February 25, 2018: Second Sunday of Lent

Reading:

Jesus took Peter, James, and John and led them up a high mountain apart by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no fuller on earth could bleach them.

Then Elijah appeared to them along with Moses, and they were conversing with Jesus. Then Peter said to Jesus in reply, “Rabbi, it is good that we are here! Let us make three tents: one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” He hardly knew what to say, they were so terrified.

Then a cloud came, casting a shadow over them; from the cloud came a voice,
“This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.”
Suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone but Jesus alone with them.

As they were coming down from the mountain, he charged them not to relate what they had seen to anyone, except when the Son of Man had risen from the dead.
So they kept the matter to themselves, questioning what rising from the dead meant. (Mark 9:2-10)

Reflection:

We have all experienced a person or place or event that leaves us speechless, that we want to last longer. We feel perhaps that we have been changed by the event. Perhaps we even still have that concert ticket, or scrap of material that is part of a deep memory. Sometimes we can still hear the words or feel the touch. Now we are even able to record the moment on our cell phone. That connection is part of our heart.

Action:

Pray this week:
Implant within my heart, O Jesus, the fiery zeal of Peter,
the conviction of Moses and Elijah, and the love of James and John.

Stir my slumbering soul, that it might sing a song of passion and devotion,
excited with dancing joy and desire for you, my divine and loving and dazzling Friend.

May I be consumed with zeal for you, for life, for justice and for peace;
for all that I know in faith.

Fill me with zeal, O Jesus.

“A prayer for zeal,” Adapted from Prayers for a Planetary Pilgrim by Edward Hays.