Divine Intimacy - Lenten Meditations for 2026 - Day 8

A cloud on Sinai, bread in the desert, and three days in the heart of the earth: today’s journey moves from spectacle to substance, asking what truly builds a life aflame with God. We read Exodus as Moses steps into the cloud for forty days, follow Elijah from exhaustion to angelic strength on the road to Horeb, and listen to Jesus refuse showy signs while pointing to Jonah and to the deeper family formed by doing the Father’s will. These texts sketch a path through fatigue and doubt toward fidelity, where zeal is not noise but a steady yes.

From there, we open Divine Intimacy and face a hard kindness: venial sin does not kill love, but it cools it. We explore how deliberate small faults chip away at fervor, how habitual concessions breed spiritual lethargy, and why the saints insist on sorrow even for slight offenses. At the same time, we draw hope from the distinction between frailty and willfulness. Stumbles borne of weakness, met with quick contrition and humility, can become doorways to deeper trust, a lived discovery that without Christ we can do nothing.

We end with the Lenten Ember Days, those seasonal waypoints that knit prayer, fasting, and intercession to the rhythm of the year. You’ll hear practical ways to abstain and simplify meals, offer reparation, and pray for priests and vocations, not as box‑checking but as a way to refill the “swept house” with grace. If you’ve felt your zeal thinning, this conversation offers a clear, concrete plan: hate even small sins because you love greatly, confess promptly, repair generously, and let simple practices warm the heart. If it helps, share this with a friend on the road and leave a quick review—then tell us what Ember practice you’re embracing this week.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:31

Good morning, everyone, and welcome here to Ember Wednesday in the first week of Lent. We are going to get into our readings and meditations here today. These recordings are on YouTube and audio podcast apps. And for anyone who might be joining us, we read the readings from today's Mass and the traditional Missal, and then we read uh today's section in Divine Intimacy. And I put up an image on screen so that there's nothing to look at or watch. You just listen. But without further ado, I will throw up that image on screen and we will uh we will get going here.

SPEAKER_01 1:24

Give me just a second. Okay.

Exodus On Sinai And The Forty Days

Elijah’s Weariness And Angelic Strength

The Sign Of Jonah And True Kinship

SPEAKER_00 1:30

Here we go for mass readings for today. And today we actually have a lesson, an epistle, and then the gospel. So, three readings today. So, our lesson today is from Exodus 24, 12 through 18. In those days the Lord said to Moses, Come up to me in the mount and be there, and I will give thee tablets of stones and the law, and the commandments which I have written, that thou mayst teach the children of Israel. Moses rose up and his ministered Joshua. And Moses going up to going up into the mount of God, said to the ancients, wait ye here till we return to you. You have Aaron and her with you. If any question shall arise, you shall refer it to them. And when Moses was gone up, a cloud covered the mount, and the glory of the Lord dwelt upon Sinai, covering it with a cloud six days. The seventh day he called him out of the midst of the cloud. And the sight of the glory of the Lord was like a burning fire upon the top of the mount, and in the eyes of the children of Israel. And Moses, entering into the midst of the cloud, went up into the mountain, and he was there forty days and forty nights. Now the epistle is from Third Kings nineteen, three through eight. And for those of you unfamiliar with the Dewey Reams, um Third Kings and the Dewey Reams is first Kings, and in most other translations of the Bible. So third or first Kings nineteen three through eight. In those days Elias came to Bersabi of Judah and left his servant there, and he went forward one day's journey into the desert, and when he was there and sat under a juniper tree, he requested for his soul that he might die, and said, It is enough for me, Lord, take away my soul, for I am no better than my father's. And he cast himself down and slept in the shadow of the juniper tree, and behold an angel of the Lord touched him and said to him, Arise and eat. He looked, and behold there was at his head a hearth kick, and a vessel of water, and he ate and drank, and fell asleep again. And the angel of the Lord came again the second time and touched him and said to him, Arise, eat, for thou hast yet a great way to go. And he arose and ate and drank, and walked in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights unto the mount of God, Horeb. Okay, now we have our gospel for the day. Let me turn to that. Give me just a second here. Okay. Our gospel of the day is from Matthew 12, 38 through 50. At that time some of the scribes and Pharisees answered Jesus, saying, Master, we would see a sign from thee, who answering said to them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh the sign, and a sign shall not be given it, but the sign of Jonas the prophet. For as Jonas was in the whale's belly three days and three nights, so shall the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights. The men of Nineveh Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it, because they did penance at the preaching of Jonas. And behold a great behold a greater than Jonas here. The queen of the south shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon. And behold a greater salt gr a greater than Solomon here. And when an unclean spirit is gone out of a man he walketh through dry places, seeking rest and findeth none. Then he saith, I will return into my house from where I came out. And coming he findeth empty, swept, and garnished. Then he goeth and taketh with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there. The last state of that man is made worse than the first. So shall it be also to this wicked generation. As he was yet speaking to the multitudes, behold his mother and brethren stood without, seeking to speak to him. And one said unto him, Behold thy mother and thy brethren stand without seeking thee. But he answering him that told him, said, Who is my mother and who are my brethren? And stretching forth his hand toward his disciples, he said, Behold my mother and my brethren, for whosoever shall do the will of my father that is heaven, he is my brother and sister and mother.

Divine Intimacy: Venial Sin Explained

SPEAKER_01 6:28

Okay. Now on to divine intimacy for today.

Habit, Lethargy, And Loss Of Fervor

SPEAKER_00 6:34

Venial sin in the presence of God. O Lord, inflame me with your holy zeal, so that I will no longer be able to tolerate of myself the slightest thing which is displeasing to you. Meditation one venial sin like mortal sin goes counter to God's will, although with less serious deviation. While it does not destroy charity, it is opposed to it, and therefore therefore just diminishes its fervor and rigor, hindering its development. This is the disastrous effect of deliberate venial sin, committed with the realization that is displeasing to God. Once venial sins of this kind become habitual, they decrease the soul's tendency toward God, and increase, on the other hand, its leaning toward self-satisfaction in creatures. Thus, little by little the soul loses its fervor, its sense of sin, and falls on tupidity, which is characterized by a certain indifference to venial sin. This puts it in danger of offending God in serious matters also. In this sense, venial sin may be compared to a disease of insidious languor, a kind of spiritual tuberculosis, which undermines the organism slowly but fatally. It is not unusual to meet souls who having at first surrendered themselves to God with sincere fervor, afterwards let them fall, let themselves fall into continual carelessness, indifference, voluntary omissions, and laziness, because they have given in to selfishness and sought their own comfort. They become incapable of making the generous efforts required to advance on the way that they have started. Their spiritual life is reduced to a king of lethargy, which is not yet death, but which has none of the freshness and vigor of a strong, healthy life. It lacks the fervor of charity, for this is continually being lessened by deliberate concessions to venial sin. To put us on our guard against such a state, Saint Teresa of Jesus declares, always be fearful if you do not feel sorry for the faults you commit. Even venial sin ought to fill you with sorrow to the very depths of your soul. For the love of God, take care not to commit any deliberate venial sin, even the smallest. And can anything be small if it offends God? Meditation two Quite different are the venial sins with which we commit through frailty or inadvertence. Very often the soul is determined not to give in at any price. Due to its weakness, however, it falls when temptation comes, especially if the attack is unexpected. Nevertheless, once aware of it, the soul feels sincere sorrow, repents at once, asks God's pardon, rises and sets out again. Such sin cause such sins cause no great harm to the soul. They are signs of its frailty and show that it has not yet reached spiritual maturity. Moreover, if the soul sincerely humbles itself after these falls, it will draw profit from them in a more profound knowledge of its own misery, which will make it mistrust its own strength entirely and place all its confidence in God alone. It will experience in a practical way the profound truth of the words of Jesus. Without me you can do nothing. It is not unusual for God to permit these falls, and he does so precisely to give the soul the practical knowledge of its nothingness, and to anchor it firmly in humility, the foundation of all our spiritual life. In regard to faults of this kind, Saint Saint Therese of the Child Jesus felt that we can be sure they do not grieve the good God, because they are not caused by a will intent on sin, by indifference or coldness. They spring from the weakness of human nature. If because of our weakness it is impossible for us to avoid these little daily venial faults of inadvertence or frailty, it is important to know how to how to detest them, to make generous reparation.

SPEAKER_01 11:00

As to deliberate venial sins, we should be firmly resolved not to commit them for anything in the world Colloquy Pecave Domine Miserare Me Pardon, Father, pardon me, a miserable ingrate.

Frailty, Humility, And Quick Repentance

Hating All Sin And Confession Zeal

Using Shame To Reform Habits

SPEAKER_00 11:21

I owe it to your goodness that I am still your spouse, even though I am unfaithful to you by my faults. Pecave Domine Miserere Me. O my soul, what are you doing? Are you not aware that God sees you always? You can never hide yourself from his sight, for nothing is hidden from him. O eternal God, Father of all goodness and mercy, have pity on us because we are blind and in darkness, and I, more than anyone else, am miserable and to be pitied. O true Son, enter my soul and illumine it with your brightness. Drive out the darkness and give me light. Melt the ice of my self love and kindle in me the fire of your charity. Pecave domine miserare may. May his majesty be pleased to make us fear him whom we ought to fear, and understand that one venial sin can do us greater harm than all the forces of hell combined. Indeed, the real evil, the only one I have to fear, is neither temptation nor trial, nor interior or exterior contradictions, nor the loss of material things or of health, but only what is contrary in any way at all to my union with you, my sovereign good. This evil I see can be caused by one single venial sin committed deliberately. O Jesus, I beseech you, through the merits of your passion, deliver me from this great evil. Take away from me the wretched power to offend you, and if because of my innate weakness it is impossible for me to avoid these faults, grant that they may never be the consequence of my bad will. May my faults serve only to humiliate me, not to offend you. Because of my weakness I often fall. Often I lose sight of what is only is my only care, and straying from your side, allow my wings to be dragged draggled interesting word, allow my wings to be draggled in the muddy pool pools of this world. Then I cry like a young swallow, and my cry tells you all, and you remember, O infinite mercy, that you did not come to call the just but sinners. Okay. There are the readings and meditations for today. You know, and um yesterday when we were discussing um mortal sin, um you know, we talked about how we uh how we we we don't hate it enough. You know, and I think I think um many people would would would agree with that is when it comes to to mortal sin, right? To to a sin that completely cuts you off from God. Um but then we read through today how um even one venial sin is to be despised um above uh you know nearly everything else in the world. And um it's one of those things, you know, I I forget where I heard it or who said it, or maybe where I maybe read it, but it's it's stuck with me now for years. But you know, we have we have a God who is infinitely and all good, which means that that the even the the smallest possible sin, right? The smallest thing that is uh contrary to a God who is all infinitely good is um i is infinitely evil. Uh and it it it it deserves in you know an infinite punishment. Um you know, in a sense, ever every single sin uh in a way is deserving of of death and hell. Now the you know the church like I said, the church teaches that my alarm, sorry guys. Uh the church teaches, you know, that that you have mortal sins which are deadly and which you know you you can suffer hell for and venial sins which are not, but but um we have to see all sin you know as an infinite offense against an infinitely good God. Um it will it will keep us in that proper mindset of hating all sin, even even small venial ones. It will stop us from from entering that that lethargy that the that divine intimacy talks about, that laziness, um which you find uh so common throughout the the church. Um which I suffer from at times as well. But you know that um the reason why confession lines tend to so often be uh be empty, unfortunately, you know, that lethargy that that says it's not needed, or just that um that you know if you don't hate sin as you should, you you won't feel like you have to go to confession, do penance, do reparation. You know, if we if we truly saw every sin as an infinite offense against God, we would um we would be much more willing to do reparations for even our smallest sins. So we have to keep that in mind. I know that that that helps me um that that thought that that yeah that that thought helps me uh hate sin. Um and we also have to recognize uh you know, so that was largely about deliberate venial sin. We we have to recognize the the type of sins that venial sins that happen just because of our fallen nature, our frailty. Um we have to use them uh to improve you know that that sense of shame or guilt that that comes after you um you know maybe commit a venial sin out of habit, you know, like like saying omg uh things of that nature, which which are venial um and habitual, that sense of shame that comes after, we have to use that to to steal ourselves from that from allowing that to happen again. We have to use that to change our habits and um and hopefully prevent those type of sins from from continuing. So, anyways, that's all I have for you today. Is Ember Wednesday, as we talked about yesterday. Uh, for those of you unfamiliar with um Ember Days, they are um they are four sets of three days that happen throughout the year. Um, usually they happen at the changing of the seasons for the most part. So you have your um, I believe these would I are yeah, these are the spring ember days. You have uh then you know, ember days right before summer, right before fall, right before winter. Um I forget the saying. There's a kind of a catchy little saying that tells you kind of when they are. Um ashy, uh I forget how it goes. Loose, something loosey, something ashy, something. Anyways, so these are the Lenten, the spring ember days. They're extra days of penance and fasting uh that we use, of course, to you know, to offer and reparation for our sins. They're extra days of prayer. We use to pray for our priests and pray for vocations, you know, for anyone who um who works off the land, they happen at the turning of the seasons in order to pray for, you know, whatever, you know, um, to pray for good weather, good crops, things of that nature. Um, but uh so you have Ember Wednesday, Ember Friday, Ember Saturday. They are days of fasting, days of abstinence from meat. Um they it all used to be you know canonical to where you had to. Uh you no longer have to, but um, but it's a very good practice. Um so uh abstain from meat today, fast today, only have the one meal today, and then the same on Friday and Saturday. And um, and yeah, but anyways, I hope you all have a great day today on Ember Wednesday, and um I will see you tomorrow.