A time of Lexio devena for the discerning heart.

Monday of the fourth week in Lent.

As you begin, take a deep breath and exhale slowly.

For the next few moments, surrender all the cares and concerns of this day to the Lord. Say slowly from your heart, Jesus, I trust in you.

You take over.

Become aware that he is with you, looking upon you with love, wanting to be heard deep within your heart. A reading from the Holy Gospel according to John, chapter 5 verses 1 through 3 and 5 through 16.

There was a Jewish festival and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now at the sheep pool in Jerusalem,

there is a building called Bethsaida, in Hebrew, consisting of five porticos. And under these were crowds

of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the water to move.

One man there had an illness which had lasted 38 years, and when Jesus saw him lying there

and knew he had been in this condition for a long time, he said, do you want to be well again?

Sir, replied the sick man.

I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is disturbed,

and while I am still on the way,

someone else gets there before me.

Jesus said, get up, pick up your sleeping mat and walk.

The man was cured at once, and he picked up his mat and walked away.

Now that day happened to be the Sabbath, so the Jews said to the man who had been cured,

It is the Sabbath, you are not allowed to carry your sleeping mat.

He replied, but the man who cured me told me, pick up your mat and walk. They asked,

who is the man who said this to you, pick up your mat and walk? The man had no idea who it was, since Jesus had disappeared into the crowd that filled the

place.

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