Thank You Lord for Your companionship on my journey through this Lent and all the days of my life. I complain to You about my life being hard because I need Your listening ear and good counsel. I used to worry that I might bore You when You have so many others doing likewise, but having entered into a deeper relationship with You I realise now just how much You love me individually. I want to share my whole life with You Lord, my inner sorrows as well as my joys.
I know Lord I have been selfish and have made many excuses for my personal feelings of inadequacy as well as my inertia. Ever so often those that I work or have dealings with might have felt I was on a power trip, but would not know that I actually suffer from an inferiority complex. I constantly desire to be affirmed instead of seeking only to be affirmed by You who love me in spite of my many shortcomings.
You O Lord have changed me and opened my eyes to see that true love and happiness comes from embracing my cross and sacrifice for love of others. Jesus my Saviour be my ever guiding light, as I lead all whom You entrust me with, into Your Kingdom. Amen
First reading
Jeremiah 18:18-20
My enemies are digging a pit for me
‘Come on,’ they said, ‘let us concoct a plot against Jeremiah; the priest will not run short of instruction without him, nor the sage of advice, nor the prophet of the word. Come on, let us hit at him with his own tongue; let us listen carefully to every word he says.’
Listen to me, O Lord,
hear what my adversaries are saying.
Should evil be returned for good?
For they are digging a pit for me.
Remember how I stood in your presence
to plead on their behalf,
to turn your wrath away from them.
Gospel
Matthew 20:17-28
They will condemn the Son of Man to death
Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, and on the way he took the Twelve to one side and said to them, ‘Now we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man is about to be handed over to the chief priests and scribes. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the pagans to be mocked and scourged and crucified; and on the third day he will rise again.’
Then the mother of Zebedee’s sons came with her sons to make a request of him, and bowed low; and he said to her, ‘What is it you want?’ She said to him, ‘Promise that these two sons of mine may sit one at your right hand and the other at your left in your kingdom.’ ‘You do not know what you are asking’ Jesus answered. ‘Can you drink the cup that I am going to drink?’ They replied, ‘We can.’ ‘Very well,’ he said ‘you shall drink my cup, but as for seats at my right hand and my left, these are not mine to grant; they belong to those to whom they have been allotted by my Father.’
When the other ten heard this they were indignant with the two brothers. But Jesus called them to him and said, ‘You know that among the pagans the rulers lord it over them, and their great men make their authority felt. This is not to happen among you. No; anyone who wants to be great among you must be your servant, and anyone who wants to be first among you must be your slave, just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.’
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