may find it hard to forgive, but the beginnings of forgiveness can be to pray for those we need to forgive. Let us pray that our love may be like the sunshine, which shines equally on all.
March 13, Second Sunday of Lent: Luke 9: 28b-36
In our journey towards God we experience high moments when we find ourselves on holy ground and God shows himself. As in the account of the Transfiguration in this passage, Jesus brings us down the mountain to follow him to Calvary.
March 14: Luke 6: 36-38
Jesus stresses once again the primary importance of good relationships with others. The world would be a different place if we were merciful and non-condemning. My heart is very small and it can also be very hard. God’s heart is large and compassionate. When I try to forgive others, my heart becomes a little more like God’s, which overflows with generosity!
March 15: Matthew 23: 1-12
I ask God to help me live with true humility.
March 16: Matthew 20: 17-28
Jesus teaches us not to lord it over others, but rather to learn from him, who “came not to be served but to serve, and give his life a ransom for many.”
March 17: Luke 16: 19-31
Without an eye for the needy around us, our life becomes self-centered and callous. Jesus asks us to open our eyes to what is around us, to open our ears to the simple command of the Gospel: love your neighbor.
March 18: Matthew 21: 33-43, 45-46
In this parable the landowner expects the tenants to respect his son he sends to collect the produce, but the tenants kill the son. What would happen if Jesus came into our world today?
March 19: Matthew 1: 16-18-21.24
As we face difficult decisions, let us, like Joseph, pray for the wisdom of God’s Holy Spirit to guide us.
March 20, Third Sunday of Lent: Luke 13: 1-9
Jesus alerts us to the risk of feeling too satisfied with ourselves and our ways. Is there something I feel called to change, an area in my relationships I do not feel satisfied with?
March 21: John 4: 5-42
When I am going about my business like the Samarian woman in this account, and have an encounter with Jesus, help me to be moved with such joy, as she was, that I cannot keep it to myself.
March 22: Matthew 18: 21-35
This parable is about the mercy of God. It calls us to be merciful as we have received mercy. Mercy is deeper than forgiveness; it sees into the heart of the other and walks around for a while in the other’s shoes. It includes compassion and active healing. To live in an environment of mercy is to live in an atmosphere of peace, healing and growth.
March 23: Matthew 5: 17-19
Jesus teaches by word and action, by saying and doing. His example of life is our guide and our encouragement. There is a link between what we say and what we do. We are to walk it as we talk it. We are called to sincerity and integrity of life.
March 24: Luke 11: 14-23
Some listeners, who have just witnessed Jesus healing this man, refuse to think well of Jesus. Do I think ill of others more readily than I credit them with good? Lord, give me the grace to see the best in others, as I’d wish them to see the best in me.
March 25: Luke 1: 26-38
God’s long-range plan is for us to become sisters and brothers of Jesus, part of God’s beloved family. Let us give thanks!
March 26: Luke 18: 9-14
In his parable of the Pharisee and the tax-collector, Jesus warns against trusting in our own righteousness and regarding others with contempt. None of us can say before God that we are superior to anyone. The tax-collector, who prayed the humble prayer, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner,” is the one who went home justified.
March 27, Fourth Sunday of Lent: Luke 15: 1-3. 11-32
The parable of the Prodigal Son gives us a picture of the steadfast love of God. When he welcomes back his lost son with tears of delight, it gives expression to his own overwhelming pleasure that his child has come home.
March 28: John 4: 43-54
Prayer for another strengthens bonds, softens hearts, and is heard by God.
March 29: John 5: 1-16
In prayer bring those you are concerned about to God. Bring your worries and anxieties about yourself also to God. “Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you.” (I Peter 5:7)
March 30: John 5: 17-30
The topic of this passage is the relationship between Jesus and his heavenly Father. Jesus says, “I can do nothing on my own. I seek to do not my own will but the will of him who sent me.”
March 31: John 5: 31-47
John the Baptist fulfilled Isaiah’s prophecy, that a voice would cry in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.’ As we make our Lenten journey, let us reflect on what we are doing to make our own crooked ways straight.