Listening to the Spirit
(Oratio Imperata)
God our Father,
we come to you in our need
to ask your protection against the 2019 N-Corona Virus,
that has claimed lives
and has affected many.
We pray for your grace
for the people tasked with studying the nature and cause
of this virus and its disease
and of stemming the tide of its transmission.
Guide the hands and minds of medical experts
that they may minister to the sick
with competence and compassion,
and of those governments and private agencies
that must find cure and solution to this epidemic.
We pray for those afflicted
may they be restored to health soon.
Grant us the grace
to work for the good of all
and to help those in need.
Grant this through our Lord, Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with You, in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God forever and ever. Amen.
Mary Help of all Christians, pray for us.
St. Raphael the Archangel, pray for us.
St. Rock, pray for us.
St. Lorenzo Ruiz, pray for us.
St. Pedro Calungsod, pray for us.
Listening to the Word
As he passed by, he saw a man blind from his birth. He spat on the ground and made clay of the spittle and anointed the man’s eyes with the clay, saying to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Silo′am” (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing. The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar, said, “Is not this the man who used to sit and beg?” Some said, “It is he”; others said, “No, but he is like him.” He said, “I am the man.” They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. Now it was a sabbath day when Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes. The Pharisees again asked him how he had received his sight. And he said to them, “He put clay on my eyes, and I washed, and I see.” Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not keep the sabbath.” But others said, “How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?” There was a division among them. So they again said to the blind man, “What do you say about him, since he has opened your eyes?” He said, “He is a prophet.” They answered him, “You were born in utter sin, and would you teach us?” And they cast him out. Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him he said, “Do you believe in the Son of man?” He answered, “And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?” Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and it is he who speaks to you.” He said, “Lord, I believe”; and he worshiped him.
Reflection
The word of God for this Fourth Sunday of Lent offers us a message of deep hope which is so much needed especially in this time of desolation. Jesus, the true light of the world, our Savior cures our blindness that we may follow Him.
Jesus comes when darkness and hopelessness have led you to beg and the world has declared that you cannot do anything about it but to accept your situation.
He touches you, remolds your eyes with clay and asks you to go to the water.
In his infinite compassion, wonderful things happen: any kind of darkness is gone, a new day is downing; sadness, disaster, mess, failure, sickness are far gone.
On knees our prayer: "Glory and praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ!"
Liturgical time
Writers
Fr. Yustinus Hibur, SX
Fr. Patrick Abdul Fornah, SX
Fr. Eugenio Pulcini, SX
Fr. Handrianus Masri, SX
Fr. Yohanes Purnomo, SX
Fr. Thiago Rodrígues, SX
Fr. Cesar da Silva, SX
Fr. Pasteur Mugisho Bisimwa, SX
Fr. Matteo Rebecchi, SX
Fr. Severin Joseph Marie, SX
Gospel Reflections

Allowing Jesus to Change Us

Who Is Jesus for Me? From Encounter to Mission












