March 27, 2025 // Thursday of the Third Week of Lent
Read the Word // Open your Bible to today’s First Reading: Jeremiah 7:23-28
Reflect on the Word //
I had been so excited to meet with this priest who was coming to town. Many of my friends lauded him as kind, gentle, and paternal. So when I received a kind, but strong, rebuke from him in spiritual direction I was angry and seriously annoyed. This was not what I had planned. He was supposed to speak some encouraging words and be on his way! I stormed up to my room and taking a deep breath, I closed my eyes in an attempt to pray. Jesus, I know that he is kind and good but that was . . . I couldn’t finish my sentence before I was hit with the deep conviction that his rebuke was not only true, but it was also exactly what I needed. Before spiritual direction I had told the Lord, I trust whatever You want to do through this priest, thinking it would be some sort of eccentric spiritual practice. But the reality is that there were certain parts of my heart that needed to mature. I could no longer live as an adult with girlish ways. I knew it was the Father’s will to invite me to live as the woman He created me to be.
I needed to respond differently than Israel had responded to God in today’s First Reading: “This is the nation that has not obeyed the Lord its God or responded to correction” (Jeremiah 7:28). God the Father in His goodness wanted me to become more fully the person that He created me to be. Just like a sculptor has to chip away at the rough bits of his statue, so, too, does the Lord chip away at my rough parts. It is not an act of unkindness but an act of love to not let me settle for less than I was made for. When I cannot see my potential for holiness, He can. When I cannot see the good that can come out of even my own mistakes, He can. The chipping away is painful, but His love makes even the most bitter correction sweet.
When correction from God comes our way it can be easy to shrink away or wince, but the reality is that He is making us something totally new. May we have the grace to not turn away in the face of correction but run straight towards His Sacred Heart to ask for the grace of conversion.
Relate to the Lord // How is Jesus working to make you totally new? How can you cooperate with Him?
Mariana Pimiento is a Colombia-born storyteller and artist. She enjoys big dinners with her Colombian family, talking about Theology of the Body, and any chance for a bonfire. The preaching Dominican friars brought her back to the Catholic faith while a student in New York City. Mariana served several years as a FOCUS missionary and now continues college ministry work in Nashville. Find out more about her here.
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