Burning Hearts with Rachel Herbeck

Wrapping up the first week of Lent, we read the prophet Isaiah chastising Israel for their heart posture as they fast. The Holy Spirit convicts us today to be truly concerned with the pursuits of God and not just what we desire.

Now that Lent has begun, we hear more from the Prophets, and we read an invitation to delight in God’s law and instruction. We are convicted that obedience is the fruit of love and ask the Lord where He desires us to submit.

As we begin Lent, we see the readings shift from James to the Old Testament prophet Joel. Joel convicts us to rend our hearts in true repentance to the Lord, and we ask the Holy Spirit for a spirit of deep repentance on behalf of ourselves and the world.

As we continue going through the Mass readings, we see the first reading is a continuation of James 1. Here we are encouraged to persevere so we may receive the crown of life. We ask God for help on our race as we grow in endurance.

This week we dive into the readings of the day as we prepare for Lent. Today we begin with the letter from James and his intense and convicting to challenge to count each trial as a joy.

As we wrap up this week, we take time to focus on each fruit of the Spirit, what it is, and what are signs that those fruits are at work in our lives.

We continue to examine the things that separate us from God, particularly how our sin affects our communities. Paul tells us that if we submit to these things as our masters, we will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Paul tells us that our fleshly desires are in opposition to the Spirit of God. We begin today to talk about ways we look for satisfaction in other things and how that separates us from God.

As we continue discussing freedom, Paul tells us that the proof that we are free is we are able to truly love on another in service. We ask ourselves if we are gratfyig the desires of the flesh or serving one another in love.

We begin this week in Galatians 5, focusing on the freedom that we have been given in Christ. What does it mean to be truly free and how do we exercise that freedom?

When we set our minds on the flesh, it produces death in our lives. But when we set our minds on the Spirit, there is life and peace. We ask the Spirit of God to help us set our minds on the Spirit.

Through sending his son into the world, we read that God condemns sin. We see today that God does not condemn Jesus, but he condemns sin in the flesh so that we may walk in newness of life.

Today we read about what the law could not do because of the sin of the human race, but we are awestruck and inspired by the reality that God has done what the law could not do: save us.

We continue in Romans 8 discussing the two laws: the law of sin and death and the law of the spirit of Life in Christ Jesus. We see how Jesus came to set us free from the law of sin and death.

This week we open up Romans 8 as an anchoring passage for us in this new year. We see the proclamation that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus and we ask the Holy Spirit to help us believe that reality.

One of the most challenging teachings of Jesus is to rejoice when we are hated and reviled. Today we discuss how we lean into persecution and rejoice in our hardships.

Continuing with the blessings and woes, Jesus speaks about those who are mourning and those who are hungry. We examine our own hearts to ask the question – are we spiritually hungry? Or are we filled with worldly things?

Jesus teaches about those who are poor both materially and spiritually. We ask the Holy Spirit to help us lean into a deeper poverty of spirit.

As Jesus dives into the blessings and woes, we learn what He values and are challenged by the values of the Kingdom of God and how different they are from the kingdom of the world.

This week we dive into Luke 6, particularly where Jesus begins to teach his disciples in the form of blessings and woes. We see how Jesus preached the Gospel of the Kingdom, bringing the Kingdom of God to invade the kingdom of the earth.

Jesus proclaims to the people that He is the fulfillment of the messianic mission stated in Isaiah 61. Today we discuss how Jesus’ ministry still applies to us today and we ask for the faith to raise our expectations that Jesus can set us free and open our eyes today.

In Luke 4, Jesus famously proclaims the messianic prophecy of Isaiah 61 in the temple. Here we see that Jesus is the anointed one, the one Isaiah spoke of who will come to proclaim good news to the poor.

Today we see that Jesus actually went into the very synagogues that he attended to teach the people, and as he teaches people glorify Him. We begin to reflect on the true power of Jesus’ time of public ministry.

As we seek Jesus in the Gospel of Luke, we see that people knew about Him and had heard about Him. The report about who He was was growing! This begins to show us truly how people responded to Jesus’ divinity throughout His time on earth.

This week we begin to ask the question, how do we seek Jesus? We dive into Luke 4 to see what Jesus was up to during His public ministry and we read that He was anointed in the power of the Spirit.