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PoC-22 3rd Wednesday of Lent: The Power of the Cross Lenten Meditation

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The Cross of Christ Transforms. . .Law and Love

Steps to Take as You Follow Christ

Ask—How much do I love God?

Seek—God’s love for us and his plans for us are greater than our minds can conceive. Starting today, acknowledge these realities by undertaking acts of trust in God throughout the day. Ask God to fill you with his love. Share God’s love with everyone.

Knock—Meditate on Romans 13:8–10.

Avoid getting into debt, except the debt of mutual love. If you love your fellow men you have carried out your obligations. All the commandments: You shall not commit adultery, you shall not kill, you shall not steal, you shall not covet, and so on, are summed up in this single command: You must love your neighbor as yourself. Love is the one thing that cannot hurt your neighbor; that is why it is the answer to every one of the commandments.

Think about the love you owe to others. Jesus often presents the kingdom of God in terms of parables that speak of a king leaving his servants with talents to share with others. Are you giving of yourself in a way that builds up the kingdom of God?

Transform Your Life—Imitate Christ or one of your favorite saints as you go about your daily activities. Plead with God to enable you to show charity to all you meet. Listen intently to those who speak to you, asking yourself what God might be saying to you through them. Give everyone, including yourself and God, the benefit of the doubt.

The author of The Power of the Cross: Applying the Passion of Christ in Your Life, Michael Dubriuel, passed away in 2009. His wife, author Amy Welborn, has made his book available as a free e-book! We HIGHLY encourage you to download this exceptional work.

The Power of the Cross is now available as a free e-book,
check out more information by going here

Check out more at the Discerning Hearts’ Michael Dubruiel page

PoC-21 3rd Tuesday of Lent: The Power of the Cross Lenten Meditation

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The Cross of Christ Transforms. . .How We Forgive

Steps to Take as You Follow Christ

Ask—Do I still harbor past sins for which I have not accepted God’s forgiveness?

Seek—Go to confession regularly. As part of your examination of conscience, review how you have accepted God’s forgiveness for past sins in your life, and review how well you have forgiven others in God’s name.

Knock—Meditate on Ephesians 4:32–5:2.

Be friends with one another, and kind, forgiving each other as readily as God forgave you in Christ. Try, then, to imitate God as children of his that he loves and follow Christ loving as he loved you, giving himself up in our place as a fragrant offering and a sacrifice to God.

St. Paul speaks of us as “beloved children” of God. What does being a child of God require of you? How does it affect the way you treat others, who are also God’s children?

Transform Your Life—Let your life be marked by being a forgiver. Realize that when you hold on to something you are making an “idol” of it, which closes God out of that part of your life.

The author of The Power of the Cross: Applying the Passion of Christ in Your Life, Michael Dubriuel, passed away in 2009. His wife, author Amy Welborn, has made his book available as a free e-book 61189_profile_pic1-213x300 ! We HIGHLY encourage you to download this exceptional work.

The Power of the Cross is now available as a free e-book,
check out more information by going here

Check out more at the Discerning Hearts’ Michael Dubruiel page

PoC-20 3rd Monday of Lent: The Power of the Cross Lenten Meditation

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The Cross of Christ Transforms. . .How We See Jesus

Steps to Take as You Follow Christ

Ask—Am I overly familiar with Christ?

Seek—Read the Gospels every day. Encounter Christ as he is presented and try to imagine him in the world today, doing the same acts, confronting unbelief in the modern world.

Knock—Meditate on 1 Peter 2:4–5.

He is the living stone, rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him; set yourselves close to him so that you too, the holy priesthood that offers the spiritual sacrifices which Jesus Christ has made acceptable to God, may be living stones making a spiritual house.

Rocks are inanimate objects. It is because they don’t move that they make good building blocks. Why, then, does Peter talk about “living stones”? Think about this metaphor and your faith life. In what way does your faith in Christ make you a living stone? Think also about the life of St. Peter; what about his experience of Christ might have led him to come up with this image?

Transform Your Life—There is nothing that exists that can transform our lives more than a relationship with Jesus Christ as he really is—give your life to Christ. Believe, placing all of your trust in his powerful being, and embrace his power in your weakness.

The Power of the Cross is now available as a free e-book,
check out more information by going here

Check out more at the Discerning Hearts’ Michael Dubruiel page

PoC-19 3rd Sunday of Lent: The Power of the Cross Lenten Meditation

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The Cross of Christ Transforms. . .How We Worship

Steps to Take as You Follow Christ

Ask—What do I do with God’s spirit?

Seek—

From a prayer posture, concentrate on your breathing. As you inhale, ask God to fill you with the Holy Spirit, to animate your every action to do his will. As you exhale, breathe the name from the core of your being: Jesus. Continue to meditate on him.

Knock—Meditate on Galatians 6:7–9.

Don’t delude yourself into thinking God can be cheated: where a man sows, there he reaps: if he sows in the field of self-indulgence he will get a harvest of corruption out of it; if he sows in the field of the Spirit he will get from it a harvest of eternal life. We must never get tired of doing good because if we don’t give up the struggle we shall get our harvest at the proper time

Are most of your actions, actions of sowing in the flesh or sowing to the spirit?

Ask God for patience that you might endure in all things by sowing to the spirit.

Transform Your Life—Make it a habit to pray the prayer of Jesus from the cross whenever you find yourself tempted to do something that you know is not of God: “Father, into your hands I commend my Spirit.” This prayer that Jesus has given us is the key to moving from sowing in the flesh to sowing to the spirit.

The Power of the Cross is now available as a free e-book,
check out more information by going here

Check out more at the Discerning Hearts’ Michael Dubruiel page

PoC-18 2nd Saturday of Lent: The Power of the Cross Lenten Meditation

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The Cross of Christ Unites. . .God’s Mercy and Love

The Way of Perfection by St. Teresa of Avila - Audio Mp3 Audio 3 Steps to Take as You Follow Christ

Ask—When have I judged someone wrongly?

Seek—Do you need to be reconciled to someone in your life? It might be someone in your family, a former friend, an enemy, or even God. Go to confession; through the grace of absolution, seek to trust in God more and more.

Knock—Meditate on 2 Corinthians 5:16–18.

From now onward, therefore, we do not judge anyone by the standards of the flesh. Even if we did once know Christ in the flesh, that is not how we know him now. And for anyone who is in Christ, there is a new creation; the old creation has gone, and now the new one is here. It is all God’s work. It was God who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the work of handing on this reconciliation.

What does it mean to be a new creation?

If you are a new creation, how are you different from those in the world who are not “in Christ”?

How do you view others?

Transform Your Life—See the temptation to judge others or even yourself as a personal invitation to take up your cross and to trust in Christ, the friend of sinners. Pray that God will bless both you and those you might judge. Be quick to show the mercy that God shows to you to others.

The Power of the Cross is now available as a free e-book,
check out more information by going here

Check out more at the Discerning Hearts’ Michael Dubruiel page

PoC-17 2nd Friday of Lent: The Power of the Cross Lenten Meditation

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The Cross of Christ Unites. . .Us in the Work We Have to Do

The Way of Perfection by St. Teresa of Avila - Audio Mp3 Audio 3 Steps to Take as You Follow Christ

Ask—How can dying to myself help me to know God’s purpose?

Seek—Ask others to describe what your gifts are, and where they see you as being most authentic in your life. Resolve to see everyone who crosses your path as the servants that God sends to obtain fruit from the harvest.

Knock—Meditate on Revelation 22:1–2.

Then the angel showed me the river of life, rising from the throne of God and of the Lamb and flowing crystal-clear down the middle of the city street. On either side of the river were the trees of life, which bear twelve crops of fruit in a year, one in each month, and the leaves of which are the cure for the pagans.

How has your Baptism changed the curse of original sin in your life into the blessing of the mission that God gives you in Christ? When you receive the Eucharist, imagine that Christ is grafting you to himself, so that his life, his healing, his strength flow through you.

Transform Your Life—Ask Our Lord to reveal to you any areas of your life where you might be serving false gods. Ask him to help you to abandon yourself to God’s will in your life in the same way that he did in the Garden of Gethsemane. Believe in God’s providential care for you, no matter what has happened in your life in the past or present.

The Power of the Cross is now available as a free e-book,
check out more information by going here

Check out more at the Discerning Hearts’ Michael Dubruiel page

PoC-16 2nd Thursday of Lent: The Power of the Cross Lenten Meditation

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The Cross of Christ Unites. . .Those Who Suffer for Justice

The Way of Perfection by St. Teresa of Avila - Audio Mp3 Audio 3 Steps to Take as You Follow Christ

Ask—What does God ask me to do for those who suffer?

Seek—Look for opportunities to help someone who needs it (and who cannot help you back). Stand up for someone who is being brought low.

Knock—Meditate on Romans 8:18.

I think that what we suffer in this life can never be compared to the glory, as yet unrevealed, which is waiting for us.

As members of the body of Christ, if one member suffers the entire body suffers. How can you make that suffering redemptive?

Transform Your Life——Read the accounts of the martyrs, those who gave the supreme witness to the gospel with their lives. Many monastic communities read about the lives of the martyrs every day, to inspire those seeking to grow in the Christian life.

The Power of the Cross is now available as a free e-book,
check out more information by going here

Check out more at the Discerning Hearts’ Michael Dubruiel page

PoC-15 2nd Wednesday of Lent: The Power of the Cross Lenten Meditation

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The Cross of Christ Unites. . .In Liberty

The Way of Perfection by St. Teresa of Avila - Audio Mp3 Audio 3 Steps to Take as You Follow Christ

Ask—What continues to enslave me?

Seek—Ask God to point out areas of slavery that still exist in your life. As you go through your day, catch yourself not being true to who you really are, and ask yourself: Who are you serving now?

Knock—Meditate on Romans 7:22–25.

In my inmost self I dearly love God’s Law, but I can see that my body follows a different law that battles against the law which my reason dictates. This is what makes me a prisoner of that law of sin which lives inside my body. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body doomed to death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! In short, it is I who with my reason serve the Law of God, and no less I who serve in my unspiritual self the law of sin’.

Paul talks about delighting in the law of God but finding himself at war with other parts of himself. Spend time reflecting on what delights you about God’s law.

Ask Christ to save you.

Transform Your Life—Thomas Merton wrote about what he called a person’s True Self. Prayer, Merton argued, helps us to discover our True Self: the person God created us to be, totally free from the expectations and demands of others. By contrast, the False Self is enslaved; he cannot be himself, but only what he thinks others want him to be. Starting today, ask God to redeem you from the slavery of the False Self.

The Power of the Cross is now available as a free e-book,
check out more information by going here

Check out more at the Discerning Hearts’ Michael Dubruiel page

PoC-4 Saturday after Ash Wednesday: The Power of the Cross Lenten Meditation

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Saturday after Ash Wednesday

A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH

Steps to Take as You Follow Christ sf_deathdefeated_03

Ask—How does viewing Jesus as my savior from death help me to face head-on the deaths of loved ones and even my own death?

Seek—Fast from passing judgment on anyone today. Realize in this little dying to yourself you are opening yourself to see others as God sees them.

Knock—Meditate on Revelation 1:17-18

When I saw him, I fell in a dead faint at his feet, but he touched me with his right hand and said, ‘Do not be afraid; it is I, the First and the Last; I am the Living One, I was dead and now I am to live for ever and ever, and I hold the keys of death and of the underworld.

Imagine Jesus touching you with his right hand and lifting you up from your death. What other areas of your life are dominated by death rather than the life of Christ Ask Our Lord to free you from all death.

Transform Your Life—Do not shy away from death. Attend the funerals of loved ones and use the experience to engage your faith in Christ. Pray for others, ask the saints to pray for you, seeing in them living examples of the promise of Christ to save us from death.

The author of The Power of the Cross: Applying the Passion of Christ in Your Life, Michael Dubriuel, passed away in 2009. His wife, author Amy Welborn, has made his book available as a free e-book 61189_profile_pic1-213x300 ! We HIGHLY encourage you to download this exceptional work.

The Power of the Cross is now available as a free e-book,
check out more information by going here

Check out more at the Discerning Hearts’ Michael Dubruiel page

PoC-3 Friday after Ash Wednesday: The Power of the Cross Lenten Meditation

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Friday after Ash Wednesday

HOW MUCH WE NEED JESUS

Steps to Take as You Follow Christ sf_deathdefeated_03

Ask—How greatly do I feel the need for Christ in my life?

Seek— Practice fasting before your reception of the Eucharist. Also find special times to fast before high points in the Christian year and during high points in your own life so that you may always remain focused on your need for Christ. Try doing more than is required by the Church.

Knock—Meditate on Revelation 22:17, 20

The Spirit and the Bride say, ‘Come’. Let everyone who listens answer, ‘Come’. Then let all who are thirsty come: all who want it may have the water of life, and have it free. The one who guarantees these revelations repeats his promise: I shall indeed be with you soon. Amen; come, Lord Jesus.

What did Jesus say about two or more gathering in his name?
Who are you waiting for?

Transform Your Life—Foster and keep before you the need that you have for Jesus. Make your constant prayer to Jesus one of entreating him to come, to be present, inviting him to be a part of your life.

The author of The Power of the Cross: Applying the Passion of Christ in Your Life, Michael Dubriuel, passed away in 2009. His wife, author Amy Welborn, has made his book available as a free e-book 61189_profile_pic1-213x300 ! We HIGHLY encourage you to download this exceptional work.

The Power of the Cross is now available as a free e-book,
check out more information by going here

Check out more at the Discerning Hearts’ Michael Dubruiel page