{"id":2823,"date":"2019-03-17T12:34:37","date_gmt":"2019-03-17T16:34:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=2823"},"modified":"2019-03-17T12:35:08","modified_gmt":"2019-03-17T16:35:08","slug":"2nd-sunday-in-lent-year-c-homily-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/2nd-sunday-in-lent-year-c-homily-2\/","title":{"rendered":"2nd Sunday in Lent, Year C – Homily"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

2<\/a>nd<\/a><\/sup> Sunday of Lent, Year C<\/a>
Genesis 15:5-12, 17-18
Psalm 27:1, 7-8, 8-9, 13-14 (1a)
Philippians 3:17-4:1
Luke 9:28b-36
March 17, 2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesus went up on the mountain to\npray.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What does \u201cprayer\u201d mean to you?  It can include recite familiar prayers like\nthe Rosary.  Other forms of recited\nprayer might include the Divine Mercy Chaplet or whatever your favorite\ndevotion is.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think this is what Jesus did when\nHe prayed?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In reflecting on what it means to pray, we\nare told that Jesus \u201cwent up the mountain\nto pray<\/em>.\u201d  Why a mountain?  We think of God being up<\/em><\/strong> in the heavens so\ngoing up the mountain was seen as getting closer to God.  The whole point of prayer is to draw us\ncloser to God.  Prayer can be a\nconversation with God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our first reading today is a conversation\nAbraham (Abram) had with God.  God had\npromised Abraham that he would have an heir. \nAbraham wondered how this was to be since both he and his wife were\nold.  Ultimately, Abraham \u201cput his faith in the LORD<\/em>.\u201d  He trusted God because he knew that God loved\nhim and would keep his promise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Near the end of the passage we read, \u201ca trance fell upon Abram, and a deep,\nterrifying darkness enveloped him.<\/em>\u201d \nSome might call this a mystical presence.  Whatever you call it, it was a profound\nencounter with God that strengthened Abraham. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We hear in the psalm today, \u201cYour presence, O LORD, I seek.<\/em>\u201d  Is not the greatest gift we can receive simply\nknow that God is with us?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What difficult situation have you faced\nlately?  Our first prayer in suffering\ncan (and should) be to ask God to take it away. \nIn this, perhaps the most common prayer is telling God what we\nwant.  Is prayer just a matter of giving\nGod a list of our demands?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, imagine your most recent difficult\nsituation again.  You asked God to take\nit away.  God said no.  What might be the next thing you ask for in\nprayer?  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you ask to know that God walks with you\nin the difficult situation?  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Abraham knew that God was there for\nhim.  That is why he \u201cput his faith in the LORD.<\/em>\u201d  Turning to the gospel, Jesus had just told\nhis disciples about his coming Passion. \nHe knew they were troubled by what He told them and that they would be\neven more troubled when it actually happened. \nTo give them \u201cdivine assurance,\u201d He took Peter, James, and John with him\nso they could see him transfigured, so that they would see his glory.  They also say Moses and Elijah with him to\nshow them that He is the fulfillment of the law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The experience of seeing Jesus\ntransfigured left Peter not knowing \u201cwhat\nhe was saying.<\/em>\u201d  Think of your\ngreatest experience of God.  Can you find\nworks to adequately describe it or does it seem like no words can describe\nit?  It is the experience that can be\nmost key to know that God is with us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thus, prayer has at its heart our desire\nto open ourselves to God\u2019s love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prayer can come in three parts.  First is spoken prayer.  This could be either the recited prayers I\nmentioned before or the list of our needs we offer to God.  The purpose of \u201creciting\u201d prayers isn\u2019t to\nsay we did it.  It\u2019s to draw us closer to\nthe Lord.  The point of listing our needs\nto God isn\u2019t to tell him our demands.  It\nshould be to tell him where we feel we need him most.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A second category of prayer is\n\u201cmediation.\u201d  This can include recited\nprayers if we move from just saying the words to thinking about what the story\nbehind the words means to us.  Here one\nmight think of meditating on the mysteries of the rosary as thinking about the\nimportant moments of Jesus\u2019 life and what they mean for us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mediation can also include reading the\nBible but I\u2019m not talking about reading it like any other book.  Meditation means to read a few words or lines\nwhile pausing to think about what it means for us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A third category of prayer is\ncontemplative prayer.  For me, this can\nbe both the most rewarding form of prayer and the most difficult.  It can be difficult because it requires us to\nstop thinking.  It isn\u2019t about reciting\nwords or meditating upon spiritual writings. \nContemplative prayer calls us to let go of all<\/em><\/strong> our thoughts.  This form of prayer is less about\nconversation with God and more about simply basking in his presence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Think of when Peter saw Jesus\ntransfigured.  He tried to find words to\ndescribe what he saw.  Contemplative\nprayer says don\u2019t worry about the words. \nJust enjoy the moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The problem with contemplative prayer is that you can\u2019t make it happen.  If you try to sit there all day and force it to happen, it won\u2019t.  I can\u2019t give you a lesson here about it but here are some basic thoughts.  It means letting go.  If you read about centering prayer (a type of contemplative prayer)<\/a>, it recommends twenty minutes at a time but NEVER start with 20 minutes.  Start with just a couple of minutes after your normal prayer.  Let the thoughts go.  Find a word as simple as the name \u201cJesus\u201d to repeat over and over to surrender yourself to the moment.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The goal of prayer is to open ourselves to\nGod, to let God lead the conversation. \nOnly then can we be transfigured by the experiences we have in\nprayer.  It is only when we stop\ndictating the conversation in prayer that we truly open ourselves to know that\nGod is with him and we put our faith in the Lord.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

2nd Sunday of Lent, Year CGenesis 15:5-12, 17-18Psalm 27:1, 7-8, 8-9, 13-14 (1a)Philippians 3:17-4:1Luke 9:28b-36March 17, 2019 Jesus went up on the mountain to pray.  What does \u201cprayer\u201d mean to you?  It can include recite familiar prayers like the Rosary.  Other forms of recited prayer might include the Divine Mercy Chaplet or whatever your favorite …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘2nd Sunday in Lent, Year C – Homily’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[26,260],"tags":[266],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-Jx","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2823"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2823"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2823\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2825,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2823\/revisions\/2825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}