Heavenly Father,
In Your Son’s transfiguration, we see His humanity transformed in Your glory and divinity. As we move through the journey of Lent, anticipating His passion and death, may we see in this majestic sign the resurrection and glory of Easter. May we also see our own future glorification coming through our faith, our attempts to follow Your way, and Your wondrous mercy.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
Amen
Reflection
And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain apart by themselves; and he was transfigured before them, and his garments became glistening, intensely white, as no fuller on earth could bleach them. And there appeared to them Eli′jah with Moses; and they were talking to Jesus. And Peter said to Jesus, “Master, it is well that we are here; let us make three booths, one for you and one for Moses and one for Eli′jah.” For he did not know what to say, for they were exceedingly afraid. And a cloud overshadowed them, and a voice came out of the cloud, “This is my beloved Son; listen to him.” And suddenly looking around they no longer saw any one with them but Jesus only. And as they were coming down the mountain, he charged them to tell no one what they had seen, until the Son of man should have risen from the dead. So they kept the matter to themselves, questioning what the rising from the dead meant.
—Mark 9: 2-10
As We Move Through the Journey of Lent
The time of Lent reminds us of our interconnection and relationship with all human beings through the shared identity we have as children of the heavenly Father. This recognition can help draw us to the charity St. Augustine calls us to when he says, “Food is subservient to charity, speech to charity, and facial expressions to charity. Everything works together for Charity alone.”
As the Church takes this time of Lent to show all of us our profound identity as children of God, it can encourage our fasting and interactions with others to work for the sake of charity. We then see that we practice charity not toward random individuals but toward people who share a connection with us through their gift to also call God “Father.”
“These are the precious weeks [of Lent] offered by the Church to all Christians, in order to help them to reflect upon their profound identity as children of the heavenly Father and as brothers and sisters of all human beings.” —St. John Paul II, "Message of His Holiness John Paul II for Lent 1983"
Did This Prayer and Reflection Speak to You?
If you found that your heart needed this prayer and your faith found peace in the further reflections, consider continuing your journey with these two Fr. Spitzer titles:
God So Loved the World probes the major question: Even if we accept that God is real, why believe He has personally revealed Himself to mankind? Fr. Spitzer does an in-depth examination of Jesus’ forgiveness of sinners, teachings, miracles, and His rising from the dead.
In Science, Reason, and Faith: Discovering the Bible, Fr. Robert Spitzer, SJ, explores in depth the Bible and the intersection of three realms the secular world tells us are separate and incompatible. Fr. Spitzer draws the modern reader's attention to the many seeming conflicts between science, reason, and Catholic teaching. By tackling these difficult questions, he shows that we can truly discover ourselves, our world, and our God precisely through the integration of science, reason, and faith.
