Tag: God

Thursday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew

Jesus said to his disciples: “In praying, do not babble like the pagans, who think that they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them. Your Father knows what you need before you ask him.”

In today’s Gospel, Jesus shares with his disciples what we know as the Lord’s Prayer. Before teaching them how to pray, Jesus tells the disciples how not to pray. God does not hear our prayers better when we babble many words; he hears us and knows what we need, Jesus says, even before we pray. After saying the Lord’s Prayer with the disciples, Jesus adds: “If you forgive others their transgressions, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your transgressions.” Part of our “daily bread” is to ask God to forgive us just as we forgive others who have wronged us. In giving, we receive; in forgiving, we are forgiven.

God, as I pray the Our Father, help me hear each word and take to heart what I am saying. In today’s short Gospel passage, Jesus says the word forgive six times. What is there to forgive every day but trespasses (offenses) and transgressions (wrongdoing)? How many times today will I do wrong and expect your forgiveness? Just as many times, give me the grace to show mercy and forgiveness when I am wronged by a stranger or those closest to me.

You alone are just, Lord; you are mercy itself. Help me imitate your Son. From the responsorial psalm: “Majesty and glory are his work, and his justice endures forever. He has won renown for his wondrous deeds; gracious and merciful is the LORD.”

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Memorial of Saint Aloysius Gonzaga, Religious

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew

Jesus said to his disciples: “Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go to your inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you.”

Jesus tells the disciples about giving alms, praying, and fasting. He teaches that when you do good deeds, do not do them for the praise of others, but do them for the glory of God. He promises that if you do good deeds in secret, your Father in heaven will reward you. With prayer, for example, Jesus teaches that when you pray, do not do it like the hypocrites who pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Instead, go into your room, close the door, and pray to God the Father in secret, and your Father in secret will hear your prayer and repay you.

God, help me recognize throughout the day that you see everything I do and hear my thoughts, spoken or unspoken. Jesus teaches me to pray, fast, and give alms. Give me the grace today to do each of these, even in a small way, to keep your word. With the Gospel acclamation, I pray: “Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him and we will come to him.” Help me today, God, love you and keep your word.

Lord, help me in all my words and actions today look to you and give to others for the sake of your greater glory. Saint Aloysius Gonzaga, pray for us!

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2W-KSOPWWBY

Tuesday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew

Jesus said to his disciples: “For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have? Do not the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brothers only, what is unusual about that? Do not the pagans do the same? So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

In today’s Gospel, as Jesus gives teachings on how to live a life of discipleship, he has just finished telling his disciples this: “You have heard that it was said, You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father, for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust.” Regardless of our status or station in life, the sun rises on the bad and the good and the rain falls on all of us. To be perfect, to be children of God, seems an impossible task. But Jesus tells us exactly what to do to accomplish just that: love our enemies and pray for our persecutors.

God, help me place my trust in you when I perceive perfection to be an impossible goal. As the Church teaches, with your grace, it is possible. As the Catechism says, “The way of perfection passes by way of the Cross. There is no holiness without renunciation and spiritual battle.” Let me hear your Son’s call us to be perfect. He desires me to strive for holiness and to become more and more like him through all the works, joys, and sufferings of each day.

Thank you, Lord, for your call to holiness. Be with me today as I strive to know your will and imitate you in my words and actions.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Monday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew

Jesus said to his disciples: “You have heard that it was said, An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you, offer no resistance to one who is evil. When someone strikes you on your right cheek, turn the other one to him as well.”

In today’s Gospel, Jesus instructs his disciples in a way that might seem as equally as extreme as eye-for-eye, tooth-for-tooth mentality. Offer no resistance to one who is evil, he tells them. Turn your left cheek to someone who strikes your right one. Three times in this short passage Jesus tells his disciples to give to someone who wants to take: turn your cheek, hand him your cloak, go with him for two miles. “Give to the one who asks of you,” Jesus says, “and do not turn your back on one who wants to borrow.” The trust that Jesus demonstrates in the Father is evident in these words: to give is to trust in the providence of the Father.

God, help me understand what it means to offer no resistance to one who is evil. I can’t pretend to know what that moment might look like, but I know it is far from curling up in a ball, defenseless. If I am attentive to your will, I am open to receiving every good gift from you that is not mine to hold on to. I have the power to conduct your love as gift to others in a way that gives you greater glory. Jesus said to the disciples, “Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give.”

Lord, help me trust you; give me the grace to give today to the one who asks of me.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew

At the sight of the crowds, Jesus’ heart was moved with pity for them because they were troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus sees the crowds and has compassion for them because they are troubled and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. He says to his disciples, “The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest.” Jesus then sends out his twelve disciples, giving them authority to heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, and drive out demons.

God, the sending out of the disciples reminds me of the divine authority your Son gave the them—power to cure illnesses, rebuke evil spirits, and even power over death itself. How can I possibly measure up to the Twelve? Yet, if I look at the encounters I experience in daily life with those closest to me, I have opportunities similar to those of his disciples. Within my family and among those I meet, I have the choice to cultivate illness or well being; I have the means of evoking evil or rebuking it; and I have the power to give life or take it away—all with the words that I allow to pass between my lips. God, help me have the same compassion Jesus had for the troubled and abandoned. Give me the grace to know how to be attentive to your word and bring them to you.

Lord, help me recognize today how to show compassion and be a good shepherd according to your will. Stay with me today as I strive to hear your voice.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Memorial of the Immaculate Heart of Mary

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke

When Jesus’ parents saw him, they were astonished, and his mother said to him, “Son, why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been looking for you with great anxiety.” And he said to them, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” But they did not understand what he said to them.

The readings from today’s Memorial of the Immaculate Heart of Mary point to reconciliation with God, his kindness and mercy, and the unity of Jesus with his parents and with God the Father. In the Gospel, Mary and Joseph go with Jesus to Jerusalem for the feast of the Passover. Drawn to the temple, his Father’s house, Jesus stays behind after the festival is over. Not finding him in the caravan, they return to Jerusalem and three days later find Jesus in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking questions. Luke tells us that Jesus returned with his parents, obedient to them, and his mother kept all these things in her heart.

God, what great anxiety Mary and Joseph must have felt in losing Jesus. After their return home to Nazareth, Mary must have grown deeper in her faith as she pondered the depth of her son’s understanding of you, his Father. Knowing who Jesus was and how he would accomplish your will, what is natural is that he would desire to be with you in the temple. Yet, on losing their young son, Mary and Joseph doubtless must have looked back on his infancy and childhood, wishing to draw him close to them at home in Nazareth. Give me the grace, God, to seek your Son; help me have the same love for your Son as Mary and Joseph did, reconciled to you through him, and anxious always to make a place for him in my home.

From the Gospel acclamation: “Blessed is the Virgin Mary who kept the word of God and pondered it in her heart.” Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us!

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew

At that time Jesus exclaimed: “I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to little ones. . . . Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.”

Today’s Gospel describes obedience to Christ as gentle mastery. God the Father reveals himself not to the wise and the learned, the scribes and the Pharisees, but to the childlike in faith. The rest Jesus offers to those who labor and are burdened does not take away work but offers respite from arrogance and self-reliance. “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me,” Jesus says, “for I am meek and humble of heart.”

God, help me see today when overreliance on myself and my aims drives me away from you. Break through to me when self-reliance inhibits my ability to hear and obey your will. Jesus says, “No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.” Help me be open to knowing you through the revelation of your Son.

“God is love,” says Saint John, “and whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him.” Lord, give me the grace today to remain in you.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Thursday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew

Jesus said to his disciples: “But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment. . . . Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar, and there recall that your brother has anything against you, leave your gift there at the altar, go first and be reconciled with your brother, and then come and offer your gift.”

As he addresses the disciples, Jesus tells them that in order to enter the Kingdom of heaven, their righteousness is to surpass that of the scribes and the Pharisees. Jesus refers to the Old Covenant when he tells them, “You shall not kill” and that the result of that is judgment. In telling the disciples to reconcile with their brother before bringing a gift to the altar, he calls them away from the self-imprisonment of unforgiveness to a higher standard of repentance and forgiveness, which comes first from God the Father through Christ.

God, help me understand the prison I make for myself of unforgiveness and failure to reconcile with my brother. You are the just judge, Lord, who knows my heart. You know that my failure to forgive comes from holding on to anger and that reconciliation is a conversion of heart, a freely chosen return to you. Once reconciled, God, give me the grace to know the joy of seeing you in that action. As Saint Paul says in the first reading, “All of us, gazing with unveiled face on the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, as from the Lord who is the Spirit.”

From the Gospel acclamation: “I give you a new commandment: love one another as I have loved you.”

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2W-KSOPWWBY

Wednesday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew

Jesus said to his disciples: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter will pass from the law, until all things have taken place.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus makes clear to the disciples what Saint Paul describes in the first reading; namely, the Old Covenant with Israel is fulfilled in God’s New Covenant for all who come to Christ in faith. God made the Old Covenant with his people so that the New Covenant could bring him greater glory. As Paul says, “For if what was going to fade was glorious, how much more will what endures be glorious.” The breadth and majesty of God’s kingdom incorporates the glory of the old with the glory of the new until heaven and earth pass away and all things have taken place.

God, help me understand the sweeping breadth of your being—manifest in the Old Covenant and fulfilled through your Son in the New. Jesus says, “I have not come to abolish but to fulfill.” Nothing is lost in these covenants, and whoever is obedient to them and teaches them, as Jesus says, “will be called greatest in the Kingdom of heaven.” Help me be obedient to the truth of your glory.

From the Gospel acclamation, “Teach me your paths, my God, and guide me in your truth.”

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity (Sunday, June 4)

A reading from the holy Gospel according to John

God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.

These words from the Gospel according to John are well known, and often appear in public venues on large posters. Its message is central: God sent his Son not to punish and condemn but to save the world. “Whoever believes in him will not be condemned,” John says, “but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.” Faith in him is essential: it is not simply a matter of trusting in God and living our lives according to his will but also a matter of being obedient to his Church on earth.

God, help me understand the role of faith in my life and in that of all Christians. The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines faith as “the assent of the mind to the truth revealed by God.” It goes on to say that faith is “a gift of God, a supernatural virtue infused by God into our souls.” I want to live in the light of your love. I believe, help my unbelief. Most Holy Trinity, strengthen my faith and teach me obedience to the will of the Father.

From the responsorial psalm: “Blessed are you in the temple of your holy glory, praiseworthy and glorious above all forever.”

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.