3rd Sunday of Lent (Year C) - 20 March
20th March 2022
3rd Sunday of Lent (Year C) - 20 March
A short reflection on the themes of sin and repentance in today's readings by the Venerable Archbishop Fulton J Sheen:
"Strong passions are the precious raw materials of sanctity. Individuals who have carried their sinning to extremes should not despair or say, 'I am too great a sinner to change,' or 'God would not want me.' God will take anyone who is willing to love, not with an occasional gesture, but with a 'passionless passion', a 'wild tranquility'.
"A sinner, unrepentant, cannot love God, any more than someone on dry land can swim; but as soon as a person takes his errant energies to God and asks for their redirection, he will become happy, as he was never happy before.
"It is not the wrong things one has already done that keep one from God; it is present persistence in that wrong. Someone who turns back to God, as the Magdalene and Paul, welcomes the discipline that will enable him to change his former tendencies. Mortification is good, but only when it is done out of love of God. ...Mortifications of the right sort perfect our human nature; the gardener cuts the green shoots from the root of the bush, not to kill the rose, but to make it bloom more beautifully."
Prayer for True Repentance & Pardon
Behold me at Thy feet, O Jesus of Nazareth, behold the most wretched of creatures, who comes into Thy presence humbled and penitent! Have mercy on me, O Lord, according to Thy great mercy! I have sinned and my sins are always before Thee. Yet my soul belongs to Thee, for Thou hast created it, and redeemed it with Thy Precious Blood. O grant that Thy redeeming work be not in vain! Have pity on me; give me tears of true repentance; pardon me for I am Thy child; pardon me as Thou didst pardon the penitent thief; look upon me from Thy throne in heaven and give me Thy blessing. Amen. 🙏💖