Your loins are to be girt with chastity, your breast fortified by holy meditations, for as Scripture has it, holy meditation will save you. Carmelite Rule 19

"Lord, I come before You today to ask for Your blessings in all I do and to thank You, knowing that You will answer my prayer. In Your time and in Your way Lord You will provide for my needs, help me to await these changes with patience and faith in Your holy providence. Help me also to praise Your Holy Name in the asking and in the receiving."

A contemplative attitude towards the world around us allows us to discover the presence of God in the events of ordinary daily life and especially, to see him in our brothers and sisters. Carmelite Constitution 19

"Lord, protect me and mine every hour of the day and night. Keep me close to You in thought, word and deed and away from situations which will separate me from You. Lord, You know my weaknesses - be my strength, You know my temptations - guide me only towards You, You know my sorrows - be my joy, You know my pain - be my relief. Help me to walk every minute of my time hand in hand with my guardian angel, eyes ever focussed on You."

Your brother B., and whoever may succeed you as Prior, must always keep in mind and put into practice what our Lord said in the Gospel: Whoever has a mind to become a leader among you must make yourself servant to the rest, and whichever of you would be first must become your bondsman. Carmelite Rule 22

"Lord, I place myself into Your loving hands, let me not waken in the morning without praising Your goodness to me, or go to sleep at night without thanking You for the completion of the day. Keep me, Lord, ever in Your presence, help me to keep You ever in my thoughts, words and deeds."

"O Jesus, let me weep for myself, for I am nothing but dry wood to be cast into the fire. But you give new life to the dry wood by grafting it onto the wood of the cross." ~ Bl. Titus Brandsma.

"Lord Jesus, help me to kneel and ask for success in all I do even though You know my needs. Let me become like the little child asking the Father for His gifts. Help me to understand that You are only waiting to be asked. Today, dear Lord, I ask for Your blessing to improve my situation and that through it I may glorify You in all I do.

You must give yourselves to work of some kind, so that the devil may always find you busy; no idleness on your part must give him a chance to pierce the defences of your souls. Carmelite Rule 20

"Lord Jesus, I give You my hands to do Your work, I give You my feet to go Your way, I give You my eyes to see as You do, I give You my lips to speak Your words, I give You my spirit that You may pray through me, I give You my mind that You may think through me, I give You my heart that You may love through me. I give You my whole self that You may use and bless me in all I do. I ask Your blessing in my daily endeavours that they may be for Your Glory"

The values of contemplation - when lived faithfully in the midst of the complex events of daily life - make Carmelite brotherhood a witness to the living and mysterious presence of God among his people. Carmelite Constitution - 18

"Lord, I know You are with me today in all my adversities, my sorrows and pain. You have said: "Ask and you shall receive, Seek and you shall find, Knock and the door will be opened unto you." Today, dear Jesus, I ask, I seek and I knock. Help me now to be able to hand all over to You and to accept the outcome. Not my will be done but Thine."

Ordinary Time

1) Opening prayer

God of power and mercy,
protect us from all harm.
Give us freedom of spirit
and health in mind and body
to do your work on earth.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

2) Gospel reading - Luke 17,7-10

Jesus said: 'Which of you, with a servant ploughing or minding sheep, would say to him when he returned from the fields, "Come and have your meal at once"? Would he not be more likely to say, "Get my supper ready; fasten your belt and wait on me while I eat and drink. You yourself can eat and drink afterwards"? Must he be grateful to the servant for doing what he was told? So with you: when you have done all you have been told to do, say, "We are useless servants: we have done no more than our duty." '

3) Reflection

• The Gospel today narrates the parable which is found only in Luke’s Gospel, and has no parallel in the other Gospels. The parable wants to teach that our life has to be characterized by an attitude of service. It begins with three questions and at the end Jesus himself gives the answer.
• Luke 17, 7-9: The three questions of Jesus. It treats of three questions taken from daily life, and therefore, the listeners have to think each one on his own experience to give a response according to that experience. The first question: “Which of you, with a servant ploughing or minding sheep would say to him when he returned from the fields, ’Come and have your meal at once?” All will answer: “No!” Second question: “Would he not be more likely to say, ‘Get my supper ready; fasten your belt and wait on me while I eat and drink. You yourself can eat and drink afterwards?” All will answer: “Yes! Certainly!” Third question: “Must he be grateful to the servant for doing what he was told?” All will answer “No!” The way in which Jesus asks the questions, people become aware in which way he wants to orientate our thought. He wants us to be servants to one another.
• Luke 17, 10: The response of Jesus. At the end Jesus himself draws a conclusion which was already implicit in the questions: “So with you, when you have done all you have been told to do, say ‘We are useless servants, we have done no more than our duty”. Jesus himself has given us example when he said: “The Son of Man has not come to be served, but to serve” (Mk 10, 45). Service is a theme which Luke likes. Service represents the form in which the poor in the time of Jesus, the anawim, were waiting for the Messiah: not like a king and glorious Messiah, high priest or judge, but rather as the Servant of Yahweh, announced by Isaiah (Is 42, 1-9). Mary, the Mother of Jesus, says to the Angel: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord, may it be done to me according to your word!” (Lk 1, 38). In Nazareth, Jesus presents himself as the Servant described by Isaiah (Lk 4, 18-19 and Is 61, 1-2). In Baptism and in the Transfiguration, he was confirmed by the Father who quotes the words addressed by God to the Servant (Lk 3, 22; 9, 35 e Is 42, 1). Jesus asks his followers: “Anyone who wants to be first among you must be your slave” (Mt 20, 27). Useless servants! This is the definition of the Christian. Paul speaks about this to the members of the community of Corinth when he writes: “I did the planting, Apollos did the watering, but God gave growth. In this neither the planter nor the waterer counts for anything, only God who gave growth” (1Co 3, 6-7). Paul and Apollos are nothing; only simple instruments, “Servants”. The only one who counts is God, He alone! (1Co 3, 7).
• To serve and to be served. Here in this text, the servant serves the master and not the master the servant. But in the other text of Jesus the contrary is said: “Blessed those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes. In truth, I tell you, he will do up his belt, sit them down at table and wait on them” (Lk 12, 37). In this text, the master serves the servant and not the servant the master. In the first text, Jesus spoke in the present. In the second text, Jesus is speaking in the future. This contrast is another way of saying: the one who is ready to lose his life out of love for Jesus and the Gospel will find it (Mt 10, 39; 16, 25). Anyone who serves God in this present life will be served by God in the future life!

4) Personal questions

• How do I define my life?
• Do I ask myself the three questions of Jesus? Do I live, perhaps, like a useless servant?

5) Concluding prayer

The lives of the just are in Yahweh's care,
their birthright will endure for ever.
Yahweh guides a strong man's steps and keeps them firm;
and takes pleasure in him. (Ps 37,18.23)

"When you walk in the dark night and in the emptiness of spiritual poverty, you will think that everyone and everything is failing you — including God. But nothing is failing you." ~ St. John of the Cross s.7

Father of love, source of all blessings, help me to pass from my old life of sin to the new life of grace. Prepare me for the glory of Your Kingdom. I ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ....

You other brothers too, hold your Prior in humble reverence, your minds not on him but on Christ who has placed him over you. Carmelite Rule 23.

 

Lord, during this Lenten Season, fill my heart with Your love and keep me faithful to the Gospel of Christ. Give me the grace to rise above my human weakness. Give me new life by Your Sacraments, especially the Mass.

"Jesus is not alone on the way of the cross. Today, as then, not only are there adversaries, but there are those who assist him. Representative of those who love Him and wish to assist Him is Veronica." ~ St. Edith Stein

God of love, bring me back to You. Send Your Spirit to make me strong in faith and active in good works. May my acts of penance bring me Your forgiveness, open my heart to Your love, and prepare me for the coming feast of the Resurrection of Jesus.