Sue O’Donnell. 15.03.21
“Wisdom has built her house; she has carved its seven columns. She has prepared a great banquet, mixed the wines, set the table.” (Proverbs 9 v 1, 2 NLT)
Come Lord Jesus, come sacramentally
That You enter us spiritually.
Restore and refresh us in Your holiness.
Renew life in us that we worship.
In You is the fullness of holy love
As offered us by our Father,
Through the zealous efforts of the Holy Spirit.
You are our union, our blessed communion.
You are our hope and our vision.
May Your love be our decision, our action.
We look to Your Spirit to develop our devotion.
How truly marvellous, how fully gracious,
That we can receive of Your body
Hidden beneath a wafer of consecrated bread.
On this we are fed to be nourished.
You are the living Bread come down from heaven.
“She (wisdom) has sent her servants to invite everyone to come.” (Proverbs 9 v 3 NLT)
How miraculous is the loving work of the Spirit,
At the will and request of our merciful Father.
He longs to redeem and restore us to favour.
Therefore Lord Jesus, You gift us Yourself.
We recall all Your blood shed at the †,
For our redemption, salvation, recall by the Spirit.
Sanctification becomes possible through forgiveness.
You died, to rise again, to live within us.
This is continuous, for You are our Forever Saviour.
You unite humanity eternally with divinity.
Profoundly we are blessed by the power of holy love.
It is love which forgives us and forges a way forwards.
Yours is the life giving fountain, our cleansing in the Spirit.
Let us leave behind all wicked ways, such sinfulness.
Let us seek once more Your wisdom and truth.
Let us implore the Spirit to descend upon us.
“ ‘Come in with me,’ she (wisdom) urges the simple.” (Proverbs 9 v 4 NLT)
“To those who lack good judgment, she says, ‘Come, eat my food, and drink the wine I have mixed’.” (Proverbs 9 v 5 NLT)
Father, holy wisdom as You know, goes on to say for our benefit: “Leave your simple ways behind, and begin to live; learn to use good judgment’.” (Proverbs 9 v 6 NLT) Thank You for making this possible for us in Your Son, by Your Spirit of love, of mercy, of forgiveness, of wisdom, of truth.
To think that in the sacrament celebratory, that of the Sacramental Mystery, we actually receive the real presence of our Saviour, is a joy beyond description, a privilege that defies explanation apparent from mercy being shown to us.
What a mercy! “Such knowledge is higher than the heavens...” (Job 11 v 8 NLT) “For God is so wise and so mighty, who has ever challenged Him successfully?” (Job 9 v 4) Yet we do so when we defy You.
But even then You do not bring of Yourself upon us because true love is merciful and bountiful. Therefore You gift us Your most prized possession, Your Son.
Job, who suffered such loss and setbacks a-plenty had the right attitude to life, an outlook we can learn from.
Oh that we would study the sacred Scriptures to gain a heart of wisdom.
Job was told “ ‘If only you would prepare your heart and lift up your hands in prayer! Get rid of your sins, and leave all iniquity behind you’.” (Job 11 v 13, 14 NLT) Let this be our aim for the remainder of Lent and beyond.
This is important for us to realise. We are told why. “Then your face will brighten with innocence, you will be strong and free of fear. You will forget your misery...” (v 15, 16)
Yes, the Lord Jesus comes to us as the Divine Healer of body, mind and spirit. He comes to rescue us from the unhappiness, discontent and dismay which flourish whilst sin separates us from You, Father most loving.
Without a knowledge and experience of Your presence, we feel empty, dissatisfied, at odds with life. But returning to You by the Lord Jesus living within us, our “Life will be brighter than the noonday.” (v 17)
What a glorious experience! “Even darkness will be as bright as morning. Having hope will give you courage. You will be protected and will rest in safety,” (v 17, 18) all that we long for.
Hope is powerful. It is a precious gift arising out of true love. “Christianity is realistic because it says that if there is no truth, there is also no hope.” (Francis A. Schaeffer) We have to build our life on truth for anything to make sense.
You have gifted us this truth in the Lord Jesus, the holy Son, Your anointed and appointed One, whose “Life brought life to everyone.” (John 1 v 4 NLT)
To be in receipt of the Lord Jesus’ most precious body and blood is to share in His holiness, being made His works in progress on the way to sainthood. “Let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.” (Matthew 5 v 16 NLT)
I am sorry for the countless times we take our eyes off the target. I am sorry for the too many times I do this. I ask for Your mercy to call us back, to partake of salvation.
We have to change! We have to be reborn continuously. This conversion calls for us to live prayerfully and partake of the sacraments, especially that of Reconciliation and the Holy Eucharist as often as is possible.
Dearest Father, out of Your love for us, please keep sending us the Holy Spirit, He who leads us to holiness through our knowledge and experience of the Lord Jesus. We have to undergo a real change to become selfless, obedient and fully reverent in the way we are shown.
Change is not easy and certainly does not come readily, for we are creatures of habit. How useful it is then, to have the command to attend Mass at least once weekly and to keep Sunday holy.
It would be much better if we could keep each day as holy, living in such a way that allows hope, peace and joy to flourish. And we can, for we have the means in turning to the Lord Jesus, belonging fully to Him, not
allowing satan to take an inch, lest he snatch a mile or two or more.
Father of love, of every mercy, forgive us our foolishness in not heeding our Saviour Brother. Some even think we do not need Him, for they question the existence of satan. How ignorant can we be!
satan dismantles our faith’s practices and thereby our life bit by bit, unless we are truly careful, vigilant in our efforts to prevent him. he does indeed prowl around like a lion looking for someone to devour.
It must not be us, the family who belong to the Saviour, our Redeemer and Healer. We are bid “To give our bodies to You Lord God, because of all You have done for us” (based on Romans 12 v 1 NLT) especially at the †.
Let us resolve to do this. Please, please keep sending Your Spirit, the Spirit of the Lord Jesus, the Holy Spirit who will transform our way of looking at life, commanding conversion for the sake of sanctification.
“Let us be a living and holy sacrifice, the kind You will find acceptable,” (based on v 1) “This is truly the way to worship” (Cont) when partaking of the blessed communion, we have the real presence of Christ Jesus to empower us.
He offers to share His life giving, peace building, hope establishing, joy experiencing presence to us in a consecrated wafer of bread, for He is the living Bread of heaven, and in a chalice of wine being His blood as
poured out at the † for us, for forgiveness.
We are then a new creation, all praise and thanks ever be. We are rescued from the dominion of sin, our captivity to satan, whereby we comply with the behaviour and dictates of the world.
No more! Your loving mercy of forgiveness offering us a fresh start by the Lord Jesus coming to us, the Holy Spirit of love active and effective, this transforms us. Having been given the opportunity, let us become holy.
Your will, Father God, is good, honourable, fully upright because it is pleasingly perfect. It is holy. It is to this You continuously call us, throughout Lent and beyond.
Let us then make every effort not to fail You, not to disappoint You, not to have caused our Lord and Master to have died such an ignoble and cruel death in vain. Called to conversion of mind and heart, let us live to
give evidence of this.
One day the Lord Jesus will ask of each of us ‘Who do you say that I am?’ May our life be profoundly blessed by His real presence and the industrious Holy Spirit, intent on building us into a holy community, may this have godly results.
Let us recognise the Lord as Saviour Redeemer and Master, the Light of the world, as He is the living Bread come down from heaven to rescue us from the world, the clamour of our flesh and satan. His example of love
is full of signs, wonders even.
May we never discount anything that our faith reveals to us or asks of us. Life will never be the same again when we focus on the Lord Jesus and all He offers us, especially in the blessed communion of His body and blood.
May this save and sanctify us as we become united with the sacred Heart of Christ Jesus and the merits of His perfect life of love and mercy, this causing us to offer Him our worship and through Him offer You, Father most merciful, ourselves.
Thank You for showing us the way to live, for gifting us the truth to live by, for offering us the holy life, a perfect life we are invited to share. We rejoice in this Light from Light, God from God, truly God and truly Man, the One we know as Saviour.
May we live, move and have our being in Him, responding to all the wonders and marvels of Your love, the Holy Spirit always deepening, strengthening and extending our faith. May we live then as a blessed and holy people.
For Your word is life to us, dearest Father, the profound love and mercy You offer us being readily available as our blessed communion with Your beloved Son, the perfectly holy One. We are enabled to partake of every
grace and blessing when the Holy Spirit keeps us confident.
Thank You for everything. May we strive to become a blessing as Your love and mercy emanating from the Holy Trinity, affects us to the extent of a complete transformation for those who are saints. All glory ever be
through this marvel.
May the world be saved from all its sinfulness because we have a Brother who is our Saviour, a Spirit who is holy and You, Father, the Lord of love and mercy, inviting us to be holy. Let us not fail You. Amen.
Images by Artist Christine Garwood
http://www.christinegarwoodartist.co.uk/
Season
Key Themes
EUCHARIST
SANCTIFICATION
