Tag: lectio divina

Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church

A reading from the holy Gospel according to John

Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary of Magdala. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple there whom he loved, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son.” Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother.” And from that hour the disciple took her into his home.

In today’s Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church, the Gospel according to John recounts that Mary is present before the cross. When Jesus says to her, “Woman, behold your son” and to John, “Behold, your mother,” Jesus gives to Mary a new mission that extends not only to the disciples but to all humanity. Mary becomes mother to all of us; in taking her into our home, we bring with her God’s gift of divine grace. As Saint John Paul II said of this moment: “The reality brought about by Jesus’ words, that is, Mary’s new motherhood in relation to the disciple, is a further sign of the great love that led Jesus to offer his life for all people. On Calvary this love is shown in the gift of a mother, his mother, who thus becomes our mother too.”

God, help me understand how you break into human history with these words of Jesus from the cross. What your Son speaks is not a mere reflection of reality but forms reality as he speaks. The mother of Jesus is my mother; taking Mary into my home, I profess my discipleship with Christ your Son and the work of his redemption. Give me the grace, God, to be a son to Mary and to welcome her into my home. When the soldiers thrust a lance into the side of Jesus, Blood and water flowed out. Help me remember always to give thanks that through Baptism I died and rose with Christ and that in the Eucharist I receive his Body and Blood.

Thank you, Lord, for the gift of mercy from the cross. Thank you for the invitation to take Mary into our home, to allow us to become her children, and for her constant intercession. Mary, Mother of God, Mother of the Church, our Mother, 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.

Pentecost Sunday

A reading from the holy Gospel according to John

On the evening of that first day of the week, when the doors were locked, where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, 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. The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.

After his resurrection and before his ascension, Jesus appears to the disciples behind locked doors, where they are hiding in fear. His first word to them is “Peace.” Showing them his hands and his side, the hands that had been nailed to the cross and the side that had been pierced with a lance, the disciples rejoiced in this because they realized that this was not a ghost and that Jesus is who he said he was: the Son of God. Jesus sends out the disciples just as the Father had sent him, and he delivers on his promise: the Advocate comes upon them with the the breath of God. “Receive the Holy Spirit,” Jesus says, “Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.” Jesus’ prayer for his disciples and for all who believe in him is answered.

God, help me understand the vital role of the Holy Spirit in my relationship with you. When I think of Jesus’ departure and the coming of the Advocate, I want to set straight in my heart what this means. My first thought is that of sadness, that Jesus is leaving the face of the earth and that his physical absence is a loss. But a greater reality unfolds at this moment. When the Holy Spirit comes, when Jesus breathes on the disciples, he dwells among his people in a new way for all time. It is as the responsorial psalm describes: “If you take away their breath, they perish and return to their dust. When you send forth your spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the earth.”

Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love.

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.

Saturday of the Seventh Week of Easter

A reading from the holy Gospel according to John

Peter turned and saw the disciple following whom Jesus loved, the one who had also reclined upon his chest during the supper and had said, “Master, who is the one who will betray you?” When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, “Lord, what about him?” Jesus said to him, “What if I want him to remain until I come? What concern is it of yours? You follow me.” So the word spread among the brothers that that disciple would not die.

Peter questions Jesus about John and what is in store for himself in the near future. He questions Jesus’ will for them. Jesus’ response is simply “You follow me.” Because God loves each person as a separate, unrepeatable human being, he asks us to follow him in a unique way—apart from the path even of those closest to us. By saying this to Peter, Jesus corrects his path, guiding him away from the distractions of speculating about the future and on Jesus’ relationship with the other disciples. Am I on task with God’s will, or am I looking distractedly at others and at other things?

God, help me understand and be confident about the particular path you have given me to follow. As Saint Thomas Aquinas says, the substitutes for you that the world offers are honor, power, pleasure, and wealth. These are in themselves a sufficient obstacle to you in everyday life. Add to that busying myself with the relative merits of others and the graces they receive, and I am sure to miss hearing the words you say to Peter that you also say to me: “What concern is it of yours? You follow me.”

From the Gospel acclamation: “I will send to you the Spirit of truth, says the Lord; he will guide you to all 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.

Friday of the Seventh Week of Easter

A reading from the holy Gospel according to John

Jesus said to Simon Peter: “Amen, amen, I say to you, when you were younger, you used to dress yourself and go where you wanted; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” He said this signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God. And when he had said this, he said to him, “Follow me.”

Today’s Gospel from John tells the story of Peter’s encounter with Jesus after his resurrection, where he appears to Peter and the disciples at the Sea of Tiberias. Jesus asks Peter three times, “Do you love me?” For Peter’s threefold denial before Jesus’ death, Jesus now gives Peter a threefold invitation to love and serve him. The consequence of Peter’s commitment, his yes to following the Lord, will mean his life is no longer his own. And the “someone else” who dressed and led Peter is the same Christ, who desires the same for me as he did for Peter: that I love the Lord with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength and that I love my neighbor as myself.

God, help me understand that to follow you means abandoning my own will for yours. Help me joyfully surrender every gift you have given me as a means to give you glory. Peter became distressed when Jesus asked him a third time “Do you love me?” Countless times from that moment on Peter must have heard that question in his heart. Lord, you know I love you; you know also that because of sin, I will fail you, myself, and others in giving you due glory. Help me listen out for you throughout the day and receive your grace so that I can hear your voice and follow you.

Lord, stay with me today. When inevitable conflicts come, help me remember to ask for your guidance and to know and do your will. Saint Philip Neri, 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.

Thursday of the Seventh Week of Easter

A reading from the holy Gospel according to John

Lifting up his eyes to heaven, Jesus prayed saying: “I pray not only for these, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, so that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me. And I have given them the glory you gave me, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may be brought to perfection as one, that the world may know that you sent me, and that you loved them even as you loved me.”

In today’s Gospel, Jesus prays that the disciples may know the unity between him and the Father and that they may believe that God sent him. As they go out into the world to spread the Gospel, Jesus’ prayer expresses the desire for unity among the disciples and among those who hear the word from them. By being brought to perfection in the glory Jesus has given them, his followers come to know God and the eternal life Jesus offers them through his death and resurrection. “Father, they are your gift to me,” Jesus prays. That gift taken from the Father becomes Jesus’ self-gift of dying on the cross to bring all to eternal life with the Father.

Father in heaven, through the unity of your love, you give to your Son all who have lived in the world and those who will be born into the world. In giving this gift, he gives you glory through his perfect gift of self to the world in his sacrificial death and in his resurrection. Nobody is left out in the prayer that your Son offers for the whole world. For this, Jesus prays “that they may be brought to perfection as one, that the world may know that you sent me, and that you loved them even as you loved me.” God, help me understand my role in proclaiming this. What Saint Paul says in the first reading, I can say of my life and how I live out my faith: “I am on trial for hope in the resurrection of the dead.”

Thank you, God, for making of me and of the whole world a gift to your Son. Keep me always in his care and guide me in this world on the path to eternal life.

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.

Wednesday of the Seventh Week of Easter

A reading from the holy Gospel according to John

Lifting up his eyes to heaven, Jesus prayed, saying: “I gave them your word, and the world hated them, because they do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world but that you keep them from the Evil One. They do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world. Consecrate them in the truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I sent them into the world. And I consecrate myself for them, so that they also may be consecrated in truth.”

Jesus prays for his disciples so that they may be one just as he is one with the Father. To be one with the Father is to be consecrated in his truth. Jesus’ prayer is that the disciples be sent out into the world just as he was sent out, consecrated in the truth. In the first reading, Paul echoes Jesus’ prayer for protection. He says as he speaks to the presbyters of the Church of Ephesus: “I know that after my departure savage wolves will come among you, and they will not spare the flock. And from your own group, men will come forward perverting the truth to draw the disciples away after them.” He urges them to be vigilant and departs from them saying, “And now I commend you to God.”

Lord, help me see and live in the truth today so that I can be consecrated in you, truth itself. Help me look toward eternal life, and the means to it: to know you, the only true God. I am easily led away from you throughout the day, and the result is that I accept confused and distorted views in place of your clarity and truth. The psalmist in today’s responsorial says, “Confess the power of God!” Give me the grace today to remain in your truth.

From the Gospel acclamation: “Your word, O Lord, is truth; consecrate us in the 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.

Tuesday of the Seventh Week of Easter

A reading from the holy Gospel according to John

Jesus raised his eyes to heaven and said, “I revealed your name to those whom you gave me out of the world. They belonged to you, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything you gave me is from you, because the words you gave to me I have given to them, and they accepted them and truly understood that I came from you, and they have believed that you sent me. I pray for them.”

Aware that his time on earth is coming to an end, Jesus prays to his Father in heaven. He asks that the Father would glorify him and protect his disciples. Jesus also prays that the disciples would be one, just as he and the Father are one. In the same way Jesus begins the Lord’s Prayer with “Our Father,” the relationship that Jesus has with him is one that he invites others into—a relationship of protection, unity, and love.

God, help me understand that the prayer of Jesus is not something relegated to the past but is active and vital in the world today. Jesus says, “I pray for them.” At the right hand of the Father and daily in the celebration of Mass, he intercedes unendingly for the whole world. Help me recognize and receive the graces that pour forth from him through the Advocate and in the Eucharist and sacraments of his Church. As Saint John Paul II said of the Eucharist: “Could there ever be an adequate means of expressing the acceptance of that self-gift which the divine Bridegroom continually makes to his Bride, the Church, by bringing the Sacrifice offered once and for all on the Cross to successive generations of believers and thus becoming nourishment for all the faithful?”

Lord, open my eyes today the beauty of the Son, who is always faithful to your will. Hear his prayer and guide me to you as I strive to follow him.

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 Seventh Week of Easter

A reading from the holy Gospel according to John

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. I have told you this so that you might have peace in me. In the world you will have trouble, but take courage, I have conquered the world.”

Jesus speaks to the disciples about their belief in him. Although they say that they realize that Jesus knows everything and that he comes from the Father, Jesus questions their faith. The unity between the Father and the Son is not evident in his description of the disciples being scattered in fear to their own home. In their heads, they believe in Jesus’ divinity, but because of the division that fear will stir up in them, their conviction will mean, as Jesus says, “You will leave me alone.” During Pentecost, the disciples will receive the Holy Spirit and respond to God’s stirring up in them in a way that is described in the Acts of the Apostles: “When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied.” To share in the unity of the Father and the Son, how can I make myself always receptive to the work of the Holy Spirit?

God, help me understand that the love you and Jesus share you desire me to share in as well. There is no limit to your generosity; just as Jesus is not alone because you are with him, he wishes the same for me, offering peace and strength. As Jesus said to the disciples, “I have told you this so that you might have peace in me. In the world you will have trouble, but take courage, I have conquered the world.” But the limits of my perception see only a small part of your love and filter its purity, much like a prism breaks up pure sunlight into many splinters of light. Give me the grace, Lord, through the aid of the Holy Spirit, to take to heart the purity of your love.

Father in heaven, give me what I need today to know and do your will. Help me rest in the confidence that you are with me through the work of the Holy Spirit.

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

Seventh Sunday of Easter: Ascension

A reading from the holy Gospel according to John

Jesus raised his eyes to heaven and said, “Father, the hour has come. Give glory to your son, so that your son may glorify you, just as you gave him authority over all people, so that your son may give eternal life to all you gave him. Now this is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ.”

Jesus prays directly to the Father for his disciples. He prays that God may give glory to him so that in turn he can glorify the Father. He asks this of his Father so that he may give eternal life to the disciples and to all who believe in him. To give eternal life is what Jesus prays for as he intercedes for us even now, in heaven and in body, blood, soul, and divinity in the Eucharist. And what is eternal life as Jesus states in his prayer: “Now this is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ.” The unity that Jesus has with the Father he prays that those who follow him may also have. Eternal life is this: knowing the one true God and the love between the Father and the Son.

God, part of your Son’s prayer is to glorify you as he asks you to glorify him. To give you glory does not always result in comfort, but any suffering we experience can be made into means of glorifying you. As Saint Paul says in the second reading, “But whoever is made to suffer as a Christian should not be ashamed but glorify God because of the name.” Give me the grace, God, to understand that to glorify you is to know you and your Son. To live in that love is to believe in eternal life, to perceive it dimly in this life but to experience it fully in the life to come. Jesus, who sits at your right hand desires this for the disciples and for all who believe in him. With these four words, he leaves no room for doubt about his love and constant intercession: “I pray for them.”

From the responsorial psalm, help me recall throughout the day: “I will not leave you orphans, says the Lord. I will come back to you, and your hearts will rejoice.”

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.

Saturday of the Sixth Week of Easter

A reading from the holy Gospel according to John

Jesus said to the disciples: “I have told you this in figures of speech. The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures but I will tell you clearly about the Father. 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 speaks to the disciples in ways that at the time must have seemed unclear and mysterious. Having spoken to them about his relationship to the Father through parables and figures of speech, he tells them that this will no longer be. Instead, he will tell them clearly. As the incarnate Word, Jesus is God in the flesh among them, who speaks truth into existence and is love itself. To help the disciples understand, Jesus says he will return to the Father to send the Advocate, who will teach them all things. “Whatever you ask the Father in my name he will give you,” Jesus tells the disciples. The Father who loves them is the same Father who loves us and hears whatever we ask in Jesus’ name.

God, help me understand today’s Gospel. What is obscure, Jesus wants to make clear; what is spoken in figures of speech, he wants to make manifest. In returning to you, Jesus sends the Advocate to bring to the heart a living understanding of the relationship of the Son to the Father. Give me the grace, Lord, to receive the Advocate. Grant me clarity of mind to recognize that I am an adopted son brought into this same love that you make accessible every moment of the day and in the life to come in the eternal light of your face.

Be by my side today, Lord. Help me call to mind that I can ask anything in your name. As Jesus said to the disciples, so he says to me so that I remain in him: “Until now you have not asked anything in my name; ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete.”

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