Tag: Catholic meditation

Pentecost Sunday Mass during the Day: Reflection

“Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, ‘Peace be with you.’ When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side.”

As if to give the disciples one more assurance that it was he, Jesus shows the disciples his hands and side. And then he says, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”

God, help me understand that through his life, death, and resurrection, Jesus modeled for me the way to live. Yes, there will be pain. From it, there is no escape. But in the midst of that, in the midst of the disciples who hid in fear behind locked doors, Jesus appears and says to them: “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”

Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created. And You shall renew the face of the earth. O, God, who by the light of the Holy Spirit, did instruct the hearts of the faithful, grant that by the same Holy Spirit we may be truly wise and ever enjoy His consolations, Through Christ Our Lord, Amen.

Today when things don’t go my way, or when suffering becomes an inescapable reality, let me remember the peace that Jesus gives to the disciples—not as the world gives. Rather, it is peace that Jesus speaks into existence in my heart and that he gives me the power to extend to others.

Saturday of the Seventh Week of Easter Mass in the Morning: Reflection

Jesus said to him, “What if I want him to remain until I come? What concern is it of yours? You follow me.”

After the Resurrection, Peter asks Jesus whether John will be the one to betray Jesus. The terseness of Jesus’ reply to the man who will become the first leader of the Church seems unwarranted. Where is the tenderness in Jesus’ spiritual formation and care of Peter? The response seems harsh and abrupt.

Even in yesterday’s readings, Jesus asks Peter three times if he loves him, and Peter affirms Jesus’ divinity by saying, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Peter seems to want to know more about what will happen and who will play what role. God, help me understand that you work through your Son in ways that fail human comprehension. Did Jesus see in Peter a lack of trust in the Divine plan? Did he want to redirect Peter to his role in leading the disciples and spreading the Gospel? Whatever the purpose of this response, Jesus calls attention to the spiritual reality that man’s ways are not God’s ways and that some things and the actions of others are out of our hands. “You follow me,” Jesus says.

God, show me today how to trust in the words of your Son: “What concern is it of yours?” Help me recognize my gifts and be less concerned about others’ shortcomings. I know you want me to see you at work in my small sphere of interaction and in the whole world. I know you want me to be at work today on foundations you lay and not on shifting sand. For this, you will need to stay with me, Lord.

Today let me remember that to face the things I can’t control, I can give back to God and say, “What concern is this of mine?” That’s easy to say at this moment, but in the midst of the day, things get complicated. God, give me the ability throughout the day to call on the gifts you gave me and the guidance of the Holy Spirit to know my part and yours. Your will, not mine.

USCCB Readings

Thursday of the Seventh Week of Easter: Reflection

Jesus prayed, saying: “Father, they are your gift to me. I wish that where I am they also may be with me, that they may see my glory that you gave me, because you loved me before the foundation of the world.”

Earlier in today’s Gospel reading, Jesus says that those who believe in him will become one with the Father and that Jesus gives them the glory that the Father gave him. The exact words are “And I have given them the glory you gave me.”

This suggests a spiritual reality which seems like it shouldn’t be. How can Jesus give me glory? Isn’t it the opposite, that I give glory to him? God, help me understand this completely without thinking I understand it right off the bat. The reason Jesus gives us the glory the Father gave him is so that we may be one with the Father as Jesus and the Father are one and because the Father loves us even as he loved Jesus.

My Jesus, mercy! I close my eyes and distractions crowd around me. Stay with me today so that I might have the hope and the courage to be one with you. And you love others; let me remember you pray that they also may be in you and the Father.

Jesus says of the Father: “You loved me before the foundation of the world.” And Jesus wants us to be brought to perfection as one with the Father just as he is one with the Father. Let me think about that today; that the Father has loved me also from before the foundation of the world. Through the Eucharist, through God’s love incarnate, every time I receive it, I become one with God through his Son, one with the Father from before I was brought into the world. It is for this that Jesus prays, “that the world may believe [the Father] sent me.”

USCCB Readings

Memorial of Saint Justin, Martyr: Reflection

Jesus said, “They do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world.”

Jesus says this in prayer twice within 52 words as if to emphasize that consecration in God’s truth keeps his own from the Evil One, from the world that hates them. More than anything on earth that we could possess, Jesus wants us to share his joy completely.

Just as a pilgrim passes from one place to another for sacred purposes, this gift of life that God gives allows for passage from earthly life to life in heaven. God, to think that I don’t belong to this world, is to trust in the life to come that remains unseen. Help me see the worth of the present world in terms of passing into everlasting life.

“Your word is truth, God.” In this pilgrim world that I don’t belong to, help me glimpse the life to come. Father in heaven, give me the grace I need daily to live a good life and calm any fear or unbelief I have in coming to stay with you forever. Consecrate me in truth.

Just as Paul leaves Ephesus, let me go throughout the day as a pilgrim, open to changes prompted by the guidance of the Holy Spirit. I know there will be so-called interruptions today that give me the opportunity to move outside myself to recognize God’s presence in every moment of the day.

USCCB Readings

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Monday of the Seventh Week of Easter: Reflection

“Jesus answered them, ‘Do you believe now? Behold, the hour is coming and has arrived when each of you will be scattered to his own home and you will leave me alone. But I am not alone, because the Father is with me.’ ”

Jesus speaks these words as he prepares his disciples for the coming of the Advocate. It follows the disciples’ statement that they now believe Jesus because, as they say, “Now we realize that you know everything.” From there, the disciples go out into the world, where Jesus tells them to take courage because he has conquered the world.

God, thank you for the courage you give me, if I am able to see it, day after day despite that in the world I will have trouble. Jesus, you say you have conquered the world, and these words of yours I accept by faith as true. As far as I can accept this, there is joy in being at ease in the troubles of the world.

The disciples go out into the world to preach the Gospel, each to his own place. Yet, they are never alone just as Jesus is not alone because the Father is with him. Neither am I alone today. By sharing all that the Father gave to him, Jesus makes his Father our Father.

Today let me go out into the world in joy, as a child steps out onto the lawn on a summer day. Let my joy in knowing that you have conquered the world prompt others around to wonder at the cause of my joy.

USCCB Readings

Saturday of the Sixth Week of Easter: Reflection

“On that day you will ask in my name, and I do not tell you that I will ask the Father for you. For the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have come to believe that I came from God.”

Jesus says two things that seem discrepant: “whatever you ask the Father in my name he will give you” and “on that day you will ask in my name, and I do not tell you that I will ask the Father for you.” Asking anything in the Father’s name and in Jesus’ name are not two separate acts but one. Jesus confirms this in his words and in the Ascension as he is “leaving the world and going back to the Father.”

Jesus is able to say that he will no longer speak in figures but tell the disciples clearly about the Father because he will send the Advocate, who will reveal all truth. God, help me understand that same Jesus who sits at your right hand became human to save us from the consequences of human wretchedness.

There are so many distractions in a day that it would be enough for me to ask Jesus to help me remember to ask anything in his name. At all times, he wants to be present throughout the day; it is only a matter of my asking him to join me and stay with me.

Today in confidence I ask that I remain firm in my belief in Jesus. “For the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have come to believe that I came from God.” Let me come to believe in those moments when I hesitate to put God first instead of on the shelf.

USCCB Readings

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Friday of the Sixth Week of Easter: Reflection

Jesus said to his disciples, “So you also are now in anguish. But I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you.”

It’s not unusual after you have accomplished something great for someone to say to you, “You’ll always have that; they can’t take that away from you.” The words of Jesus reflect this but give greater truth to it because Jesus words speak things into existence. Just as he says, “My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you,” he says, “No one will take your joy away from you.”

God, help me understand that you are the giver of joy and joy in essence. One with the Father, you give glory to him and wish for the disciples and for all your children that our hearts will rejoice.

In Communion, I receive you, the Body of Christ. Let those words be on my lips today and in my mind as I face the anguish of the day. Jesus, you say, “But I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice.” A day will come when I will not question you about anything because you have revealed all that the Father told you. Until that time, teach me to wait in joyful expectation.

Today let me remember and not be afraid to ask the Father in Jesus’ name for whatever present need I have.

USCCB Readings

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Memorial of Saint Philip Neri, Priest: Reflection

“You will weep and mourn, while the world rejoices; you will grieve, but your grief will become joy.”

I can only guess that by saying “while the world rejoices,” Jesus means that his absence from them after his death, resurrection, and ascension will be for the world a cause for rejoicing. Since this is before Jesus’ death, the disciples experience great uncertainty at this point in his time with them, the mention of joy might seem foreign to them. The Easter joy that I take for granted was something the disciples knew nothing about at this moment.

God, open my mind to understand the first reading in relation to daily life. There is something there worth paying attention to. In it, Silas and Timothy oppose and revile Paul for testifying to the Jews. He left them, saying, “From now on I will go to the Gentiles.” He then meets a man named Titus Justus, whose house was next to a synagogue. Because of Paul, a synagogue official “came to believe in the Lord,” and many of the Corinthians believed and were baptized. Here is where it’s relevant: just as Paul preached and brought to conversion the Gentiles, God blessed him abundantly by bringing to conversion the synagogue official as well.

God, I know you want to break through the anxieties and distractions of the day to make yourself present. Do I dare say to myself and believe, “I want to see you face to face?” Is that what I want, and do I want to make that temple within me for no material gain other than to be before you? I know that as the day burns by my thoughts will tend toward matters at hand.

Today I want to look for the abundant blessings of God. In the midst of anxiety and grief, light pierces the darkness; let me trust in the words of truth that come from Jesus’ lips: “you will grieve, but your grief will become joy.”

USCCB Readings

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Wednesday of the Sixth Week of Easter: Reflection

“Everything that the Father has is mine; for this reason I told you that he will take from what is mine and declare it to you.”

Jesus brought to the disciples the fullness of the truth. The Spirit of truth, the Advocate, will take that fullness from Jesus and declare it to the disciples and to the rest of the world. This brings to mind the Trinity, that the Advocate will glorify Jesus just as Jesus glorifies the Father.

God, help me understand that the Spirit of truth will guide me to all truth. That Jesus spoke of truth should enough to counter any doubts I have in daily life about what is uncertain. “I am the way and the truth and the life,” Jesus says. Truth is not a philosophy or a myth or an unknown god but a person, the second person of the Holy Trinity.

When the Spirit of truth comes, he will not speak on his own but will speak what he hears. Let me be open today to speak not on my own but through what the Spirit of truth teaches me to bring that truth to others.

In today’s Gospel reading of twelve short lines, Jesus says three times that the Spirit of truth will take from what is his and declare it to the disciples. Jesus has much more to tell them, but he sends the Advocate to reveal all truth to them. When I am in the midst of the day weighing the relative truth of an idea or situation, I want to remember to leave room to allow the Advocate to guide me to all truth.

USCCB Readings

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Tuesday of the Sixth Week of Easter: Reflection

“But I tell you the truth, it is better for you that I go. For if I do not go, the Advocate will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.”

In these words from today’s Gospel reading, Jesus continues speaking of the coming of the Advocate. The disciples are filled with grief by what he says. Yet, if he stays, the Advocate will not come; if he goes to the Father, Jesus will send the Advocate to them.

God, help me understand that you work in ways I don’t ordinarily foresee or understand. Just as Paul and Silas pray and sing hymns after being beaten and imprisoned for preaching the Gospel, how difficult would it be for me when things don’t go my way to pray and accept that your will be done and praise you for it?

I feel especially rushed and moved along today by obligations and circumstances. The day doesn’t look like it’s going the way I would have it. God, show me how to rest in this and find your presence. Let me see Christ in others, and let me be a lifesaver to anyone else who feels tossed about on the waves.

Today I want to remember to be merciful when someone I encounter wants to cling to what is rather than let go of what is and trust that God will provide.

USCCB Readings