Saturday of the Third Week of Lent

GOSPEL Luke 18:9-14

The tax collector, not the Pharisee, went home justified.

Jesus spoke the following parable to some people who prided themselves on being virtuous and despised everyone else: “Two men went up to the Temple to pray, one a Pharisee, the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood there and said this prayer to himself, “I thank you, God, that I am not grasping, unjust, adulterous like the rest of mankind, and particularly that I am not like this tax collector here. I fast twice a week; I pay tithes all I get.” The tax collector stood some distance away, not daring even to raise his eyes to heaven; but he beat his breast and said, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” This man, I tell you, went home again at rights with God; the other did not. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the man who humbles himself will be exalted!

PRAYER:

Jesus, you have taught us to be meek and humble of heart.

Forgive me, with the sweet balm of your mercy,

for the times when I have been proud of my own achievements;

when I have thought myself better than other people;

when I have treated other people harshly;

when I have taken away their good name

by what I have said;

when I have been arrogant and vain.

Pardon me, dear Lord, and give me a docile heart.

Terry Mc Namee