The Little Black Book, Six-minute meditations on the Sunday Gospels of Lent (Cycle B)

Sr. Pat Dowling, Vocation Director, recommends this companion for Lent. This Lenten booklet is based on the writings of Bishop Ken Untener, and put together by Catherine Haven, editor of the Little Books, with the help of Sr. Nancy Ayotte, IHM.

For today’s reading, Monday–Second Week of Lent, it provides this text:  “After six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John and led them up a high mountain apart by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no fuller on earth could bleach them.” (Mk. 9:2-3)

It then shares how to apply this text to our lives by saying, “The Transfiguration of Jesus is not just an interesting incident in the life of Jesus–it’s supposed to happen in my life too. Transfiguration happens when I let the brightness and beauty of God’s life within me shine forth so that others can see it. The brightness … continue reading…

PRAYER ON ASH WEDNESDAY
Jesus, in honor of the forty days
you spent in the desert praying and fasting,
we begin this season of Lent.
During this time of good works, prayer, and sacrifice
may we prepare our hearts, souls, minds and bodies for the feast of your Resurrection.
May we follow in your footsteps
as we journey with you to Jerusalem.
At each Mass that we participate in during this Lent,
may we be reminded of the Last Supper
and your gift of Eucharist.
May we continue with you
accepting those challenges that come our way.
May we stay with Mary
as she stands by your Cross.
We ask you to forgive us our faults
and thank you for the sacrifice you have made for us.
Grant us, O God, the perseverance
to strive each day of this season of Lent
to become the person you created us to be.
May our preparation for Easter
make us one with you the Risen Christ on Easter
and every day of our lives. Amen.

As Holy Week begins, we invite you to visit our Facebook page and blog each day for new reflections and prayers.  Journey with us this special time of year and take a few minutes each day to meditate and reflect on our entries. 

Please post your own thoughts, prayers, and Holy Week traditions as we travel through this week filled with gratitude and sincere contemplation. 

We are so thankful to be able to observe Holy Week with you- friends of the Sisters of Bon Secours.

The newsletter from the Baltimore Bon Secours Health System highlighted a Lenten reflection from Sr. Mary Rita Nangle.  Sr. Mary Rita serves as a patient advocate there and her thoughts for this Lenten season were included in The Weekly Insider, volume six, issue ten from March 11. 

Click here to read more.

Explanation of the Stations of the Cross. Link to a video to follow in the foot steps of Jesus by way of the cross during Holy Week. A meditative mini-pilgrimage for Good Friday. Stations of the Cross photographed at Sisters of Bon Secours Provincial House in Marriottsville, MD, USA.

Sue Donovan Carrying the Cross
Sue Donovan (in the glasses and white hat), communication specialist, and long-time friend of Bon Secours spent 10 days in the Holy Land following in the foot steps of Jesus.  We’re happy for Sue that she had this wonderful opportunity.  Here is Sue’s description of the photo:

Here is a picture of me carrying the cross as we prayed the stations along the Via Dolorosa.   Each pilgrim was given a chance to participate.  We all walked throughout the market place carrying the cross to each Station of the Cross spaced throughout the Via Dolorosa, passing the stalls of the many merchants who market their wares within the walls of the Old City in Jerusalem.

Words can not express the gratitude I feel for being able to be present to this experience and to have visited all the places where Jesus traveled throughout the … continue reading…

I wish to share with you again a message of Lent from our Country Leader, Sister Rose Marie:
“A gospel that doesn’t unsettle,
a word of God that doesn’t get under anyone’s skin,
a word of God that doesn’t touch the real sin of the society
in which it is being proclaimed,
            what gospel is that?” 
   (Archbishop Oscar Romero; Murdered March 24, 1980)

“The Good News can be communicated only by a person
who lives it to such an extent that she also becomes
            the message.”
                                    (Constitutions, Sisters of Bon Secours of Paris #13)

How will I live this gospel; be this message today?
Prayers and blessings as we continue our Lenten journey.

Peace,
Rosie

As presented by Sr. Rose Marie Jasinski, Country Leader of the Sisters of Bon Secours, US:
Let us continue our prayers for each other in this Lenten season with the following passage.

Peace,

Rosie

In Lent, we are laid bare.  As we remember our pain, as we touch our woundedness, we journey toward the terror of the cross, we may find ourselves feeling vulnerable, sore, exposed.  We may struggle against the way Lent strips us of pretense and beckons us to see what is basic to us.  Yet the ashes of the first day of Lent affirm that we are elemental people.  We who are fashioned of earth are also touched by fire, brought to life by the breath of God, and blessed by the birthing waters.  Here, in the middle of the Lenten journey, we pause to reflect on the elements of which we are made, to consider not only the wounds that they sometimes harbor but also the possibilities they hold for blessing.

            God of fire, earth, wind, and water, embrace the elemental
            wounds we … continue reading…

Sr. Rosie Jasinski, our Country Leader, shared with us a reflection on the second week of Lent.  I would like to share it with you.  Enjoy!

Second Week of Lent
Reflecting on Transfiguration:

We come to “know” through encounter and relationship. When these mysteries are received as a gift; when they become a part of our prayer, reflection and lifestyle, they will unfold in their implications and have a transforming-a transfiguring – effect upon us.

So it is with the Transfiguration.

Jesus has shown us the way up the mountain and invited us into a new way of living in Him, through living the “mystery” that we recall as Transfiguration. Living in that mystery we are invited to go into the world and invite all people into the new communion of love where they can begin the process of conversion and transfiguration.

Re-born, we are all invited to join with Peter, James and John and cry out in our day: “It is good for us to be here.”  On this Second Sunday of lent, as we reflect on the Transfiguration of Jesus, let … continue reading…

Yesterday was the beginning of the Lenten season in the Catholic Church. Traditionally Lent is a time of preparation for baptism and being received into the Church at Easter.  Lent also calls us to live more fully the life we are meant to live all the time, which is to live in ‘joy’.

We are called to love God more deeply and to love our neighbor through service.  This calls for a conversion of heart at times.  How am I called to be the truest person God created me to be?  What stands in the way of that happening?  This is a good place to start.

A local parish priest said in his homily, instead of giving up chocolate, why not instead of cursing the person who cut you off in traffic, say “God bless you.”  Why not say that in many situations we find ourselves – what effect would that have on me over time?  The affects may be that I’m more patient, understanding, and peaceful.  Lent is a good itme to take stock of how we are called to goodness and love.

I made this … continue reading…