We Dare to Ask - Session Five. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect (Romans 12:2).
We Dare to Ask – Session Five
Just as our gardens need our regular care, our interior life needs on-going attention. Recollecting on our
day each evening helps us to identify those times we were not Christ-like and prompt us to ask for his mercy and forgiveness. The Sacrament of Reconciliation offers us an opportunity to reset.
O God,
send forth your Holy Spirit
into our hearts that we might perceive,
into our minds that we might remember,
into our souls that we might meditate.
Inspire us to speak with love, holiness,
tenderness and mercy.
Teach, guide and direct our thoughts and senses
from beginning to end.
May your grace help us to see with your eyes
and to act with your love and light in our hearts.
May we be strengthened with wisdom from on high
for the sake and glory of your kingdom.
Through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
In a period of calm and a space of trust, each one of us is invited to share briefly one thing that has happened in the past week. It could be one thing that has given you cause for concern, something shared during the last time you met as a group or something that has given you cause to celebrate.
In this moment of peace and fellowship, we pray for the good of the group. Each member is invited to offer up any personal intentions. We also pray for the good of the Church, for wisdom in our country and for the common good. Let us also bring to mind the poor, the sick and those who have died.
We join together in praying the Apostles’ Creed
Luke 22:54-62
Then they seized him and led him away, bringing him into the high priest’s house, and Peter was following at a distance. And when they had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and sat down together, Peter sat down among them. Then a servant girl, seeing him as he sat in the light and looking closely at him, said, “This man also was with him.” But he denied it, saying, “Woman, I do not know him.” And a little later someone else saw him and said, “You also are one of them.” But Peter said, “Man, I am not.” And after an interval of about an hour still another insisted, saying, “Certainly this man also was with him, for he too is a Galilean.” But Peter said, “Man, I do not know what you are talking about.” And immediately, while he was still speaking, the cock crowed. And the Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the saying of the Lord, how he had said to him, “Before the cock crows today, you will deny me three times.” And he went out and wept bitterly.
Luke 22:54-62
The Internet is awash with short videos depicting people who visit charity shops with the intention of finding furniture ripe for restoration. Time and again, someone’s cast off: an old dresser, sideboard or family table with well worn, stained surfaces, dents and missing knob are brought home by those with a vision, a strategy to give it a new life. Cleaning, stripping and sanding are all part of the process to remove outdated trim and old finishing. In all of this, there is a lot of hard work and elbow grease with attention to the details – the joints, the corners and the legs. Sanding back to the wood provides the smooth surface for the new paint colour or updated detailing that will give the piece a new life – pride of place in someone’s home for many years to come.
Unlike the inanimate old furniture that can’t initiate either a deep cleaning or a transformation, we, however, only have to ask for a life in Christ. Parents ask, promising to raise their children in the Catholic faith, that their young children are baptised. This baptism is transformational because, cleansed of original sin, and given the gifts of faith, hope and love, the child experiences an initial conversion, and is given the graces needed for holiness and eternal life. Adults who are baptised and received into God’s family similarly experience this joy of transformation, of conversion, this rising to new life in Christ. Bestowed with our special dignity as children of God, our journey, indeed our mission, begins.
Yet, the wound of Original Sin persists. The struggle of conversion persists. Somewhat like the furniture that over time loses its lustre and becomes scratched and dented, we are tempted to follow the path of our ancestors who frequently ignored the Old Testament prophets. Surrounded by tribes and nations who worshipped pagan gods, they chose to follow the crowd, to worship gods other than the one true God. We too are full of frailty and weakness. Creating our own 21st Century idols, we persist in putting our own desires for power, pleasure or possessions ahead of God.
Jesus came with a message not just for St Peter and other Jews living in the first century but for you and me when he proclaimed, ‘The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the Gospel’ (Mark 1:15). Moreover, Jesus knew that we would struggle and, as he always does, he gave us what we need. From the moment of our Baptism, the Holy Spirit quietly guides us. In the silence of our hearts, we are prompted to examine our consciences to identify those times we were not Christ-like and to seek out the Sacraments, to ask for the grace of Christ’s mercy and healing in the Sacrament of Reconciliation so that we may beneficially receive the graces bestowed in the Eucharist. Choosing to turn back to our loving Lord and asking, indeed begging, him to restore the light of Christ in our souls is what the Catechism terms our ‘second conversion’. (CCC 1428)
St Ambrose says of the two conversions, that in the Church, ‘there are water and tears; the waters of Baptism and tears of repentance’ (CCC 1429).
The Catechism further explains that ‘this second conversion is the uninterrupted task for the whole Church’, each one of us is called to follow the path of penance and renewal. Therefore, it is fitting that our Lenten observance not only includes the Sacrament of Reconciliation but also concludes by gathering at the Easter Vigil to communally recommit to our Baptismal promises, to strive to live each day as a part of God’s family, the Blessed Trinity, when we chose to live a life in Christ.
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