1ST SUNDAY OF LENT
Psalter: Week 1 / (Violet)
Ps 25:4-5, 6-7, 8-9
Your ways, O Lord, are love and truth to those
who keep your covenant.
1st Reading: Gen 9:8-15
God spoke to Noah and his sons, “See I am making a Covenant with you and with your descendants after you; also with every living animal with you: birds, cattle, that is, with every living creature of the earth that came out of the ark. I establish my Covenant with you. Never again will all life be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.”
God said, “This is the sign of the Covenant I make between me and you, and every animal living with you for all future generations. I set my bow in the clouds and it will be a sign of the Covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember the Covenant between me and you and every kind of living creature, so that never again will floodwaters destroy all flesh.
2nd Reading: 1 P 3:18-22
Remember how Christ died once, and for all, for our sins. He, the just one, died for the unjust, in order to lead us to God. In the body, he was put to death, in the spirit, he was raised to life, and it was then, that he went to preach to the imprisoned spirits. They were the generation who did not believe, when God, in his great patience, delayed punishing the world, while Noah was building the ark, in which a small group of eight persons escaped, through water. That was a type of the baptism that now saves you; this baptism is not a matter of physical cleansing, but of asking God to reconcile us, through the resurrection of Christ Jesus. He has ascended to heaven, and is at the right hand of God, having subjected the angels, Dominions and Powers.
Gospel: Mk 1:12-15
Then the Spirit drove him into the desert. Jesus stayed in the desert forty days and was tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, but angels ministered to him. After John was arrested, Jesus went into Galilee and began preaching the Good News of God.
He said, “The time has come; the kingdom of God is at hand. Change your ways and believe the Good News.”
Lectio Divina
Read: On this first Sunday of Lent, the Church reminds us of God’s post-flood Covenant to Noah that God would preserve life on earth. Peter reminds us of the great spiritual redemption Christ has brought into our lives. With a forty-day desert experience, Jesus begins his ministry of announcing the Good News of God’s love and life.
Reflect: Jesus’ message included the declaration that the Time of redemption – God’s Kingdom - has come and an invitation to mend one’s ways and believe in the Good News of the possibility of one’s redemption. Sometimes we are so steeped in the ways of the “world” and have walked so far away from the ways of the Kingdom that it is hard to believe in even the possibility of a return and new beginnings. Thus the first step required is simply to believe in the Good News of this possibility. We shall begin the Lent by simply trusting this Good News.
Pray: Lord, help me believe in the possibility of change within me and my people.
Act: Make a list of 2-3 things in your life that you would like to change around in this Lent.
Daily Reflection 2018
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Biblical Texts are taken from Christian Community Bible, Catholic Pastoral Edition (57th Edition) The New English Translation for the ROMAN MISSAL
With permission from the EPISCOPAL COMMISION ON LITURGY of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines
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