Daily Devotional for Lent 2019 | Fifth Week of Lent
Fifth Week of Lent: Restoring All Things in Christ
“What a strange capacity man has to forget even the most wonderful things, to become used to mystery! Let’s remind ourselves, this Lent, that the Christian cannot be superficial. While being fully involved in his everyday work, among other men, his equals; busy, under stress, the Christian has to be at the same time totally involved with God, for he is a child of God.
“Divine filiation is a joyful truth, a consoling mystery. It fills all our spiritual life, it shows us how to speak to God, to know and to love our Father in heaven. And it makes our interior struggle overflow with hope and gives us the trusting simplicity of little children. More than that: precisely because we are children of God, we can contemplate in love and wonder everything as coming from the hands of our Father, God the Creator. And so we become contemplatives in the middle of the world, loving the world.
“In Lent, the liturgy recalls the effect of Adam’s sin in the life of man. Adam did not want to be a good son of God; he rebelled. But we also hear the echoing chant of that felix culpa: ‘O happy fault,’ which the whole Church will joyfully intone at the Easter vigil.
“God the Father, in the fullness of time, sent to the world his only-begotten Son, to re-establish peace; so that by his redeeming men from sin, ‘we might become sons of God,’ freed from the yoke of sin, capable of sharing in the divine intimacy of the Trinity. And so it has become possible for this new man, this new grafting of the children of God, to free all creation from disorder, restoring all things in Christ, who has reconciled them to God.
“It is, then, a time of penance, but, as we have seen, this is not something negative. Lent should be lived in the spirit of filiation, which Christ has communicated to us and which is alive in our soul. Our Lord calls us to come nearer to him, to be like him: ‘Be imitators of God, as his dearly beloved children,’ cooperating humbly but fervently in the divine purpose of mending what is broken, of saving what is lost, of bringing back order to what sinful man has put out of order, of leading to its goal what has gone astray, of re-establishing the divine balance of all creation.”
St. Josemaria Escriva
Christ is Passing By, no. 65
The St. Josemaria Institute Daily Devotional for Lent 2019
Brief Lenten readings to help you spend 10 – 15 prayerful minutes with our Lord
- Slowly read the Gospel of the day and the point for meditation from the devotional (links below).
- Reflect on what you’ve read: What strikes you? What do you see, hear, and feel? What is God asking of you?
- Listen attentively to what God is saying to you.
- Be renewed and begin again, following these new inspiration and desires that God provokes in your soul.
Fifth Sunday of Lent
Today’s Readings:
http://usccb.org/bible/readings/040719-yearc.cfm
“Even now, says the Lord, return to me with your whole heart; for I am gracious and merciful.” (Jl 2:12-13)
As you begin this last week of Lent, our Lord wants to reassure you that He sees and knows with what sincerity and devotion you want to love and serve Him, so: “Never despair. Lazarus was dead and decaying: ‘by now he will smell; this is the fourth day,’ Martha told Jesus. If you hear the inspiration of God and follow it—‘Lazarus come forth!’—you will return to Life” (The Way, no. 719).
Monday of the Fifth Week of Lent
Today’s Readings:
http://usccb.org/bible/readings/040819.cfm
“I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked man, says the Lord, but rather in his conversion, that he may live.” (Ez 33:11)
Don’t give up or give in now: “At the time of temptation think of the love that awaits you in heaven: foster the virtue of hope—it’s not a lack of generosity” (The Way, no. 139).
Tuesday of the Fifth Week of Lent
Today’s Readings:
http://usccb.org/bible/readings/040919.cfm
“The seed is the word of God, Christ is the sower; all who come to him will live for ever.” (Jn 8:21-30)
“Don’t you sense that more peace and more union await you when you have corresponded to that extraordinary grace that requires complete detachment? Struggle for him to please him, but strengthen your hope.” (The Way, no. 152)
Wednesday of the Fifth Week of Lent
Today’s Readings:
http://usccb.org/bible/readings/041019.cfm
“Blessed are they who have kept the word with a generous heart and yield a harvest through perseverance.” (Lk 8:15)
“Jesus suffers to carry out the will of the Father. And you, who also want to carry out the most holy will of God, following the steps of the Master, can you complain if you meet suffering on your way?” (The Way, no. 213)
Thursday of the Fifth Week of Lent
Today’s Readings:
http://usccb.org/bible/readings/041119.cfm
“If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.” (Ps 95:8)
“Children. How they seek to behave worthily in the presence of their fathers! And the children of kings, in the presence of their father, the king, how they seek to uphold the royal dignity! And you… Don’t you realize that you are always in the presence of the great king, God, your Father?” (The Way, no. 265)
Friday of the Fifth Week of Lent
Today’s Readings:
http://usccb.org/bible/readings/041219.cfm
“Your words, Lord, are Spirit and life; you have the words of everlasting life.” (Jn 6:63c, 68c)
On this last Friday of Lent, contemplating our Lord in His passion, engrave this in your heart: “Depend on Jesus for everything. You have nothing, are worth nothing, are capable of nothing. He will act, if you abandon yourself to him” (The Way, no. 731).
Saturday of the Fifth Week of Lent
Today’s Readings:
http://usccb.org/bible/readings/041319.cfm
“Cast away from you all the crimes you have committed, says the LORD, and make for yourselves a new heart and a new spirit.” (Ez 18:31)
“Marvel at the courage of Mary–at the foot of the cross, in the greatest of human sorrow (there is no sorrow like hers) filled with fortitude. And ask her for that same fortitude, so that you, too, will know how to remain close to the cross” (The Way, no. 508):
Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection, implored thy help, or sought thy intercession was left unaided. Inspired by this confidence, I fly unto thee, O Virgin of virgins, my Mother; to thee do I come, before thee I stand, sinful and sorrowful. O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in thy mercy hear and answer me. Amen.
Continue to the Reflections for Holy Week…
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St. Josemaria Institute
The St. Josemaria Institute was founded in 2006 to promote the life, teachings, and devotion to St. Josemaria Escriva among all men and women who desire to find meaning and happiness in their daily lives by growing closer to God. The St. Josemaria Institute produces and distributes digital and print media as a means to spread Christian values around the world and to help people navigate and live well in the digital age.
