DAY 24 - Fourth Wednesday of Great Lent (Mid Lent)

Preface for Meditation : We are in Mid-Lent. Having climbed the mountain up to this point, we begin to see the end of our pilgrimage, and the rays of Easter grow in their intensity. Lent is our self-crucifixion, our experience, limited as it is, of Christ's commandment heard in the Gospel "If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me" (Mark 8:34). But we cannot take up our cross and follow Christ unless we have His Cross which He took up in order to save us.

It is His Cross, not ours, that saves us. It is His Cross that gives not only meaning but also power to others.The cross is the tomb which absorbs all human pride: "Come thus far; I said, and no farther: here your proud waves shall break” (Job 38:11). The waves of human pride break against the rock of Calvary and they can go no further. The wall God erected against them is too high and the abyss he dug before them too deep. 'We must realize that our former selves have been crucified with him to destroy this sinful body' (Romans 6:6). The body of pride -- for this is the sin par excellence, the sin that gives rise to all other sins. 'He was bearing our faults in his own body on the cross' (1 Peter 2:24). He bore our pride in his body.As we are in midst of Lent, Christ shall lead us up to the spiritual Jerusalem by His Resurrection.... for the Cross is called the Tree of Life, it is the tree that was planted in Paradise, and for this reason our fathers have planted it in the midst of Holy Lent, remembering both Adams bliss and how he was deprived of it, remembering also that partaking of this Tree we no longer die but are kept alive.... Thus, refreshed and reassured, we begin the second part of Lent....

Fourth Wednesday of Great Lent (Mid Lent) – 10/03

Evening : St. Matthew 17: 22-27

Morning : St. John 3:13-21

Before Holy Qurbana :  Numbers 21: 4-9,  Psalms 34:1-9,  Zechariah12: 6-14 ,

Holy Qurbana :  Acts15: 22 -33, II Corinthians 9: 1-15, St. John 3:13-21

Verse of the day: St. Matthew 17:23- " They will kill him, and on the third day he will be raised to life." And the disciples were filled with grief.

Collected by : Prince Mathew