Divine Intimacy - Lenten Meditations for 2026 - Day 4

Want a Lent that actually changes you? We walk through Isaiah’s fierce call to mercy and the Gospel scene of Jesus striding over the waves, then pivot to the quiet battlefield where most of us either grow or stall: the daily opportunities for mortification we didn’t plan. Instead of chasing dramatic sacrifices, we look at the humbler path of accepting illness, fatigue, awkward conversations, and inconvenient liturgies as God’s hand at work. That shift—from designing penance to receiving providence—turns theory into transformation.

We share personal ground-level moments that test the will: reaching for painkillers versus offering up a headache, driving long miles for Mass, and showing up to a family funeral that may feel messy yet demands love. Along the way, we wrestle with motives. Are we guarding real goods with prudence, or slipping into avoidance dressed up as discernment? The spiritual classic Divine Intimacy helps us name the deeper work: mortifying pride, surrendering opinions, and refusing the subtle self-importance that can hollow out religious practice. When the storm rises, Christ’s words—take heart; it is I; do not be afraid—reframe hardship as a meeting place with Him, not a detour.

By the end, you’ll have a practical lens for your Lenten resolutions: keep your chosen practices, but learn to notice and accept the penances God already laid in your path today. Try a simple nightly examen to spot where you dodged the cross and where you carried it with grace. If you’re longing for a Lent that waters dry ground rather than adds spiritual clutter, this conversation offers clarity, courage, and a next step you can take before the day ends.

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Transcript

Mass Readings Overview

Epistle From Isaiah

Gospel: Jesus Walks On Water

Introducing Divine Intimacy

The Spirit Of Mortification

Accepting Providential Sufferings

SPEAKER_02 0:31

Good morning, everyone. Welcome to day four of Lent here, our fourth day of these readings and meditation here during Lent. Um yeah, so I've I put these up on YouTube as well as audio podcast. There's generally not nothing to watch. Uh for most of it, I have just an image up on screen. So if you prefer to just listen, it might be easier on one of the audio podcast apps, but otherwise, YouTube is available as well. And uh if you're just joining um these meditations, uh, what I do is I read the traditional mass readings of the day, so the lesson or epistle, uh, and then the gospel of the day. And then uh we go through divine intimacy. Uh before we get started for today, um I'd like to ask you all, if you could, in your charity, uh please pray for the uh repose of the soul of my grandmother, Estelle. She passed away last night um at the age of 93. She lived a very long and full life. Um, so I would appreciate any any prayers you might be able to offer for her, and I know she would appreciate that as well. But um, without further ado, I'm gonna throw up an image on screen. There won't be anything to to look at really. Uh just just listen, and we'll get started with the mass readings of the day. Okay, the readings from the mass for Saturday after Ash Wednesday. The Epistle, Isaiah 58, nine through fourteen. Thus saith the Lord God, if thou wilt take away the chain out of the midst of thee, and cease to stretch out the finger, and to speak that which profit profiteth not, when thou shalt pour out thy soul to the hungry, and shalt satisfy the afflicted soul, then shall the light rise up in darkness, and thy darkness shall be as the noonday, and the Lord will give thee rest continually, and will fill thy soul with brightness, and deliver thy bones, and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a fountain of water whose water shall not fail. And the places that have been desolate for ages shall be built in thee. Thou shalt raise up the foundations of generation and generation, and thou shalt be called the repairer of the fences, turning the path into rest. If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thine own will in my holy day, and call the Sabbath delightful and the holy of the Lord glorious, and glorify him, while thou dost not while thou dost not thine own ways, and thine own will is not found to speak a word, then thou shalt thou be delighted in the Lord, and I will lift thee up high above the high places of the earth, and will feed thee with the inheritance of Jacob thy father, for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. Now the gospel, which is Mark six, forty-seven through fifty-six. At that time when it was late, the ship was in the midst of the sea, and Jesus alone on the land, and seeing his disciples laboring and rowing, for the wind was against them, and about the fourth watch at the night, he cometh to them walking upon the sea, and he would have passed by them, but they, seeing him walking upon the sea, thought it was an apparition, and they cried out, for they all saw him and were troubled. And immediately he spoke with them and said to them, Have a good heart, it is I, fear ye not. And he went up to them into the ship, and the wind ceased, and they were far more astonished within themselves, for they understood not concerning the loaves, for their heart was blinded. And when they had passed over they came into the land of Jenisurith, and set to the shore. And when they were gone out of the ship, immediately they knew him, and running through that whole country they began to carry about in beds those that were sick, where they heard he was. And whithersoever he entered, into towns or into villages or cities, they laid the sick in the streets and besought him that they might touch but the hem of his garment, and as many as touched him were made whole. And I just realized I didn't put the image on screen. Oh well. I'll do that for the reading from Divine Intimacy. Okay, give me a second here while I switch over to the Divine Intimacy book. Okay, now I have the image up on screen. Okay, divine intimacy. The spirit of mortification. The presence of God. I come back to your feet, O crucified Jesus, desirous of understanding more thoroughly the spirit of mortification. Meditation one. The spirit of mortification has more than a purely physical aspect of mortification. It also includes renunciation of the ego, the will, and the understanding. Just as in our body and our in our senses, we have unruly tendencies toward the enjoyment of material things, so also in our ego there are inordinate tendencies toward self-assertion. Love of self and complacency in our own excellence are often so great that even unconsciously we tend to make self the center of the universe. The spirit of mortification is really complete when, above all, we seek to mortify self-love in all its many manifestations. The Pharisee who fasted on the appointed days, but whose heart was so puffed up with pride that his prayer amounted to nothing more than praise of himself and scorn of his neighbor, did not have the spirit of mortification, and hence was not justified before God. There is little value in imposing corporal mortifications on ourselves if we then refuse to yield our opinion in order to accommodate ourselves to others, if we cannot be reconciled with our enemies, or bear an injury and cutting word with calmness, or hold back a sharp answer. Why, asks Saint Teresa of Jesus, do we shrink from interior mortification of our ego, our will, and judgment, since this is the means by which every other kind of mortification may become much more meritorious and perfect, and may be practiced with greater tranquility and ease. As long as mortification does not strike at our pride, it remains at the halfway mark and never reaches a goal its goal. Medication two. Not medication, meditation two, sorry. Thinking of medication because I'm sick. Anyways, meditation number two. The true spirit of mortification embraces, in the first place, all the occasions for physical or moral suffering permitted by divine providence. The sufferings attendant on illness or fatise, fatigue, the efforts required by the performance of our duties, or by a life of intense labor, the privations imposed by the state of poverty, all are excellent physical penances. If we sincerely desire to be guided by divine providence in everything, we will not try to avoid them or even to lighten them, but will accept wholeheartedly whatever God offers us. It would be absurd to refuse a single one of those providential opportunities for suffering and to look for voluntary mortifications of our own choice. Likewise it would be foolish for those in religious life to admit the least exercise imposed by the rule in order to do a penance of their own choosing. It is exactly the same in the moral order. Do we not sometimes try to avoid a person whom we do not like, but with whom the Lord has brought us into contact? Do we look for every means of avoiding a humiliation or an act of obedience which is painful to nature? If we do, we are running away from the best opportunities for sacrificing ourselves and for mortifying our self-love. Even if we substitute other mortifications, they will not be as effective as those which God Himself has prepared for us. And the mortifications offered to us by divine providence, there is nothing of our own will or liking. They strike us just where we need it most, and where by voluntary mortification we can never reach. In order to arrive at sanctity, a certain specified amount of voluntary penance is not required of all. This varies according to the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, the advice of superiors, and each one's physical strength. All, however, must have that truly deep spirit of mortification, which can embrace with generosity every opportunity for renunciation prepared or permitted by God.

SPEAKER_00 10:45

Now our colloquy.

Prayerful Colloquy To God

Applying Mortification Today

People, Boundaries, And Charity

SPEAKER_02 10:49

O Lord, you who have sought for adores in spirits and in truth, preserve me, I beg you, from the Pharisaic spirit against which you fought while on earth, and which is so opposed to you, who are infinite truth and simplicity. Grant that while while mortifying my body, I may mortify my pride even more, or better, mortify it yourself. You who know the secret places of my heart, the most deeply hidden instincts of my self-love, prepare for me the most effective medicine for purifying, healing, and transforming me. You alone know where this is most harmful, where this most harmful microbe nest. You alone can destroy it. But how often, alas, in the varying circumstances of my life, I have not recognized your hand, your work, and I have tried in so many ways to escape the physical and moral sufferings, the mortifications, humiliations, and difficulties which you yourself had prepared for me. How blind I am, O Lord, and how poorly do I recognize your ways, which are so different and remote from my limited human views. Give me, O God, that supernatural sight which can judge events in your light, and which can penetrate the true meaning of the sufferings which you place in my path. Intensify this light in proportion to the obstacles you prepare for me to strike my ego, my pride, my opinions, my rights, because it is then above all that I am terribly blind and groping in the dark. I reject the medicine you offer. I may lack, O Lord, the means of carrying out the purification of my ego, so foolish and so proud, but nothing is lacking to you. You who are the all, and whose infinite mercy utterly surpasses my misery. I confess, O Lord, that I have often strayed like a lamb, which leaving its shepherd has taken a wrong path, but I desire to return once more, and I come back with complete confidence, because I know that you never tire of waiting and of pardoning. Here I am, Lord, I place myself in your hands. Mortify me, purify me as you wish, for whenever you afflict, it is to heal, and wherever you mortify, life increases. So there are readings and meditations for the day. Um yeah, I think many of us, myself included, um we probably go out of our way to make mortification and penance more difficult than it has to be. We'll go out of our way to um to find a penance or to find something, you know, to find a mortification, to invent one of our own, uh, and then do everything possible to avoid one that is literally placed before us by by life, by God, by the Holy Ghost. Um and we do this in in ways we probably don't even realize. And matter of fact, I did it right before coming onto this, coming on a camera here this morning to record this. Um, I woke up with a just massive headache. Uh so what did I do? I I went to pop two et cetera. Um when I could have just not uh and offered it up as a mortification, you know, instead of uh choosing to do something else later, you know, like uh you know, a cold shower or or um sleeping without a pillow or something like that, you know, I could have just suffered through the headache that I was given. Um I think we do this so often in life, and it's it's just become so natural to us because that's that's the way the whole world does it, you know. Do do whatever you can to remove whatever suffering you're given throughout the day, and then we have to go and find some suffering later to offer up to God, because we've done everything possible to eradicate it in our daily lives. Um, whether it's it's taking medicine for the the slightest sickness that we end up getting, whether it's a cold or headache or uh soreness from from something. Um whether it's avoiding people in our lives, you know, I'm I'm not the uh I'm not the the sanguine, the the sanguine like um like Anthony. I'm uh you know melancholic and phlegmatic. So uh so by my very temperament, I like to avoid people whenever possible. And uh life offers us many ways to avoid people we don't want to now. Uh while our technology and society has given us ways to connect to people like never before, it's also made it so much easier to completely block those out of our life we don't want. In many ways, it's just a button on a website now that we can press, or a button on an app to to block people. And I'm not saying that you shouldn't block people online.

SPEAKER_00 16:40

Sometimes that's obviously for the best, but um you know, in many ways, like we even you know, there's this whole thing, this whole whole idea of going uh no contact with certain people in your in your life.

Tradition, Liturgy, And Prudence

SPEAKER_02 17:03

And obviously, you know, and well, largely that's people use it to, you know, in relation to their parents. And yes, there are times when it is what is best for for for that individual or maybe for that individual individual's children. Um there are times it's necessary. I'm not gonna not going to say otherwise. Um, so if you have necessarily gotten no contact with someone in your life, I'm I'm not accusing you of anything. But that's a big thing, and you have to be sure that it really is necessary, like for your or someone else's physical, emotional, spiritual well-being. When I say emotional, I I mean like like mental, like your actual, you know, mental health, not just emotional as in it makes you uncomfortable. Because if that's the case, if if if you're doing it for that reason, then it really is just a way to remove some sort of suffering out of your life and not not doing being done really to protect yourself in a really necessary way. Um, once again, I'm not sometimes it is necessary, but uh you know, I think we do this in our spiritual lives as well. At least I know I do. Um, especially those of us who who are traditional in whatever sense you want to use that word, I will do everything possible to avoid so much of the so much of our religion that has come into being over the last 80 years, 100 years, whatever you want to call it. Um, you know, I will do whatever possible to avoid the novice ordo mass and aspects of of of the the novus ordo and new practices and devotions. And once again, there are times it's it's necessary. And if you've deemed that it is what is spiritually best for your family to to completely avoid it, that's for you know you to judge. That's for you to prudently judge for your yourself and your family and and your needs, and I'm not going to try to convince you otherwise. I've been there, I've done that. Um but once again, you have to make sure that you gotta really investigate your own motivations, your own intentions. Is it being done out of what you believe is a true necessity, or is it being done out of a way to avoid some sort of suffering? Because I'll be honest, when I go to the Novus Hordo Mass, it is a it is a suffering to me in many, many ways, many times. At the same time, driving four hours round trip to the our most local TLM is also a suffering. Um so I guess that's a horse apiece there. But um, but for instance, so uh as I said at the beginning, my my grandmother just passed away last night. And um I've a pretty good idea of what the funeral is is going to be like, and she was Catholic. Um I credit her, I credit her largely with my return to the church, um, my return to the sacraments. Um, I know she prayed the rosary daily for for me. She she prayed the rosary daily for for all of her family who had been away from the sacraments, which was basically everyone. Um she prayed very hard. Hard for that daily. I know that for a fact. Um but I I know what her funeral is likely to be like. Um it is going to be at you know, one of the the worst Novus Ordo perishes imaginable. I'm sure on Eagle's wings will be played, unfortunately. Um I can imagine uh what the homily from the priest is going to be. I'm sure she will be canonized by the priest in his homily. I'm sure the priest won't mention to my 50 or 60 family members who don't go to mass, and I'm sure the priest won't mention that they shouldn't receive communion. I'm sure I'll have to do that probably personally myself.

SPEAKER_00 22:00

Which will, of course, be likely to cause some problems. All in all that funeral's gonna be hell.

Grief, Funerals, And Offering Sorrow

SPEAKER_02 22:15

It is and it would I mean not that I can not that I would ever avoid it. Miss my own grandmother's funeral. But that temptation is there, knowing what it's going to be like. Uh but it's uh it's a suffering that's being placed in front of me by by God. You know, so why go and find invent my own mortification and penance when it's going to be right there for me. Um so yeah, I I think I think we all have to do a better job of using the opportunities given given to us daily to mortify ourselves instead of going out and inventing something on our own, which is going to be, you know, I mean, God, of course, is far better at everything than us. So whatever mortification or penance we can invent is at best going to be half as efficacious as what is given to us daily by God. So let us do a better job of looking for those opportunities throughout our daily life instead of inventing them ourselves. So that's all I have for you today. Tomorrow is the first Sunday of Lent. I hope your I hope your your penances that you've uh now Lent is kind of a obviously we should choose choose some, you know, some specific penances for Lent. I'm not saying don't do that. You can't just go through all of Lent, um kind of completely winging it as and in doing what comes up. There should be something specifically you do. Um, so whatever you've chosen for that, I hope it's going well for you. And if it's not, then definitely take an opportunity as many opportunities as possible to do whatever mortification God gives you in your daily life. Matter of fact, I would challenge everyone, uh everyone today. God is going to put something in your life today that you can use as a mortification as a penance. Look for it. Look for it throughout the day. And when you find it, when it comes, take that opportunity. And if the end of the day comes, if you're laying down in bed tonight, and and you didn't and throughout the day something did not come up, then tonight, as you do your daily examine, your examination of conscience, look back throughout the day and find what it was that was that God placed there that you missed. And if you missed it, you missed it. But identify what it was, and then look for look for something similar, or probably won't even be something similar, but then tomorrow start over and wait for something to come to you throughout the day that you can use as a mortification. We should do that daily with our examinations of concert that night. But anyways, thank you all. Once again, if you could all please pray for the repose of the soul of my grandmother Estelle, um, I would greatly appreciate it. And um, thank you, and I will see you all tomorrow.