Tag Archives: Charity

The Journey to Easter

A depiction of the risen Christ

Lent is an annual opportunity to accompany Jesus in his forty days of prayer and fasting in the desert and in his suffering and death on Mount Calvary to his resurrection on Easter Sunday. In this meditation we use texts of Scripture and of Pope Francis’ Message for Lent 2025 to consider how:

  • Lent symbolises our own journey through life to our death and resurrection to eternal life.
  • It is a journey filled with hope
  • If we live it well, we will have a true springtime, a new blossoming of our spiritual life
  • As Jesus was generous in suffering and dying out of love for us, we should show our love for him by being generous in the way we live Lent
  • We can choose areas of struggle from the the three traditional aspects of prayer, fasting and almsgiving, or charity

Journey to Bethlehem

The road to Bethlehem

In this season of Advent we can learn much about how to focus our spiritual life from Our Lady, as she makes her way to Bethlehem with St Joseph. Among the lessons Mary teaches us are:

      • Docility to the will of God
      • Self-giving to others
      • Bearing hardships without complaining
      • Purifying our soul through penance
      • Life of prayer
      • Bringing Christ to others

The first Christmas gift

Christmas is a time for giving gifts. The wise men brought gifts to the baby Jesus, but the first Christmas gift was Jesus himself, a gift from the Father to all of mankind. In this meditation we use texts of Scripture to consider how we can live Advent like Our Lady and St Joseph, the shepherds and the wise men, to show our gratitude to Jesus by:

  • Growing in our life of prayer in all its forms, especially through meditation on the Scripture passages that refer to Christ’s birth
  • Living a life of sacrifice, as has been traditional in Advent, to clean out the stable of our soul and make it welcome to receive Jesus
  • Giving of ourselves to those around us, for what we do to them we do to Jesus
  • Preparing well for four comings of Jesus: at Christmas 2000 years ago, at the end of time, everyday when he comes into our life in different ways, and when he comes to call us to eternal life with him.

Lessons from the Cross

Jesus crucified

Our Lord, Jesus Christ, crucified.

Jesus’ passion and death teach us many lessons.  In this meditation we use texts from Scripture and St Thomas Aquinas to consider some of the many virtues Christ teaches us from the Cross:

  • Charity
  • Humility
  • Patience
  • Obedience
  • Fortitude
  • Perseverance
  • Joy

Generosity in Lent

Lent is a time when we follow Christ more closely, accompanying him along the way of the Cross over Mount Calvary to the Resurrection. In this meditation we consider how:

  • Christ spent forty days praying and fasting in the desert to prepare for his public life. We accompany him in Lent by intensifying our own life of prayer and self-denial for forty days.
  • Christ loved us “to the end” by dying on the Cross for us and so we should grow in our love for others.
  • It is important to live Lent well since we don’t know when God is going to call us to eternal life with him. “Now is the acceptable time”, St Paul writes to the Corinthians.
  • St Peter Chrysologus teaches us that we should never separate the three aspects of prayer, fasting and almsgiving.
  • We identify specific, practical ways in which we can improve our life of prayer, self-denial and charity.

The spirit of Advent

In Advent, we prepare for the coming of Christ in history, which we celebrate at Christmas, and for his coming in glory at the end of time. We can also prepare for his coming daily into our hearts and for his coming at the end of our life to call us to our eternal home. To live Advent well, It is good to consider it like a “little Lent”. In this meditation we use texts of Scripture, St Cyril of Jerusalem and St Bernard of Clairvaux to consider how we can do this:

  • Learning from Mary and Joseph on their journey to Bethlehem
  • Improving our life of prayer
  • Living a generous spirit of penance
  • Showing more love to those around us

Living Lent with generosity

 

The word Lent comes from the ancient word Lencten, meaning springtime. If we live Lent well we have a true springtime, with new growth in our spiritual life. In this meditation we consider how:

  • In Lent we accompany Jesus in his forty days of prayer and fasting in the desert.
  • We respond to his invitation, if we want to be his disciples, to deny ourselves, take up our cross daily and follow him.
  • We can choose something from each of the three traditional areas of prayer, fasting and charity.
  • If we live Lent with generosity, we will be much closer to God on Easter Sunday than we were on Ash Wednesday.

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This entry was posted in Meditations and tagged Charity, Fasting, John Flader, Lent, Meditation, podcast, Pope Francis, Prayer, St Peter Chrysologus on . Edit

 

The Good Samaritan

 

We all love the parable of the Good Samaritan, but how well do we live out its message? In this meditation we use Pope Francis’ commentary on the parable in his encyclical Fratelli tutti to see the many lessons it contains and to suggest practical ways of putting these lessons into practice.

Calming the storm

St Matthew relates in his gospel how Christ, after multiplying the loaves and fish to feed the multitude, went up onto the hillside to pray. Before dawn the following day he walked on the water to the apostles who were in the boat and calmed the storm. In this meditation we consider how:

  • Prayer is very important in our life, especially when we are going through storms
  • Sometimes works of charity take precedence over our prayer
  • As a result of original sin, there will always be suffering in various forms
  • Christ does not abandon us; he always comes to our aid
  • We should continue praying with faith, confident that Christ always hears us

Love for our neighbour

 

 

St Paul tells us that the greatest of the virtues is charity. If we are to live this virtue well, we must first grow in love for God so that his love fills us and overflows into those around us. In this meditation we consider how:

  • The more we love God, the easier it will be to love our neighbour
  • We can learn charity from saints like Mother Teresa of Calcutta and St Josemaria, who loved God with their whole heart and their neighbour as themselves
  • We can grow in four aspects of charity: patience, love for people of all backgrounds, forgiveness and kindness