Family Activity:

Read a passage of scripture each day as a family. Here are some options for daily scripture this week:

• 7 Days of scripture passages option 1 (PDF Download)
• 7 Days of scripture passages option 2 (PDF Download

Weekly Virtue:

Listening. This week we will work to listen more than seeking to be heard. For parents, this may take the form of spending time listening to our children, asking them or their opinion or what they would like to eat for dinner, what prayers they would like the family to pray.

For children this would be to listen and act on the requests of the parents, such as first time obedience for chores or daily tasks.

Family Reflection

Click the link below to read the scriptures from second Sunday of Lent. The model we will be using in the Lenten exercise are detailed in this article. For the readings today we will be reflecting on hearing and answering the call of God.

Genesis 22:1-2, 9a, 10-13, 15-18

Here I am!

The Lord called Abraham, what did that sound like? Was it an audible voice, did he only hear something in his mind? How does the Lord talk with you?

The Lord speaks to us in various ways. Abraham was able to hear God’s voice very clearly, so much so that he immediately responds, “Here I am!” each time the Lord or His messenger calls his name. In the first instance God calls Abraham to go and do something Abraham may not wish to do, the second time God prevents Abraham from doing what He told him to do during the first call. But in both instances Abraham clearly hears the voice of God speaking to him and he listens and obeys.

In our own life of prayer, do we hear God’s voice clearly? And when we hear His voice and He gives us a task to perform do we obey? If not, what can we do to be better listeners and more obediant to God’s commands?

O LORD, I am your servant

Psalm 116:16

If God is for us, who can be against us?

Romans 8:31

The Gospel of John 2:13-16

“This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.”

The transfiguration, Moses and Elijah, who were these two men, what role do they play in salvation history? How did they listen to the Lord, how did they die?

• Moses led the people of Israel out of slavery in Egypt, the first Exodus. In the transfiguration account in the Gospel of Luke 9:31, it says that Jesus conversed with them about the exodus He would accomplish in Jerusalem. Moses also represented the Law – see the Ten Commandments and the book of Deuteronomy.
  • Moses heard God from the burning bush and presided over the ten plagues against Egypt communicating the Lord’s words to Pharoah. After leaving Egypt he continued to communicate the Lord’s commands to the people of Israel. He didn’t listen perfectly and thus was not allowed to enter the promised land.
  • He died after being shown the promised land and no one knows the place of his burial (see Deuteronomy 34:6)
• Elijah represents the Prophets and lived in the ninth-century B.C. prophet during the reigns of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel, and King Ahaziah of Israel. His story is found in the Old Testament books of I and II Kings.
  • Elijah proclaimed that Yahweh was the one true God, and he called the people to repent of their worship of false gods, their abandonment of the covenant and their sinning against the commandments.
  • Shortly after anointing Elisha as prophet to succeed him, Elijah was taken up in a fiery chariot to heaven (2 Kings 2:11).

How can we follow the example of Moses and Elijah? Answers will vary

Why was it wrong for Peter to propose building two booths on the top of the mountain?

• We have these mountain top experiences with God, but we are not called to stay there, but to go forth and share the good news we have heard with others and draw all men to a closer relationship with the Lord.

We may not always understand the words God speaks to us. When Jesus (God) told Peter, James and John not to share what they had experienced until the “Son of Man had risen from the dead,” they didn’t initially understand what this meant. They didn’t forget God’s word, but patiently sought understanding. We are called to do the same. We may not always understand God’s word, but we should have faith and seek better understanding. God’s thoughts are far above our thoughts, His ways far above our ways.