Home prayer service: 3rd week of Lent

Lenten meditations from Bishop Jacobs, Legatus’ International Chaplain . . .

Bishop Sam Jacobs

Dear Legatus members and your families,

As we enter into this holy time of the Church year, Lent and the Easter Season, I would like to share the attached Home Prayer Service for recitation during the Weeks of Lent.  I offer these prayerful considerations to encourage the inclusion of family prayer in the Lenten Season.  May Our Crucified Lord draw you closer to Himself and may you come to know Him more intimately through these brief dialogues.

Yours in Christ,

+ Bishop Samuel Jacobs
Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux
International Chaplain, Legatus

————————–

Leader: In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

All: Amen

Leader: We began this Lenten journey on Ash Wednesday when we heard the words: “Repent and believe in the Gospel.” The Gospel from Luke will share with us Jesus’ insistence on the need of true repentance in our hearts and lives. Let us recall our sins and turn to the Lord in repentance. (Pause) Lord Jesus, you became sin for us. For the many times we have remained in sin with an unrepented heart: Lord, have mercy.

All: Lord, have mercy.

Leader: Christ Jesus, by your passion and death on the cross you have shown your great love for us. Christ, have mercy.

All: Christ, have mercy.

Leader: Lord Jesus, when Peter repented for the sin of denying you, you forgave him. Forgive us, Lord, have mercy.

All: Lord, have mercy.

Leader: Let us attentively listen to the Gospel of Luke.

Reader:

At that time some people who were present there told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with the blood of their sacrifices. He said to them in reply, “Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were greater sinners than all other Galileans? By no means! But I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did! Or those eighteen people who were killed when the tower at Siloam fell on them–do you think they were more guilty than everyone else who lived in Jerusalem? By no means! But I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did!” And he told them this parable: “There once was a person who had a fig tree planted in his orchard, and when he came in search of fruit on it but found none, he said to the gardener, ‘For three years now I have come in search of fruit on this fig tree but have found none. (So) cut it down. Why should it exhaust the soil?’ He said to him in reply, ‘Sir, leave it for this year also, and I shall cultivate the ground around it and fertilize it; it may bear fruit in the future. If not you can cut it down.'” (Pause) The Gospel of the Lord.

All: Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ.

Leader: What did we hear in the reading that touched us at the core of our heart? (Pause) Do we sometimes presume on God’s forgiveness and thus remain unrepentant and un-reconciled for a long period of time? (Pause) What are the areas of sin for which we need to truly repent? (Pause) What is God calling us to do this week in response to his Word? (Pause)

We have a loving God who desires to reconcile us more that we can imagine. Let us bring our personal needs and intentions before him in love.

Lord God, we pray for the grace we need now to truly repent in our hearts for our many sins. We pray to the Lord.

All: Lord, hear our prayer.

Leader: Lord God, as we ask for your forgiveness, we ask for your grace to forgive those who have hurt us. We pray to the Lord.

All: Lord, hear our prayer.

Leader: Lord God, help us to see sin as you see it, so that we will seek you and not what is contrary to you. We pray to the Lord.

All: Lord, hear our prayer.

Leader: Lord God, we bring you our other personal needs and intentions. (Pause) We pray to the Lord.

All: Lord, hear our prayer.

Leader: Let us personally and as the local church express our repentance through the prayer: I confess…

All: I confess to almighty God, and to you, my brothers and sisters, that I have sinned through my own fault in my thoughts and in my words, in what I have done, and in what I have failed to do; and I ask blessed Mary, ever virgin, all the angels and saints, and you, my brothers and sisters, to pray for me to the Lord our God. Amen.

Leader: During this Lenten journey, let us take advantage of the Sacrament of Reconciliation to express our sincere repentance for sin. Go in peace.

All: Thanks be to God.