In His great love for us, our good and loving Heavenly Father seeks to refine and purify us. To correct the error of our ways, so that we can live life to the full in Him. Even when we have strayed and hurt ourselves by our sinfulness, He sought us out through His Son our Lord Jesus Christ. To heal, restore and nurture us back to full communion with Him. It all began with a heart of repentance and faith in His love for us that never ends.

We are fast reaching the fourth week of Lent, are the buds of holiness beginning to bloom? Have we deepened our relationship with Him? The measure of our Holiness does not come from self reflection or introspection. Rather it should come from family, friends and even strangers. Do they experience love and the experience of being loved, by our day to day dealings with them. Do they see us kind, patient, attentive and humble. When they look upon us to day see Christ in us? Only when we see ourselves through their eyes will we learn if we have truly grown through our resolve.

Lord I humbly implore You to guide my every thought, word and deed. Christ dwell in me, the hope of Glory. Amen

Saint Frances of Rome pray for us…

________

First reading

Hosea 5:15-6:6 ·

What I want is love, not sacrifice and holocausts

The Lord says this:

They will search for me in their misery.

‘Come, let us return to the Lord.

He has torn us to pieces, but he will heal us;

he has struck us down, but he will bandage our wounds;

after a day or two he will bring us back to life,

on the third day he will raise us

and we shall live in his presence.

Let us set ourselves to know the Lord;

that he will come is as certain as the dawn

his judgement will rise like the light,

he will come to us as showers come,

like spring rains watering the earth.’

What am I to do with you, Ephraim?

What am I to do with you, Judah?

This love of yours is like a morning cloud,

like the dew that quickly disappears.

This is why I have torn them to pieces by the prophets,

why I slaughtered them with the words from my mouth,

since what I want is love, not sacrifice;

knowledge of God, not holocausts.

________

Gospel

Luke 18:9-14

The tax collector, not the Pharisee, went home justified.

Jesus spoke the following parable to some people who prided themselves on being virtuous and despised everyone else: ‘Two men went up to the Temple to pray, one a Pharisee, the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood there and said this prayer to himself, “I thank you, God, that I am not grasping, unjust, adulterous like the rest of mankind, and particularly that I am not like this tax collector here. I fast twice a week; I pay tithes on all I get.” The tax collector stood some distance away, not daring even to raise his eyes to heaven; but he beat his breast and said, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” This man, I tell you, went home again at rights with God; the other did not. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the man who humbles himself will be exalted.’