March 13th, Saturday, Third Week of Lent

Hosea 6: 1-6, Psalm 51: 3-4, 18-19, 20-21ab, Luke 18: 9-14

The reading today from Hosea instructs us to return to the Lord, our focus during this Lenten season. Hosea gives us a reason to return, to be healed, to be revived and to live before Him. My daily life is lived in a secular world, even though I might be among people of Faith. Why do I feel like I must draw a line between those two worlds? My Faith is most alive to me when I’m at Mass, but I have to work at remembering to “press on to know the Lord” while living my daily life.

Part of my day is lived among my friends who give me opportunities to share my Faith and my family who give me reasons to be charitable and remind me to be humble, but most of my day is spent in a business world. There it is not “appropriate” to speak of prayer, God, or Faith. Am I a silent example of how a follower of the Lord should live? I try to be.

In Psalms today we are promised that we will delight in right sacrifices if we rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. My task is to rebuild the walls of Faith in my heart and mind, making my Faith strong enough to be present to me every day. But how can I do that? Maybe Luke gives me a hint today in the story of the Pharisee and the tax collector. I must be humble like the tax collector in the eye of the Lord, asking for His mercy and acknowledge that I need His help to find my way. God tells us He will be present to support us and that He will come to us like the spring rains that water the earth.

If I have Faith, I have God by my side.

Mary Kirby, Mother, Friend, Eucharistic Minister.