March 15, 2024
Lenten Weekday
God Never Forgets
The LORD is close to the brokenhearted;
and those who are crushed in spirit he saves.
Psalm 34:19

I once served on a parish committee with someone who repelled everybody with a cold air of disdain that made her difficult to be with. Years later, running into her, I barely recognized her: She was smiling, pleasant and luminous. Over coffee, she said she’d long worked in a nasty office environment where she felt oppressed, anxious and hyper-vigilant. When she finally left that job, her spirit—crushed for so long—quietly unfurled and breathed gently forth. She felt the Lord had stayed with her in that terrible time and helped her out of it.

We don’t always notice the crushed spirits and broken hearts among us. But God is aware. God never forgets, always sees and stays close. He doesn’t run away from us when we’re afflicted, bleeding and outcast. If he asks us, too, to stay with the crushed and broken, can we joyful say “yes”? How else will we notice the resurrection?

Thank you, Lord, for staying close to the brokenhearted and the crushed. Show us the light of your face.

- Mary Marrocco

Wisdom 2:1a, 12-22 • Psalm 34:17-21, 23 • John 7:1-2, 10, 25-30
An emotional image of a broken heart, AI-generated. Image by ankreative | stock.adobe.com
Image of the day

Comments

March 15, 2024 at 12:30 PM

Thank you, Mary, for your reminder and encouragement to look for the crushed and brokenhearted people around us and to walk with them in that part of their journey.

March 15, 2024 at 10:43 AM

Thank you, Mary for encouraging reflection this am. Yes, there are so many who are crushed in spirit within our midst. One quick story about a “ Holy Moment” that occurred several years ago. As I was leaving Mass one Sunday morning, I happened to turn around and there was a woman behind me and we said hello and greetings and all of a sudden she started telling me about her life. She was extremely crushed in spirit and needed someone to listen to her story. We talked for awhile and then exchanged phone numbers and said our goodbyes. Well that incident happened almost 8 years ago and we still keep in contact and she calls me whenever her life becomes too overwhelming. We have prayed together and mostly I just listen and try to comfort her. I thank the Lord for His whisper telling me to turn around that Sunday so many years ago. Blessings to all the LFF during this St Patrick’s Day weekend.

jane
March 16, 2024 at 07:48 AM

Thank you for sharing that story with us Peggy. It is so beautiful in so many ways. Blessings.

March 15, 2024 at 09:31 AM

AMEN!

March 15, 2024 at 09:06 AM

"Every day, when your heart especially feels the loneliness of life, prat." St Padre Pio

March 15, 2024 at 09:02 AM

Mary yes thank you for your words to reflect on. The world is filled with the broken hearted these days. Not that I would want to spend all my time with someone that negative but you have to look at those people and wonder what makes them so unhappy. I do that everyday in the community I live in. There seems to be so many mean people that could care less about others and run all over their feelings/rights. I don't get it. Blessings to all the LFF and especially those needing extra helping hands these days. May God show us his love and light to spread to all the world.

March 15, 2024 at 08:52 AM

Thank you this Mary. There are many crushed spirits and broken hearted among us. May we all have the grace to make them feel safe, seen and heard in their healing process. The ides of March are upon us! Blessings to the LFF this weekend. Amen.

jane
March 15, 2024 at 08:53 AM

Also, I was able to do my Lenten pilgrimage to the Franciscan Monastery in Kennebunkport Maine. Such a peaceful way to start the day. Amen.

March 15, 2024 at 08:45 AM

Lord please hear our prayers and bring your light to all those suffering in Haiti, the Middle East, Ukraine, Russia, the Sudan, and all those suffering around the world - also for their strength, courage and resilience to continue walking in faith. Send them your light. Father in Heaven, have mercy on us and on the whole world! You sent Your Son, the Prince of Peace, for the salvation of the world. We pray that the Peace of Christ will reign in Haiti, the Middle East, Ukraine, Russia and Sudan. Please protect and send aid to those in need and all who are at-risk. We pray for peace and rebuilding– we who are working towards it and for all those who are suffering or in danger from conflicts. We pray for an end to violence and war – we pray for wisdom for all leaders who have a hand in this. Lord God please help those in most need of thy mercy. Amen.

March 15, 2024 at 07:51 AM

Amen. :)

March 15, 2024 at 06:46 AM

*** God is just in Psalm 34:15-16, “The Lord looks with favor on those who are godly. His ears are open to their cry. But the Lord doesn’t look with favor on those who do evil. He removes all memory of them from the earth!” *** God is merciful in Psalm 34:17-18, “Godly people cry out, and the Lord hears them. He saves them from all their troubles. The Lord is close to those whose hearts have been broken. He saves those whose spirits have been crushed. The person who does what is right may have many troubles. But the Lord saves him from all of them!” *** God sacrificed His only Son for His justice and mercy in Psalm 34:20, 22, “The Lord watches over all His bones. Not one of them will be broken (fulfilled in John 19:32-33, 36) …The Lord will save those who serve Him. No one who goes to Him for safety will be found guilty!” ******* God is sovereign in John 7:30, “When He (Jesus) said this, they tried to arrest Him. But no one laid a hand on Him. The time for Him to show Who He really was had not yet come!”

Salina
March 15, 2024 at 02:13 PM

What is the biblical understanding of the wrath of God? https://www.gotquestions.org/wrath-of-God.html

Salina
March 15, 2024 at 10:13 AM

Don’t worry about your comments, JJC, I don’t take that personally because they are not my words. I agree with your statement that God is merciful! That is the immediate Scriptural reference right after! And the final point of the Scriptural psalm says that God is so merciful that He sent His only Son that everyone of us, sinners, has a chance to believe in Jesus and has eternal life (John 3:16) *** You see if I believe God hates sinners and sins…I have no hope… I am still a sinner saved by grace through faith and I sin from time to time in this fleshly body on this side of heaven. *** Sometimes, we forget that one of God’s attribute is just (and yes, His response to sin is EVENTUALLY His wrath) along with His mercy and all the other attributes of God! Just and mercy are not opposite of each other…it is because He is just that He is merciful if that makes sense! *** Reminds me of the tension between His sovereignty and our free will! ******* The definition we have for the BSF students a couple of weeks ago on “judgement” is a decision; a choice between options! *** If I have misrepresented God’s Word, God has mercy! It is good that you think of these spiritual things! Keep asking the Holy Spirit and keep digesting and commenting :-) He is alive and He will show you as He does with me. *** I pray I can say this as Paul did to the Ephesians elders in Acts 20:24-27, “But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the Gospel of the grace of God. And now, behold, I know that none of you among whom I have gone about proclaiming the kingdom will see my face again. Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God!” *** 2 Peter 3:9-10, “The Lord is not slow to keep His promise. He is not slow in the way some people understand it. Instead, He is patient with you. He doesn’t want anyone to be destroyed. Instead, He wants all people to turn away from their sins. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar. Fire will destroy everything in them. God will judge the earth and everything done in it.”

JJC
March 15, 2024 at 09:04 AM

Salina, I may have personalized my response to your comment, I am indeed sorry. Yes, it's scripture based but I couldn't help but see two different images of God in that text.

JJC
March 15, 2024 at 08:39 AM

Good morning Salina, may I disagree with the statement "God does not look with favour on those who do evil. He completely wipes their memory from the earth." God is merciful, he is good all the time. While he depises the evil works done, he always embraces the sinner who comes to him. So to just make a statement as blunt as the one mentioned above, it pictures God as an enemy to sinners, a God who hates both the sinner and the sin. This is certainly not the perception of God to be created here. I know you mean well and I'm by no means downplaying your comments. God is rich in mercy, so full of compassion. He allows the weed and the wheat to thrive together. He will the final say.Have a wonderfully blessed day.

March 15, 2024 at 06:35 AM

Amen and Amen

An emotional image of a broken heart, AI-generated. Image by ankreative | stock.adobe.com
Image of the day

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