As we approach the closing of Lent this weekend with the start of the Holy Week, we pray, dear God our Father, for the grace to continue to seek and follow your Son Jesus Christ:
They they tried again to arrest him; but he escaped from their power. He went back across the Jordan to the place where John first baptized, and there he remained. Many came to him and said, “John performed no sign, but everything John said about this man was true.” And many there began to believe in him.
John 10:39-42
Indeed, life is a daily Lent, a constant coming of your Son Jesus Christ accompanying us to pass over every day from darkness into light, from sickness into health, and from sin into grace; Lent is both a preparation and a fulfillment of Easter if we believe as John had testified in Jordan a long time ago that Jesus is the Christ, the one on whom the Spirit dwells (cf. Jn.1:32-34).
Until now, O God, many among us still doubt you, refusing to accept Jesus as the Christ like his enemies in Jerusalem; no miracle will suffice for them to be believe unless they remove their blindness and shed off their layers of pretensions of knowing you even in the scriptures; like those who have followed Jesus at Jordan after being stoned in Jerusalem, may we truly believe in him by deepening our faith in him especially in moments of trials and tribulations like Jeremiah.
Most especially, dear God, we pray for those who continue to refuse to believe in you, those who malign your good and holy name in words and in deeds by persecuting those testifying to Jesus as the Christ. Help us to witness the truth of Jesus Christ, to tell others of your unconditional love as testified in the many good works through Christ. Amen.
