Sunday

**Assorted quotes from various sources for Lent

Jesus, therefore, being wearied with His journey, sat thus on the well and it was about the sixth hour. There is a depth in all these details they all have something to say for us to learn. Upon them we gaze. “Knock,” says the Lord, “and it shall be opened unto you.” Let us knock then and, O, may He open to me and to you, even He Who hath spoken to us those words “Knock, and it shall be opened unto you.”  It is for thy sake that Jesus was wearied with His journey. We find the strength of Jesus, and we find Jesus weak; yea, strong and weak. Strong, for In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God—the Same was in the beginning with God.  Would thou know again how that the Son of God is strong? All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made made without effort. (John i. 1-3). What then is stronger than He by Whom all things were made without effort? Would thou know His weakness? The Word was made Flesh and dwelt among us. Christ, strong, made thee; Christ, weak, redeemed thee. Christ, strong, made all things out of nothing; Christ, weak, so wrought that that was made perished not. His strength hath made us, and His weakness saved us.

  • St Augustine, 15th Tract on John

 

Prayer:   O Lord, lead me not into temptation.

O Lord, grant me good thoughts.  (Hourly prayers or St John Chrysostom)

Monday

And yet it may be believed that nothing was being sold or bought in the temple save such things as were needful for the service thereof, as we read in another place, that when Jesus went into the temple He found those that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and all these things were doubtless there for no other end but to be offered to God in that His holy house, and were sold by the natives to those worshippers who came from a distance, to be so used.    If, therefore, the Lord would not have to be sold in the temple, even such things as He willed should be offered therein, (On account, that is, of the greed or dishonesty which is often the stain of such transactions,) with what anger, suppose ye, would He visit such as He might find laughing or gossiping there, or yielding to any other sin. If the Lord suffer not to be carried on in His house such worldly business as may be freely done elsewhere, how much more shall such things as ought never to be done anywhere, draw down the anger of God if they be done in His own holy house.

  • Venerable Bede, Homily featuring the Cleansing of the Temple compared to behaving properly when at church

 

Prayer:  O Lord, grant me tears, and remembrance of death, and compunction.

O Lord, grant me the thought of confessing my sins.

Tuesday

If, without keeping the commandments, it be possible to attain unto life by faith only, how can it be true that the Lord will say to such as He shall have set on His left hand: “Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels?” He rebukes them, not because they have not believed in Him, but because they have not done good works. Yea, lest any man should promise himself life eternal by faith only, which without works, is dead, the Lord says that He will gather together all nations, nations who have lived mingled together in the same countries, that we may seem to hear them which have believed indeed in Him, but have not done good works, (as though that their dead faith could, being alone, lead them into life eternal,) that we may seem to hear such crying unto Him, Lord, when saw we thee suffering such and such things, and did not minister unto thee?

  • Homily of St Augustine on Faith and Works

Prayer: O Lord, grant me humility, chastity, and obedience.

O Lord, grant me patience, courage, and meekness.

 

Wednesday

…on this day ashes are put on our
heads with these words: “Remember, man, that thou art dust,
and into dust thou shalt return.” Anciently sackcloth and
ashes were the weeds of penitents. The Ninevites fasted in
sackcloth and ashes, and they found mercy. Let these ashes
then be a lesson to us, to enter upon this penitential fast with
the like penitential spirit. They are an emblem of contrition
and humility; let us receive them with a contrite and humble
heart. They are also a remembrance of our mortality, of our
frail composition and hasty return into our original dust.
Consider, thirdly, Christian soul, those words as addressed
to you: “Yet forty days and Nineve shall be destroyed,” (Jonas
iii. 4.) Alas! have not your sins, like those of Nineve, called
to heaven this long time for vengeance? And have you not
too much reason to fear, lest the mercy which you have so
long abused, should quickly give place to justice, and suffer
you to die in your sins? Perhaps this is the last reprieve that
God will grant you. The good or bad use of these forty days
may very likely determine your lot for an eternity.
Conclude then so to spend these forty days in fasting, weeping
and mourning, as to deserve to obtain the divine mercy.

– From Catholic Bishop Challoner’s ‘Meditations’

Prayer:  O Lord, implant in me the root of good, Thy fear in my heart.

O Lord, vouchsafe me to love Thee with all my soul and thoughts, and in all things to do Thy will.

Thursday
Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, as we are now about to enter upon these mystic days, the end of whose most holy ordinance is the cleansing both of our souls and bodies, let us take heed that we be obedient unto the command of the Apostle, putting far away from us every defilement of flesh and spirit, ordering the strife which there is between the two substances of which we are compounded; that the soul, which is ordained under the rule of God, and which it is appropriate under His rule to rule the body, may enjoy the fullness of her lordship; giving no offence to any so that we may give no cause to such as revile us. For if our ways during the Fast agree not with the purity of perfect temperance, the reproaches of the unbelievers will be just, and our sins will arm the tongues of the ungodly to the harming of our religion. The sum of our Fast stands not only in abstaining from meats; neither is it profitable to deny food to the body, if the mind be not bridled from iniquity.

  • From Pope St Leo the Great, Sermons on Lent

 

Prayer: O Lord, protect me from evil men, and demons, and passions, and from every other unseemly thing.

O Lord, Thou knowest that Thou doest as Thou wilt: Thy will be done also in me a sinner; for blessed art Thou unto the ages. Amen.

 

Friday

We ought to know that temptation works through three forms. There is, first, the suggestion; then the enjoyment; lastly, the consent. When we are tempted, it often happens that we fall into enjoyment, and even into consent, because in the sinful flesh of which we are begotten, we carry in ourselves matter to favor the attack. But God, when He took Flesh in the womb of the Virgin, and came into the world without sin, did so without having in Himself anything of this lusting of the flesh against the spirit. It was possible therefore for Him to be tempted in the first stage, namely suggestion; but there was nothing in His Mind in which enjoyment could fix its teeth. And thus all the temptation which He endured from the devil was without, and none within Him.

  • Homily of Pope St Gregory the Great on the Gospels

 

Prayer:     Lord if it be that I have done a good thing I thank Thee for by Thy Grace is has been done.

Saturday

CONSIDER, first, how much fasting is recommended to us in
the word of God, and by the great example of Christ, and of
his saints both of the Old and New Testament: how we are
there called upon to turn to God with fasting, [Joel ii.] and
how the great sinners have found mercy by penitential fast,
[Jonas iii.] In a word, we are taught by our Lord himself, that
all his children are to fast during his absence from us, [Matth.
ix. 15.] and that the devil is not to be cast out but by prayer
and fasting, [Mark ix. 28.]
Consider, secondly, that there are three great advantages in
fasting. First, it appeases the wrath of God, provoked by
our sins; because by fasting for them we acknowledge our
guilt, and take part with his justice in condemning and punishing
ourselves than which nothing sooner moves God to mercy.
Wherefore let us not fail to secure to ourselves this great advantage.
Consider, thirdly, that another great advantage of fasting is,
that, when performed with due dispositions, it humbles the  soul exceedingly,

and consequently restrains the disorderly motions
of those passions which spring from pride: it keeps the
flesh in subjection, by curbing , and it obliges
it to submit to the spirit.

– From Catholic Bishop Challoner’s ‘Meditations’

Prayer:   Lord have mercy upon us, Christ have mercy upon us, Lord have mercy upon us.