KykNET Lent Guide 2023Sample

Week 5: Purity

Day 1:

I came to love you too late, Oh Beauty,
so ancient and so new. Yes,
I came to love you too late. What did I know?
You were inside me, and I was
out of my body and mind, looking
for you.
I drove like an ugly madman against
the beautiful things and beings
you made.
You were inside me, but I was not inside you…
You called to me, you cried to me; you broke the bowl
of my deafness; you uncovered your beams, and threw them
at me; you rejected my blindness; you blew a fragrant wind
on me, and
I sucked in my breath and wanted you; I tasted you
and now I want you as I want food and water; you
touched me, and I have been burning ever since to
have your peace.

I came to love you too late by St. Augustine of Hippo

The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!” When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, “What do you want?” They said, “Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”), “where are you staying?” “Come,” he replied, “and you will see.” So they went and saw where he was staying, and they spent that day with him. It was about four in the afternoon. Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ). And he brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas” (which, when translated, is Peter). The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. Finding Philip, he said to him, “Follow me.” Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida. Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” Nathanael asked. “Come and see,” said Philip. When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, “Here truly is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.” “How do you know me?” Nathanael asked. Jesus answered, “I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you.” John 1: 35-48 NIV

Your heart is the centre, the core, the place where all the functions of our being come together. Functions like our thoughts, emotions, imagination, memory, feeling, body, etc. Jesus says that if your heart is pure, you will see God.

I want to go to an early understanding of the church of how our hearts can be pure. The access point to the purification of our hearts is through our desires. Your heart is pure and clean if your life’s overarching desire is for God. The idea was that we should surrender and work together so that we can reach our deepest desire of Him that is within us, and that this should become our greatest desire in life.

In John 1 we see how Jesus assists people in the process of purifying their hearts. He invites you to listen to your heart, to discover what you truly want, to verbalise it, and to ask for His assistance. Jesus invites you on an inner journey, to work with your desires so that your heart may be purified and you may see God in everything.

“You’re blessed when you get your inside world—your mind and heart—put right. Then you can see God in the outside world.” Matt 5:8 (MSG)

Practice of Faith for the Week:

Write a letter to God about the desires of your heart. Then, write a letter from God to you as a response to your letter.