2nd Week of Lent, Friday, Mar 6th; Saint Colette
Genesis 37:3-4, 12-13, 17-28 / Matthew 21:33-43, 45-46
Jesus teaches the people: “Hear another parable”
This parable reveals three important points. First, it reveals God’s patience. God gave the tenant farmers three chances, even in the face of violence. Second, it reveals Jesus’ uniqueness. Jesus is not just another prophet, like the other prophets (slaves). Third, it reveals our accountability. It shows that sooner or later we will be held accountable to God for our actions, just as the tenant farmers religious leaders) were held accountable for their actions.
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In what ways has God exercised great patience with us, just as he did with the tenant farmers? “Patience is power; with time and patience the mulberry leaf becomes silk.” Chinese proverb
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Family feuds are not just something that we see only in movies and soap operas. It happens in real life. We read about it in the papers, we hear about it from friends, it may have even happened to us. One of the main causes of these family feuds is over money and property. Over money and property, children have brought parents to court and vice versa. Over money and property, sibling rivalry can become so ugly that blood relationships can become like dirty water. It had happened from the earliest times in the story of Cain and Abel. It happened between Joseph and his brothers as we heard in the 1st reading. That coat with long sleeves was a symbol of favour and blessing. Over that coat, Joseph's brothers came up with evil thoughts like murder, and then mugging and then slavery. It was also over money and property that the tenants in the parable of today's gospel resorted to violence and murder.
It can be frightening to know, and even to realize, that money and material possession can have such a destructive grip over us to the extent that we can even lose our sense of integrity and morality.
Hence, the Lenten practice of alms-giving has that purpose of helping us break free from this grip of being money-minded and being possessed by materialism. The Charities Week envelope is a means of helping us in this Lenten spiritual exercise. Let us see if we can give cheerfully. After all whatever we have is given to us from above, and we are only stewards, not owners.
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LITURGY
Introduction
Joseph suffered because his brothers were jealous. Yet later he would save them from famine. Jesus was rejected and died for our sins. He became the keystone for a new kingdom, for the life of all. And we? We want happiness without pain, without paying the price for it, though sacrifice and happiness are close relatives. If the grain of wheat does not die… We know this, but it’s too uncomfortable to put into practice if we are not forced by circumstances.
Penitential Rite:
-The brothers of Joseph hated him because their father was fond of him. As you call us to look at our jealousies
- The brothers of Joseph finally wanted to kill him, as our jealousies become dangerously harmful actions in life
-Judah pleads with his brothers to spare the life of Joseph; as we learn to defend and protect innocent lives
Opening Prayer
God, we do not want to die; we want to live. We want to be happy but without paying the price. We belong to our times, when sacrifice and suffering are out of fashion. God, make life worth the pain to be lived, Give us back the age-old realization that life means to be born again and again in pain, that it may become again a journey of hope to you, together with Christ Jesus our Lord.
General Intercession
– For those who are betrayed in their friendship and trust, we pray:
– For street children and young people abandoned and neglected by their families, we pray:
– For all those who suffer in their bodies and for those seriously ill, that they may find strength and consolation in the cross of our Lord, we pray:
Prayer over the Gifts
Lord, our God, we celebrate your Son's victory over death. Through him, you give us life and teach us to accept death. Lord, help us to love life without refusing to suffer when necessary for the sake of love and renewal. May we see the fear of death and the urge for life in the light of the life and death of Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Prayer after Communion
Lord God, make us fully accept the realities of life: that there is no birth without pain, no growth without effort, no adulthood without struggle, no wisdom without experience and practice. God, raise us above ourselves, that we may understand and accept the wisdom of the cross of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Blessing
Joseph forgave his brothers and became a blessing to them. On the cross, Jesus brought us forgiveness and life and the beautiful sign of this was how he forgave those who had led him to the cross. May Almighty God bless you, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
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Saint Colette
Feast day March 6
Renewing religious institutions is not easy. We would expect a person chosen to reform convents and monasteries to be formidable. Maybe even physically tall, overbearing, and somewhat threatening. God, however, doesn’t seem to agree. For example, in the fifteenth century, he selected St. Colette, a young woman the opposite of these characteristics, to call Franciscans to strict observance of the rules of St. Clare and St. Francis.
Not that Colette was unimpressive. She was a beautiful woman whose radiant inner strength attracted people. However, her spirituality, her commitment to God, and her heart for souls, not her physical qualities, suited her for her reforming mission.
At seventeen, upon her parents’ death, Colette joined the Franciscan Third Order. She lived for eight years as a hermit at Corbie Abbey in Picardy. Toward the end of this time, St. Francis appeared to her in a vision and charged her to restore the Poor Clares to their original austerity. When Friar Henry de Beaume came in 1406 to conform her mission, Colette had the door of her hut torn down, a sign that her solitude was over and her work begun. And she then prayed her commitment:
I dedicate myself in health, in illness, in my life, in my death, in all my desires, in all my deeds so that I may never work henceforth except for your glory, for the salvation of souls, and towards the reform for which you have chosen me. From this moment on, dearest Lord, there is nothing which I am not prepared to undertake for love of you.
Colette’s first reports to reform convents met vigorous opposition. Then she sought the approval of the Avignon pope, Benedict XIII, who professed her as a Poor Clare and put her in charge of all convents she would reform. He also appointed Henry de Beaume to assist her. Thus equipped, she launched her reform in 1410 with the Poor Clares at Besancon. Before her death, in 1447, the saint had founded or renewed seventeen convents and several friaries throughout France, Savoy, Burgundy, and Spain.
Like Francis and Clare, Colette devoted herself to Christ crucified, spending every Friday meditating on the passion. She is said to have miraculously received a piece of the cross, which she gave to St.Vincent Ferrer when he came to visit her.
St. Joan of Arc once passed by Colette’s convent in Moulins, but there is no evidence that the two met. Like Joan, Colette was a visionary. Once, for instance, she saw souls falling from grace in great numbers, like flakes in a snowstorm. Afterward, she prayed daily for the conversion of sinners. She brought many strays back to Christ and helped them unravel their sinful patterns. At age sixty-six, Colette foretold her death, received the sacrament of the sick, and died at her convent in Ghent, Flanders.
