These reflections are a result of more than 40 years of ministry as a Roman Catholic priest. Most of these years I spent in the Diocese of Charlotte which covers Western North Carolina. Now I am retired, and live in Medellín, Colombia where I continue to serve as a priest in the Archdiocese of Medellín.
Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar, and there recall that your brother has anything against you, leave your gift there at the altar, go first and be reconciled with your brother, and then come and offer your gift. (Mt 5:20-26)
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/031122.cfm
How important is reconciliation! In order to offer our gift to the Lord, we must first be reconciled with one another. Because otherwise, our gift smells to high heaven! We pray for Ukraine, we pray for peace.
Queen Esther, prayed: “Save us from the hand of our enemies; turn our mourning into gladness and our sorrows into wholeness.” (Es 4:17n. p-r. aa-bb. gg-hh)
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/031022.cfm
According to Pope Francis, prayer, along with fasting, is one of God’s weapons. Queen Esther’s prayer is the anguished prayer of the Ukrainian people.
Responsorial Psalm (Ps 51)
R. A heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.
Have mercy on me, O God, in your goodness; in the greatness of your compassion wipe out my offense.
Thoroughly wash me from my guilt and of my sin cleanse me.
R. A heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/030922.cfm
Psalm 51 is one of the 7 penitential psalms: 6, 32 (31), 38 (37), 51 (50), 102 (101), 130 (129), and 143 (142). Psalm 51 is prayed every Friday at Morning Prayer. We ask not only for a clean heart, but also for a renewed, contrite spirit.
So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; It shall not return to me void, but shall do my will, achieving the end for which I sent it. (Is 55:10-11)
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/030822.cfm
Lent is not about the sacrifices we offer to God—the things we give up for Lent. What we celebrate is the salvation God’s Word has accomplished. It doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t practice fasting and abstinence—just the contrary, but we should do them with joy because we have so great a Redeemer.
He will answer them, ‘Amen, I say to you, what you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for me.’ (Mt 25:31-46)
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/030722.cfm
In the general confession of sins at the beginning of the Mass, we acknowledge that we have greatly sinned not only in what we have done, but also in what we have failed to do. Sometimes what we fail to do is often more important than the things we have done. And so we pray for Ukraine.
