“AND YOUR FATHER WHO SEES IN SECRET WILL REPAY YOU.” MT 6:1-6, 16-18
Humbly submit your will to God (Thy Will be done) and consecrate yourself to the Sacred Heart of Jesus through Mary and Joseph.
Jesus said to his disciples:
“Take care not to perform righteous deeds
in order that people may see them;
otherwise, you will have no recompense from your heavenly Father.
When you give alms,
do not blow a trumpet before you,
as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets
to win the praise of others.
Amen, I say to you,
they have received their reward.
But when you give alms,
do not let your left hand know what your right is doing,
so that your almsgiving may be secret.
And your Father who sees in secret will repay you.
“When you pray,
do not be like the hypocrites,
who love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on street corners
so that others may see them.
Amen, I say to you,
they have received their reward.
But when you pray, go to your inner room,
close the door, and pray to your Father in secret.
And your Father who sees in secret will repay you.
“When you fast,
do not look gloomy like the hypocrites.
They neglect their appearance,
so that they may appear to others to be fasting.
Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward.
But when you fast,
anoint your head and wash your face,
so that you may not appear to be fasting,
except to your Father who is hidden.
And your Father who sees what is hidden will repay you.” MT 6:1-6, 16-18
Today, Jesus teaches us 3 important lessons in being Christ-like. Repent means to change our heart (the way we look at life) to be more like Christ’s most Sacred Heart. A servant. An instrument of God’s peace, love, and joy. We are called to holiness through our baptism. Jesus died to have a relationship with us, so that we may know Him, imitate Him, and return to the Father. We are called to fight Satan and profess a creed. Fr. Mike Schmitz says, “What we believe in is what we belong to. What we belong to is how we live and what we are willing to die for.” This is our Christian identity branded onto us at Baptism.
In fasting, we search for the temptation in our life that is leading us the furthest from God and work on it. We may need to “cut off our hand or pluck out our eye” if it is causing us to sin. We may need to fast from our cell phone, computer, tablet, TV, to help us avoid the near occasion of sin.
Fasting is the first step in fighting addiction. Which addiction do you need to work on? The 3 areas of our life that must be controlled or rightly ordered are world/culture (electronics/social media), flesh (lust), and material goods(unnecessary material goods) to enter into the Kingdom. God’s grace is necessary and surrendering into His loving arms to make small gains and continue the journey towards holiness. This will help us to be more present in our relationships and communicate more which leads to peace and joy. This may help us to not rush through our work to get to our entertainment, but concentrate on what we are made for, relationships.
Most importantly, our relationship with God, prayer and reflection on the Scriptures, silence and listening. We might feel empty the first week when we give something up, this is okay, we must walk through the desert, fall to our knees and tell God we need Him to help us. Once we recognize that we need God, we are well on our way to growing towards Him. This in turn opens our hearts to good deeds and giving alms to the poor. In prayer, we get back to center where Jesus is and He will guide us to what is right. Jesus is Truth, reality, what is. This helps guide us and lead us.
Repent means to change your life and grow in holiness. It is difficult and maybe even impossible, but with God’s grace anything is possible if you believe. What do you need to change or fast from?
Today’s challenge: Recognize you need God through fasting from something that is keeping you away from the most important things in life, God, family, friends, and work. Receive God’s blessings and love and share them with those in greatest need. Love the unlovable.
Be a servant, become a saint!
#Christian YOLO
In this Gospel, Jesus tells us to be humble. He does not want us to boast about praying or about sacrificing because you will lose your reward in heaven by doing that. God will hear our prayers and he will reward us for it. We need to humble ourselves to be able to receive the praise in heaven.
We should give without wanting back. When we give to the poor or even give something to our friend, we should do it without asking anything back. When we do a good deed we shouldn’t brag about it or even draw attention to ourselves. We should do all good works with humility and without asking for anything back. When we do good deeds, God sees. He sees every action, good or bad, and will love us no matter what.
When you pray, don’t do it just for show or just to brag. If you are serious about your faith, you would not care what others think of it.
What reached out to me was when Jesus said, “But when you pray, go to your inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret.” What this means to me is that our prayers shouldn’t just be thrown out to God, we should spend time on them and make them meaningful.
“do not let your left hand know what your right is doing, so that your almsgiving may be secret.” I feel like with this part of the Gospel that we are being told not to brag about what we are almsgiving. It is not a competition about who can give up the most or do the most holy thing. It is about setting a reasonable goal for yourself, a goal that you can achieve.
Today’s scripture passage is very meaningful, and I feel like a lot of people need to hear this. The main message I took out of this is that Jesus is always watching us through our fallen human nature and our great deeds. But, we need to remember that our good deeds may not be ¨seen” or ¨ recognized ¨ right away, but on the day of judgement, he will notice and you will feel the ultimate happiness. So, even if you are feeling bad for your sin and when you do good deeds you don ´ t feel better, just wait because Jesus sees it all. Just pray and let God worry.
In todays reading I took it as that when we do good things we shouldn’t boast that we are better than other people because we did those things. We should be able to do good things without having to get recognition. Because at the end of the day God knows what good deed or small sacrifice we did and thats all that matters.
When we pray, we shouldn’t brag about it. Praying is about talking and listening to God. Praying helps us build a personal relationship with God. We shouldn’t pray for others to see and think that we are so holy. We should pray to talk and listen to God to form a relationship with Him.
To be Christ-like, we must learn to fight our addictions. Is it easy? Absolutely not. It’s very very hard to overcome addictions. Our addictions give us pleasure. We must remember that pleasure is not real joy. God is real joy. All we need to do is repent. Hand our addictions over to Jesus. We can change our lives and grow to think holy. Right now, we may feel trapped in our addictions but with God’s grace we can get out. Prayer, listening and talking to God, is all it takes for us to grow in holiness and achieve true joy.
“Do not let your left hand know what your right is doing.” This is one of many things Jesus says about keeping our good deeds to yourself. When you brag and tell everyone about all the good things you’ve done it takes away from it when you to something good it should be out of the kindness of your heart and not to make yourself look better.
to reseve the hooly speseret by praing a nd the uecrst and to help others and jesus love us vary much that whiy he dide for us and save ore sins
Jesus wants us to give up meat pray more and read the scriptures and do it in silence. give alms and give food to the poor and help them through their everyday life to make it easier. Lent is so we can grow closer to God in these forty days so we can get to heaven and spend the rest of eternity with him.
I believe that they are saying that you should do good things without trying to get other people’s attention and just do them out of the goodness of your heart and not try to receive praise for doing them.
Jesus knows everything. He knows what we think, feel, say, and do. He knows when we do good things and he will reward us in heaven. We shouldn’t do things for gratitude from others, we only need God’s praise. We need to stay true to ourselves during Lent. It is so easy to stop fasting or to just not stay true to what we are giving up. If we feel like we are slipping, pray. God will give us guidance in our weakest moments.
Today the Gospel is talking about how everyone needs to fast and pray. We do not pray or fast like hypocrites. When we pray we need to look like we are not fasting. Like during lent I give up something we don’t complain because we know it is for our own good. When hypocrites pray they want everybody to know that they are doing it and make people think they are the best, but in reality everyone does it.
This lent we need to realize why we are actually doing it and not go through the motions. I know that it gets tiring but we have to push through and realize Jesus would do it for us. My goals are to not give in and to continue all the way.
Today we learn that fasting is the first step to doing it correctly.”In fasting, we search for the temptation in our life that is leading us the furthest from God and work on it. We may need to “cut off our hand or pluck out our eye” if it is causing us to sin.” We need to cut off whatever is causing us to sin, it will all be worth it because you will get the gift of eternal life with God.
today what struck me was that Jesus dosnt want us to be very open and flaunt what we are doing when we fast or pray or give alms. like we talked about in blaze yesterday, there is right attention and wrong attention. and when you flaunt praying or fasting so that you can get attention, that is definitely wrong attention.
We must repent and renew our faith in lent. We have to fast, pray, and give alms, but we don’t need to show off or tell other people. God isn’t trying to hurt us or make us suffer, but instead he is trying to get us to focus on him.
I feel like today is a perfect scripture reflection for ash Wednesday. It tells me a lot about ash Wednesday itself and my relationship to God.
In the scripture today I felt that this really ties well with ash Wednesday. Jesus tells us to not do good deeds so that others might see them or pray so that others might see them, He tells us that we must do our good deeds and not boast about them. We must pray to God in silence and in secret. Just read this again and really think about it. “Take care not to perform righteous deeds
in order that people may see them;
otherwise, you will have no recompense from your heavenly Father.
We must be humble.
Today Jesus tells us not to brag or boast that we are doing something good. He tells us to rather not tell anyone. He says,” do not let your right hand know what your left hand is doing”. This is a figure of speech. he means that we should not tell anyone what we are doing in an arrogant way.
We should look at our life in a different way. When we fast most of us think of it like I don’t have this or that. But how we should look at it like now that I have given up this I’m so much more happy than what I was with it before.
Most importantly, our relationship with God, prayer and reflection on the Scriptures, silence and listening, that is one of the most important things a bout prayer, you must let God talk to you, all you have to do is listen to him and his words. When WE talk to God we are praying, just like when we pray the Glory Be, Our Father, Hail Mary, ecs……….
I like these 3 sentences When you give alms, do not blow a trumpet before you, When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, who love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on street corners so that others may see them, and When you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites. They neglect their appearance, so that they may appear to others to be fasting. All of these are saying that lent isn’t for you to show off or make yourself appear like your the greatest person in the world. But lent is for recognizing that you are a sinner and giving up things that you are attached to. To serve those around you without expecting a reward. And to pray to God and tell him thank you without trying to look better than others. God doesn’t need us to give up things and or pray, we do.
ash wednesday is is here and lent is upon us. Jesus went out to the desert for 40 days, we have to sacrifice for 40 days. why; because Jesus died for us. this is a small sacrifice for what he did. he took upon our sins so we wouldn’t feel the wrath of God. there are the 3 main sacrifices for lent; prayer, fasting, and/or almsgiving. Jesus went through more pain than we could ever imagine. our sacrifice this lent is us taking responsibility for our sins that Jesus suffered for. Jesus took upon our sins, not just us but of the whole world’s. he knew every sin coming his way, he knew how painful the crusifixion would be. and he still did it. why? because he loves us. lets show how much we appreciate his sacrifice. how? by growing closer to God by making a sacrifice. just like He did.
jesus went out for 40 days and 40 nights we have to sacrifice for 40 days, this is such a small sacrifice we make. he gave his life to us, i dont think people realize how meaningful and powerfull that is that a inocent man gave his life to the world so that we could one day be rewarded with eternal life from dust to dust and ashes you shall return is so powerful and meaningfull. god loves us all so so so so much. and we have a few options we can accept the love or we can push it away. give love a chance put your whole life for jesus let all of the fear in your body leave therefor god is in you god is with you god loves you! all we have to do is accept the love and be whatever it might be that god called us to be. we where all made perfectly in gods image he loves us accept the love and go out and share the great news jesus will return and his kingdom will have no end through the power of love in him. we all need to just listen and we will here our call of whatever it is god may want us to be we all have a mission in this life and it is our job to fufil whatever it may be. god loves you!!!!!!!
The scripture says that we should not be sad or mad when we have to fast for Lent but to be grateful because Jesus will repay you. And to take care or the deeds that we have.
In lent we are supposed to give ourselves fully to God and all of the other days of the year. We need to give up the things that are keeping us from the more important things and we will become close to God and feel greater joy.
Just like doing a good deed,you should not pray out in public just for the attention,you should not praise God for the attention,
for people to think “Oh they are such a good catholic they really do put Jesus first”No.Your not,are you taking time out of your day?
sure,but you are only out there for the attention,just like some 1-6th graders like the praise especially from teachers or even disrespect people for attention,just like you are disrespecting God for attention,because you aren’t actually doing it to praise him.
And your Father who sees in secret will repay you. God sees everything and he knows everything he is there for us always even if you right hand doesn’t know what your left is doing but God does he knows and understands everything it is important to talk to him bc he knows already so go and talk to him.
lent is a hard time for everyone there´s temptation of things online and other things in life that´s going to be hard to give up on but the reward we get when we finish will be a great reward what ever is causing us to sin Jesus tells us to get rid of for the sake of us not because he does not want us to do things just because but he know whats going to be good for us
In fasting, we search for the temptation in our life that is leading us the furthest from God and work on it. We may need to “cut off our hand or pluck out our eye” if it is causing us to sin. We may need to fast from our cell phone, computer, tablet, TV, to help us avoid the near occasion of sin.
But when you fast,
anoint your head and wash your face,
so that you may not appear to be fasting,
except to your Father who is hidden.
This sentence stuck out to me because it shows that we should carry our own crosses in silence, and even though others around us arent aware of it, God doesnt take it for granted.
I think what God is trying to say is that you don’t have to do alms in a group of people, but what you should do is keep it a secret to God and God will see it and give you something in return as a secret. God is almighty and merciful so you should believe everything he tells you to do.
What stuck out to me is that Fasting is the first step in fighting addiction. God’s grace is necessary and surrendering into His loving arms to make small gains and continue the journey towards holiness. This will help us to be more present in our relationships and communicate more which leads to peace and joy. This may help us to not rush through our work to get to our entertainment, but concentrate on what we are made for, relationships. This stuck out to me because there are many things i need to work on and I will try my hardest to fix all of my problems that are keeping me from growing closer to God.
Do stewardship even when no one is looking. Small acts of kindness will get you rewards from God. Do not make it known to everyone you are doing all these things so you can get praise. Do acts of kindness for other people’s benefits.
When you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites. They neglect their appearance, so that they may appear to others to be fasting. That when need to feast and if it looks like we aren’t feasting but we are feasting. No fish to day
But when you fast,
anoint your head and wash your face,
so that you may not appear to be fasting,
except to your Father who is hidden.
This sentence stuck out to me because it helps us understand that even if others around us arent aware of the cross we are carrying, God doesnt take it for granted.
We have been branded a child of God at our baptism and we should respond to his calling by praying the Rosary, reading the Bible, or just sitting in silence listening to what God has to say. Fasting is a very holy way to grow closer to God by giving up what we don’t need, because the things of this life are only temporary and won’t come with us when we die.
When you give alms, do not blow a trumpet before you. This part stuck out to me because i felt like its saying that we shouldn’t just give alms for the praise, or for people to know what good you did, you should do it in secret without telling anyone, so you wont get praise from the sinners around you, but the Father in Heaven will see you and He will repay you.
God wants us to give everything up for him. We can not enter heaven with worldly thing. We give all up for Him so that we are able to live eternally with Him
“When you fast,do not look gloomy like the hypocrites.They neglect their appearance,so that they may appear to others to be fasting.Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward.But when you fast,anoint your head and wash your face,so that you may not appear to be fasting,except to your Father who is hidden.And your Father who sees what is hidden will repay you.” this part stuck out to me because it says don’t feel angry because you have to fast its not a punishment in is a sacrifce for God that is only a fraction of the pain his only son experienced.
I feel like the scripture is telling me that Jesus wants us to do fasting in secret. Not what he wants us to hide that we are trying to more like him, but hide what non- catholics think lent is about: giving up something you like. It not about giving up something you like its about giving up something that causes you to sin. we fast because Jesus went 40 days and 40 nights without food in the desert so we can too. We give money, or alms, away because it makes us happier and closer to God our goal.
Jesus said to his disciples: “Take care not to perform righteous deeds in order that people may see them;
I think He is trying to tell us not give up stuff to make us look better or look holy but give up stuff to help ourselves and grow closer to him in Lent.
This Lent season is a great chance for change. A change that can best be made this time of year. This year we should focus on opening our hearts to God and acknowledging that we are sinners. Even though we will have to give something up during this season of waiting, at least we have something to look forward to after these forty days.
To me this is saying to not do good things in front of people just to get attention and sympathy from people, because what would be the point of doing something good if you’re doing it for bad things.
I think He is telling us that you don’t need to be noticed doing a good deed for it to be recognized as a good deed. He is telling me that He sees everything I do and watches from above. I don’t need to complain about fasting to others so they realize what I am doing and think highly of me. God is telling me that I don’t need to be sad if nobody notice what good deeds I am doing. He does. I don’t need to be perfect that is what I hear from Jesus today.
Do not boast about doing the right thing. Do not pray to make yourself look better, pray with an actual meaning. Pray in a place away from everything so you can have time with God. God will always see you. He will reward you if you pray no matter where you are. Fast for your love of God, not so that people think you are holy. We need to find what is leading us away from God and then work on fixing it. When we pray, we are lead back to Jesus and he will then guide us. Repent means to change your life. It will help you be more holy and all of these things will lead us to heaven.
I will do spontaneous prayer at least once a day.
For Lent this year, I will say a Glory Be each night before bed and I will fast from being rude to my father and try to be kinder to him. Me and my father have a lot of strains in our relationship so I’m going to try to make it less stressful for us this Lent.
I am going to try to pray the rosary more often. I am going to give up soda for my fast.
Jesus died for us and made many sacrifices for us, so we should do the same. For Lent, I am going to start saying three extra prayers before I go to bed every night.
Take care not to perform righteous deeds in order that people may see them;” this stuck out to me because a lot of the time many people try to do something good for others to watch them do it. Either to show off or to impress someone. The scripture is saying that we shouldn’t do it to show off to others but do something nice for others just to be nice and do it for God. During lent I will pray my rosary a few times a week so I can be more connected to God and to Mary.
For this Lenten season i want to become closer to God. in order to do this i am going to say 1 rosary a day every day for these 40 days. in addition to this i am going to give up YouTube because it takes time away from god and I don ´ t need it.
Jesus talks to his disciples about how to fast and how to give alms. he tells them not to do it just to brag to others that they have done it. you are supposed to fast as to not let any one know that you are fasting. it is for God not other people
I am going to challenge myself to do the thirty day walk with Jesus because I want to know what I need to do to get closer to Him. This is the time to do it because this is what Lent is all about. It’s about reflecting in prayer that we may get closer to God and reading the Bible for thirty days will be a challenge but with God anything is possible.
The scripture is telling us to pray quietly and not pray in the open so you can brag to people that you are Catholic, or since everyone else prays you pray too. God doesn’t want you to pray to Him because everyone else is doing it. He wants you to pray to Him because you love and want Him in your life.
I think the scripture is telling us that we shouldn’t gossip or say bad things about people out loud. God will find a way to get you back if you gossip. We should instead say good things about people and God will help us out.
For Lent I am going to do a scripture with Mary. I think this scripture is also telling us to actually think about our actions this Lent and actually believe we are doing this for Christ.
I think the scripture means that our fasting should be done in private and we should do it with joy because by doing this we are sacrificing something we love and want. When we sacrifice we remember what Jesus has sacrificed. We must also be modest with our fasting and not let everyone feel pity for you.
I will be giving up fast food and laziness because these are bad habits.
Today, Jesus teaches us 3 important lessons in being Christ-like. Repent means to change our heart (the way we look at life) to be more like Christ’s most Sacred Heart. A servant. An instrument of God’s peace, love, and joy. We are called to holiness through our baptism. To me this means that to listen to his call and his plan he says to also repent and realize for all the sins we had committed. God made his word clear for what would happen is we did listen to his call or dont listen to his call. Which is heaven or hell.
i will fast by giving up multiple things through the lenten season and try to do as many lenten deeds for the less fortunate and pray. what the scripture is telling me is that we arent supposed to do things like other people because they do it but because we should do it for our own choice. we shouldnt boast about anything that we do because in the scripture is says to do things in secret and you will be repayed in secret.
This scripture is telling us not to be like the hypocrites. one part that really stuck out to me was the like “do not let your left hand know what your right is doing”. it says may your alms giving be secret and that your father who sees in secret will repay you.
¨So that your alms giving may be secret.And your Father who sees in secret will repay you.¨ ¨except to your Father who is hidden.
And your Father who sees what is hidden will repay you.” Pray in secret because you don’t want everyone to hear your secrets. This doesn’t mean don’t spread the word about Jesus. We all want to see God and feel Him but he works in secret so we are saved.
“Pray to your Father in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you.” This stood out to me because when we pray we don’t want to tell others what we have prayed about. When God hears our prayers He will listen and He will understand. He sees what we are all going through and He is there for us. When we pray, especially at home, make sure that you are alone so you can have your own time to talk with Jesus instead of being at school with a whole lot of distractions around us. God will be here for us when we need Him.
This scripture is telling us to not be boastful about the good things we do. Even though doing good things like going to mass, or being kind to you friends and family is a good thing, we don’t have to boast about it, because God sees us when we do those things and we don’t have to tell everyone what good we did.
I gave up procrastinating, complaining, and snacks when I don’t need them.
In the Scripture I think it is telling us that we need to be nice to others and help others out. We can really get to know a person that maybe we don’t talk to a lot. Giving nice compliments to people and helping them out will make Jesus happy because everyone will be caring for each other and that is what we want.
In today’s scriptures, we are told not to do good deeds just for the rewards. People who do this are hypocrites. Instead, we should do what is right even when people aren’t looking, since God will always watch us anyway. Instead of trying to be rewarded with materialistic things, we should focus on being rewarded by God.
I think this scripture ties into the word Integrity, which means doing the right thing when no one is watching. In this Scripture God tells the Apostles that even though no one is watching I will still be there with you, so to always do the right thing and never do wrong in front of God.
“except to your Father who is hidden.” God knows everything that happens in our lives. He knows when we are suffering or when we aren’t trying hard enough. This lent we need to keep giving up what we have decided to give up or keep doing what we have decided to do. Others might not know we did, but God will.
This scripture is talking about just because you say something and it might sound good it does not mean that it will be good just like people make a new religion all of the sudden and they get so much followers etc but that doesn´t mean that they are teaching good and holy things it could be something horrible and the people wouldn´t even notice.
Praying, Fasting, and Alms giving are very important. It’s okay to pray to Jesus in secret. Its okay to give alms in secret. And it is okay to fast in secret. You don’t need praise from others. As humans we love to seek attention. Whether its from our peers, our parents, or coaches, etc. Jesus loves you no matter what you do. Even if it is in secret or not.
It is saying that we shouldn’t try to pretend that we are going to give up something to look good, but we should try our best to get closer to God in these 40 days.
Lent is a way for us to get closer to God and ultimately fall more in love with him over these 40 days. This scripture is telling us that when we fast we don’t have to make a big deal out of it so everyone knows we are fasting, but when we do it in the presence of just Jesus he will repay you. Same with praying. You don’t have to pray in front of all your peers so they know you’re praying, yet go to a silent area in your room and pray in the presence of Jesus’ grace. Jesus loves when we go into silence because we will be able to listen to his voice and really understand what he is telling us to do. We will find peace through Jesus in silence the more we practice and open ourselves up.
What the scripture is telling me is that you can get so much out of fasting or even helping someone. Helping someone doesn’t only better you it will better your neighbor.
1. My prayer is that in this beginning of the lent season that everyone feels as faithful as they do through the whole lent season and that we all grow together in Christ.
2. Fast- snacks after school
This gospel tells us that instead of doing good things and making sure everyone notices so that we get noticed that we are “holy” or just kind we need to do it in secret. There are many examples of people on many social media platforms doing good acts and videoing them to post them for millions of people to see. I always ask myself “why can’t they do it without videoing it to be SEEN?” Jesus tells us to not try to act better than anyone else while we pray, and try to be seen, but to be in our bedrooms in privacy. This gospel message means that we shouldn’t think we have to be noticed while praying to act like we are doing something better for God, when praying by ourselves is enough.
For Lent, I am going to grow closer to God by praying regularly. I will read the Bible more. I am going to give up deserts this Lent.
1. prayer to me is something that we all need. I think of prayer as a simple conversation or meditation to just be able to sit with God and take a deep breath. But when you pray, go to your inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you.” I think that this passage shows exactly what I reflected on.
2. Fasting to me is a sacrifice. It’s something you don’t have to do, no one is forcing you. When you fast you are simply doing it for God and only God because we love Him. I know that God doesn’t want us all to fast but He knows the people who are avoiding the challenge He is giving to them.
“But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you may not appear to be fasting,” This stuck out to me because if we are saying that we will do something we have to do that something. You need to try your best to keep up with what you say and not do what you said you would do.
Lent has begun. I think Lent sometimes gets a bad reputation because it makes us suffer and we are afraid of that. We’re afraid of hurting, of becoming poor in some area of our lives. But really, suffering detaches us from those things that are leading us away from God. The point of Lent is not to try to not like sweets anymore, it’s to grow in holiness and prepare ourselves for Easter. In some ways, it would be better to pray and become closer to God, than to give up several things and not get anything out of it. We as human beings like to do things with a purpose. Lent has a purpose. Lent has an important purpose. Lent serves as the bridge between our broken selves and the hope of the Resurrection at Easter. We need Lent for that reason. This year, use Lent to your advantage and grow your relationship with God.
So when we do something we know we should do, we should not parade ourselves around like some hero. Humans need to pray. Think about it like this. Humans have to eat to survive, but we don’t go bragging that we ate lunch today. So if we have to pray to survive(heaven), why would we boast about that. Prayer is not something that makes you different from everyone else, it makes you the person you are supposed to be. God will award you for doing what you are supposed to do(pray). You are not praying if you are just seeking attention, all you are doing is making people think you are better than you are. If you pray only for attention, you are not getting rewarded. God knows what you do, so be sincere not attention seeking.
I think God is trying to tell us that if you show what you are doing and brag about it it isnt really prayer. If you brag about it you probably would get complimented eventually and then you arent making a sacrifice for God you are doing it for yourself.
“do not blow a trumpet before you” We can be very holy but we cant just brag about it because it damages us and others.
Most importantly, our relationship with God, prayer and reflection on the Scriptures, silence and listening. It is good to be silent still and surrender and let God speak to you. It is good to open yourself to God and let him be with you wherever you are.
prayer- pray an extra Hail Mary and Glory be
fast- not listen to music in the shower to spend time talking to God
But when you pray, go to your inner room,
close the door, and pray to your Father in secret. When you pray to God go some where, there are no distraction and no noise.
When you do something like prayer you don’t do it to brag. No, you try to genuinely pray to get heaven. If we brag about it then we won’t go to heaven but if we don’t we will. I will go on 10 minute walks and pray.
Humbly submit your will to God (Thy Will be done) and consecrate yourself to the Sacred Heart of Jesus through Mary and Joseph.When i hear this is to not be selfish and egotistical and prideful to be humble and to pray to him and to follow an example of Mary and Joseph.
prayer i will sit in silence and read the bible every day
fast im giving up youtube
when you pray Jesus loves that and he will always love you. what i am going to do is i’m going to walk every day and give up pop and to always pray at night and to do 2 mins of silence with God.
” They have received their reward.” We need to be OK with not getting what we want. We want everything we “need” right when we want it, and we want the best make and model. I think the world is trying to tell us that we are good enough, and that we deserve it. But we don’t. We deserve nothing, everything we have is a gift from God! We need to slow down and be okay with what we have. Everything is a gift, so cherish it. That is why what’s happening is called the PRESENT!
Prayer- I will try to start the next Consecration that I can.
Fasting- I will cut back on Food, and I will stop using My computer for anything other than Schoolwork.
“When you give alms, do not blow a trumpet before you.” This part stuck out to me because we shouldn’t pray for praise from everybody else in the world. We should do it out of our love of God. We should pray in secret because the people that pray in public already received their reward. If we pray in secret we will get our reward in Heaven and it will be much greater than the rewards on earth.
When we play sports we expect praise in some way or form. When we pray our only goal should be wanting to get praise from God! In the reading Jesus talks how the only thing we should be looking for when we pray is to be closer to God. During Lent we can do this.
1. Prayer- I’m going to try and pray a rosary every week.
2. Fast – I’m giving up pop and candy.
What stuck out to me was don’t just pray in front of people pray where nobody else can see you. This stuck out to me because it showed me that even if you’re praying in secret God will still reward you.
“Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward.” They get their reward, but yours will be truly greater. God will always love you. There are consequences to your actions. If you don’t treat prayer well and you do it for the looks, then you will get a consequence. Likewise, if you pray out of the goodness of your heart, and you pray quietly in secret, then you will get a reward.
1.Prayer: Read a psalm everyday and read about the daily saint. Silence.
2.Fasting: No soda. No meat on Fridays. Less screen time. I can control myself.
Fasting is the first step to fighting an addiction and it is also a way to get closer to God. I think it was also saying that we need to change our hearts and be nicer to eachother.
When we fast, we search for things that make us sin and stop doing them for lent. It takes 20-25 days to stop a bad habit and to develop a good habit. If we give up something up for all of lent, that habit will be long gone
“When you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites.” This stood out to me because humans complain all the time. Jesus never complained about what he had to do. He went through so much and he never complained. We complain about stuff that isn’t even close to what Jesus went through. We need to stop complaining and think about what Jesus went through for us.
Prayer: 1 decade every day
Fast: No snacks
I really like Father´s homily today, and I found it interesting what he said. Fr. Jarrod said that before or during Lent you will end up asking yourself questions like what do I want to give up. What he said next I found interesting, he said to ask yourself a question on how you can be a better person and be closer with God and ask yourself ´´What can I do to be a better person 40 days from now and what will I have to do to take action on that and get there and be closer with God?¨
For prayer everyday this Lent I am going to spend a few minutes in silence and say at least a decade of the rosary each day. But if I feel like doing more I will.
For a fast I am going to give up the music that I like to listen to. Along the way I will remember that I CAN control myself.
This one teaches us about the main 3 things of Lent, praying, fasting, and almsgiving. So what do all of these mean? Prayer is basically what it sounds like. Praying to God for forgiveness, then there’s fasting, the biggest and probably the first idea, of what Lent is. It’s where you have to give something up on Fridays, and almsgiving is basically you give something like money or clothing and giving it to someone who needs (at least I think that’s correct).
In this scripture it tells us a lot more about ash Wednesday and how important it is.
What we believe in is what we belong to because we believe in the holy trinity and that God will help us.
if we have to “cut off our hand or pluck out our eye” if it causes us to sin we need to get rid of it so we can focus on God and not be sinners . We should only have good additions like reading the bible, going to mass, praying the rosary but bad additions need to go away because we need to be as holy as possible.
fasting, a way to control yourself with eatign and for prayer. You fast before you go to mass and you fast during lent.
I think the scripture is saying that we must not do prayers, and Thanksgiving to the Lord just so people praise us and to make us seem better than others. We must offer it up as prayer and Thanksgiving and not accept anything in return. We must praise just to praise. As we should with good deeds, we must do good deeds in secret and not just to earn something in return from others.
Ash Wednesday is a day of sacrificing and getting ashes to reconcile you from sin with ashes when they say, “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return”.
What reached out to me was when Jesus said, “But when you pray, go to your inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret.” To me, this means, don’t go bragging about how much you pray, do it in secret so only God knows.
Jesus went into the dessert for 40 days and 40 nights for us. He did that because he loves us. God is love. I imagine heaven as a warmth of something. Whenever you do something good don’t you feel good.
“Take care not to perform righteous deeds in order that people may see them;” we feel the desire to be seen. we do some crazy things to be seen, like terrorism. we do this because of our ego
Today the scripture said “But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right is doing.” It says this so we dont go out and brag about doing what we should do every day, give thanks to God. We should not pray in public because when you pray it is just between you and God.
I think Jesus is telling us that we can’t be like the hypocrites when we do religious activities. They will say we pray the wrong way but we can’t fire back that they are praying the wrong way. We can’t be like the hypocrites.
During Lent, we need to realize what we are doing when we pray. If we pray and do works of mercy so that we will be seen and complimented, we aren’t doing those works out of true devotion. In order to get anything out of doing something, we must act as though no one except God is seeing you do those acts, then you will realize truly how much you really care about God.