THURSDAY OF THE FOURTH WEEK OF LENT, MARCH 31, 2022

MASS READINGS

A Reading from Ex 32:7-14

The LORD said to Moses,

“Go down at once to your people

whom you brought out of the land of Egypt,

for they have become depraved.

They have soon turned aside from the way I pointed out to them,

making for themselves a molten calf and worshiping it,

sacrificing to it and crying out,

‘This is your God, O Israel,

who brought you out of the land of Egypt!’

The LORD said to Moses,

“I see how stiff-necked this people is.

Let me alone, then,

that my wrath may blaze up against them to consume them.

Then I will make of you a great nation.”

But Moses implored the LORD, his God, saying,

“Why, O LORD, should your wrath blaze up against your own people,

whom you brought out of the land of Egypt

with such great power and with so strong a hand?

Why should the Egyptians say,

‘With evil intent he brought them out,

that he might kill them in the mountains

and exterminate them from the face of the earth’?

Let your blazing wrath die down;

relent in punishing your people.

Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Israel,

and how you swore to them by your own self, saying,

‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky;

and all this land that I promised,

I will give your descendants as their perpetual heritage.’“

So the LORD relented in the punishment

he had threatened to inflict on his people.

REFLECTION

Let your blazing wrath die down;

relent in punishing your people.

How powerful was Moses’ prayer!! The Lord relented in the punishment.

Intercessory prayer is praying on behalf of others. Moses spoke directly to God mediating for the people.

Jesus is now the one and only mediator between man and God. He sits on the right side of the Father interceding on our behalf-According to the Will of God.

In adoration, we approach God and confess our wretched state. Indeed, we pray and plea for mercy with fasting and sacrifice, acknowledging we are sinners asking God for help.

Thanking Him for being so good to us, we supplicate or pray for our needs and the needs of others. Always bending our will to His, because we know He is good and would never harm us.

May we learn from the Old Testament prayers of Moses, Queen Esther and the many prophets, especially Daniel. May we learn from Jesus how to pray for God’s will be done.

God bless you