Beloved Father, how can we come to understand Your love even more deeply?
When the Israelites offended You by dancing around the golden calf (Ex 32:8), You accepted the plea of Your servant Moses on their behalf and did not hold their sin against them. Time and again we encounter Your willingness to forgive, even when it comes to the most repugnant sins—and there are so many.
How much Saint Abraham of Edessa must have suffered upon learning that his niece Mary—whom he himself had guided toward a life of penance and deep union with God—had been led astray and had wandered from the path of salvation. How many tears he must have shed, how many sacrifices he must have offered before he was finally able to lead her back to the path of holiness. O Lord, how many tears did Saint Monica also shed until her son Augustine heard Your voice and turned away from his errors.
Beloved Father, we constantly bring many intentions before You. Yet this time, it is a very significant and specific request.
In today’s meditation, we reflected on how Your Son is King and how His Kingdom must extend to all people. Certainly, this is not a dominion that can be imposed by worldly means. Rather, it is the sovereignty of love—the reign of the Messiah, the Savior of all. When all willingly submit to His yoke and follow Jesus, communion with You and true unity among people arise.
REMINDER: During Lent, the “3 Minutes for Abba” are connected to the meditation for each day and, at times, can only be understood in that context. They are often a kind of personal dialogue with God the Father on the theme of the daily meditation (https://en.elijamission.net/).
Beloved Father, how gently Your Son guided the woman at Jacob’s well to the knowledge of the truth, so that she could recognize Him as the Messiah and become His witness to many other Samaritans. This is how You often proceed: You find someone who opens their heart to You, someone to whom You can grant Your light and make Yourself known, so that they can then carry the message to others. They too must learn that the One whom all who want to live in truth long for is truly there, waiting for them.
Beloved Father, in today’s Gospel we once again encounter—though indirectly—the powers that rebelled against You. We thank You endlessly, for Your Son has freed humanity from their dominion. Still, we eagerly await the moment when light and darkness will be separated once and for all, and when we will never again be attacked by them for all eternity.
If people lived with the fear of God, dear heavenly Father, things on this earth would look very different. Everyone would first consider whether their actions align with Your will. That alone would be wonderful. They would also be careful not to harm their neighbor, who, like them, is called to live as a child of God. All Your commandments would be alive within them, as well as the words handed down to us by the Lord, His apostles, and later the Church as the teacher of the nations. The earth would truly be different, and the Kingdom of God could spread. Those in positions of power and responsibility would be especially vigilant, always seeking Your counsel and the counsel of those who fear and love You.
Beloved Father, through the forgiveness You offer through Your Son Jesus Christ, how You lighten the burdens weighing on nations and individuals, if only they come to You!
How heavy are the burdens that people sometimes carry, to the point that they can hardly move freely! How crushing are the sins that have not been forgiven—how they mark a person’s being and bend them over, even seeking to enslave them forever! Even if they do not realize it or do not want to admit it, their vision is clouded and they hide from You, just as our first parents hid from Your gaze after they had sinned (cf. Gen 3:8).
Having purified our hearts, beloved Father, we can dare even more to undertake great things without neglecting the small ones. Did not St. Paul give good witness to the faith before the great ones of this world (cf. Acts 26)? Did not Elijah and John the Baptist fearlessly denounce the evil deeds of kings (1 Kings 18:17–18; Matthew 14:3–4)? And did not the apostles give courageous witness to Your beloved Son before the Sanhedrin (Acts 4:1–20)? Who made them capable of this, if not You? You communicated to them the spirit of fortitude. And that same spirit is what we need today to resist the machinations of evil spirits and of people who, consciously or unconsciously, cooperate with them.
Dear Father, we have set out on the path to obtain a pure heart. Indeed, You desire to grant it to us, but we must also do our part. After hearing the word of truth and the gospel of life and believing, we long for nothing more than to be sealed with the promised Spirit (cf. Ephesians 1:13).
