FIRST SUNDAY OF LENT

FIRST READING: Genesis 2:7-9 ; 3:1-7

RESPONSORIAL PSALM: Psalm 51:3-4, 5-6, 12-13, 14, 17

SECOND READING: Romans 5:12-19

GOSPEL: Matthew 4:1-11


When we think of possessions, we usually have material things in mind, but St. Francis used to remind his brothers that possessions are material and spiritual, anything we appropriate to ourselves. For him it is not possessions which are sinful, but possessiveness, appropriating to ourselves what is not ours. He says: "You eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good when you appropriate to yourself your own will, thus crediting yourself with the good which the Lord says and does in you."

St. Francis
Admonition 2




Oh how it must wound your heart, Jesus, when we take credit for all that you did to save mankind. Did I suffer and die on the cross for mankind? No! For what then, can I take credit? We remember your people, O Lord, who followed you in tribulation, persecution, shame, hunger, sickness and trial, so that they might receive eternal life from you. Great is my shame because while these saints actually followed in your footsteps, I, your servant today, demand glory and honor simply because I am able to recite what they did.

Submitted by a brother at the Portiuncula Franciscan Hermitage/Retreat Center