Gospel and Meditation for Thursday of the First week of Lent

O my Jesus, you have said: “Truly I say to you, ask and you will receive, seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened to you.”

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 7,7-12.

Jesus said to his disciples: “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.
For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
Which one of you would hand his son a stone when he asks for a loaf of bread,
or a snake when he asks for a fish?
If you then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good things to those who ask him.
Do to others whatever you would have them do to you. This is the law and the prophets.”

 

Saint Elizabeth of the Trinity (1880-1906)
Carmelite
Letter 224 (I Have Found God: Complete Works vol. II (Washington DC: ICS Publications, 1995) p. 192)

Launch your soul on the waves of confidence and abandonment, and remember that anything that troubles it or throws it into fear does not come from God, for He is the Prince of Peace and He promises that peace to “those of good will” (Lk 2:14 Vg.). When you are afraid you have abused his grace, that is the time to redouble your confidence, for, as the Apostle Paul says: “Where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more,” (Rm 5:20) and farther on: “I boast of my weaknesses, for then the power of Jesus Christ dwells in me.” (2 Cor 12:9) “Our God is rich in mercy because of His immense love.” (Eph 2:4)