1st Sunday of Lent
H. Alexis Montiel, L.C.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Christ, our King, Thy Kingdom come!
Preparatory prayer (to put me in the presence of God)
My Jesus, let me listen to your words with my heart, so that I may incarnate them in my life.
Gospel of the day (to guide your meditation)
From the Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew 4, 1-11
At that time, Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. He spent forty days and forty nights without food, and at the end, he felt hungry. Then the tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread”. But Jesus answered himIt is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.
Then the devil took him to the holy city, put him on the highest part of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written: He will send his angels to watch over you, and they will take you in their hands, so that your foot will not stumble on any stone”. Jesus answered him, “It is also written: Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.”.
Then the devil took him to a very high mountain, and from there he showed him the greatness of all the kingdoms of the world, and said to him, “All these things I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me”. But Jesus said to him, “Get thee behind me, Satan, for it is written, “Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve”".
Then the devil left him, and the angels came to serve him.
Word of the Lord.
Meditate on what God tells you in the Gospel
When we speak of the Bible we encounter true words of life. The word of God is life for those who listen to it and for those who preach it, but how is it that the devil can pronounce the word of God without giving us life, but on the contrary, he wants us to perish? The answer is very simple, the word of life corresponds to an intention of life, to acts of life; not to be dead words, but words incarnated in our acts. And if we think of God's word as contradictory, it is because we do not really see it as a whole or we do not make it life.
This is the commitment that we have during Lent, it is not a time to lose weight or to suffer without meaning; it is about incarnating the whole word of God in our own life, not only what is convenient for us. That is why the devil can repeat words because words do not give life; what gives us life is that God became man, it is the Word of which St. John speaks at the beginning of his Gospel.
Therefore, may our actions become the preaching of the Word from the mouth of God; may taking care of ourselves not be vanity, but rather not wanting to tempt the Lord, who always takes care of us; may we prostrate ourselves only before the Lord, not before ourselves or before the things of this world. In short, may Lent be 40 days of incarnating the Word of God.
«As Christians, we must first of all put into practice the Lord's commandment, “As I have loved you, so you also should love one another. By this all will know that you are my disciples”. God's love, to be concretely incarnated in life, is therefore our way forward, the responsibility that together we have before the world to bear witness to the hope that is in us.»
(Address of H.H. Francis, December 7, 2017).
Dialogue with Christ
This is the most important part of your prayer, prepare yourself to talk with much love with the One who loves you.
Purpose
Propose a personal one. The one that involves the most love in response to the Beloved... or, if you believe that this is what God is asking of you, live what is suggested below.
To finish formulating a concrete purpose for Lent that will help me to incarnate the Gospel, for example, to break with gluttony, vanity or the adoration of the things of this world, as presented in today's Gospel.
Farewell
We thank You, Lord, for all Your benefits, You who live and reign forever and ever.
Amen.
Christ, our King!
Thy Kingdom come!
Most prudent Virgin, Mary, Mother of the Church.
Pray for us.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
