Tag: evangelio del dia

Tuesday of the Thirty-third Week in Ordinary Time

And Jesus said to [Zacchaeus], “Today salvation has come to this house because this man too is a descendant of Abraham. For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save what was lost.”

The Gospel reading from today, which we heard recently during the Sunday Mass, tells the story of Jesus’ encounter with the wealthy chief tax collector Zacchaeus. As Jesus announces to Zacchaeus that today he will stay at his house, some people in the crowd surrounding Jesus grumble about him spending time in the house of a sinner. But after coming down to receive Jesus with joy, the passage says that “Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, ‘Behold, half of my possessions, Lord, I shall give to the poor, and if I have extorted anything from anyone I shall repay it four times over.’” How does this resonate with my own life? Have there been times when I see someone rejoicing in their relationship with the Lord, yet I respond with harsh judgment?

God, help me understand this Gospel reading in respect to my own life. The first reading says what might be said of Zacchaeus or anyone of relative wealth and social status: “For you say, ‘I am rich and affluent and have no need of anything,’ and yet do not realize that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.” Even as Zacchaeus heard the grumbling of the people, he was overjoyed at standing before Jesus face to face. What Jesus says to Zacchaeus as he repents in person in the past, Jesus says to all of us who repent and return to him: “Today salvation has come to this house. . . . For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save what was lost.” Thank you, Lord, for the Eucharist, which brings your Son (body and blood, soul and divinity) to us today and every day in the Masses celebrated throughout the world.

I am yours, God; help me remain in you today and every day. I can proclaim this with boldness only because I depend on your grace to remain in your word. Come today, Lord, to stay at my house when I hear your voice. You say, “If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, then I will enter his house and dine with him, and he with 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.

Readings

Monday of the Thirty-third Week in Ordinary Time

“Lord, please let me see.” Jesus told him, “Have sight; your faith has saved you.” He immediately received his sight and followed him, giving glory to God. When they saw this, all the people gave praise to God.

A blind man called out to Jesus as he passed by on his way to Jericho. Despite people trying to quiet him, the man called out all the more, “Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me!” When the man was brought to Jesus, he said, “What do you want me to do for you?” As soon as the man asked to see, Jesus spoke, giving him sight. After he received sight, the man followed Jesus, giving glory to God; the people who witnessed this gave praise to God.

It seems almost a given that the man’s physical blindness is symbolic of human spiritual blindness. Yet he was truly physically blind, and Jesus met him where he was, asking, “What do you want me to do for you?” Help me understand, Lord, that I can ask you through prayer to heal me of physical and spiritual illnesses. The blind man had perfect faith in Jesus, and after Jesus healed him, his response was perfect: to follow Jesus and give glory to God.

God, thank you for the gift of your Son, present every minute of every day in the Eucharist and in the Blessed Sacrament. Jesus, in your real presence, give me the grace today to know that I can come to you at any time, asking for your mercy and for eyes of faith that see beyond the mere physical world. Let me know, God, that in the person of Jesus, I have the means to obtain the beatific vision, the hope to see you face to face in heaven.

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.

Readings

Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time

Jesus said, “Remember, you are not to prepare your defense beforehand, for I myself shall give you a wisdom in speaking that all your adversaries will be powerless to resist or refute. . . . You will be hated by all because of my name, but not a hair on your head will be destroyed. By your perseverance you will secure your lives.”

In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus speaks about the end times, when nation will rise against nation and catastrophic natural events will occur. Also to come, Jesus says, are “awesome sights and mighty signs [that] will come from the sky.” Before that, though, many will come in God’s name saying “I am he” and “The time has come.” Jesus warns us not to follow them; that is not of God or from God. What is instead, is the name above all names, the one who will give us irrefutable wisdom and security through our perseverance in the faith.

God, help me understand a simple truth that I am aware of but often don’t acknowledge: things fall apart. Whether out of fear or my focus on the present, I don’t often dwell on the end times; that is, my own death and the time of redemption, the Second Coming of Christ. How much less I have to fear when I consider that Jesus refers to the resurrection—my resurrection because of his—that not a hair of my head will be destroyed. Yet, the temple in Jerusalem and all the greatest architectural and sacred treasures of the world will someday fall to dust. Lord, you invite each of us through perseverance in faith to risen life, to a new creation that will endure forever. As C. S. Lewis said: “Nations, cultures, arts, civilization—these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit—immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.”

Mary, Mother of God, today I will bring my fears, prayers of thanksgiving, and intentions to you in praying the rosary. I know you welcome me always so that you can show me the way to your son. Thank you, God, for your great goodness! Glory to you! Bless me with your presence, and help me persevere.

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.

Readings

Memorial of Saint Josaphat, Bishop and Martyr

The Lord said, “Pay attention to what the dishonest judge says.  Will not God then secure the rights of his chosen ones who call out to him day and night? Will he be slow to answer them? I tell you, he will see to it that justice is done for them speedily. But when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

Jesus says in today’s Gospel reading that for those who call out to him day and night, God renders justice speedily. By saying this, Jesus draws a direct connection between constant prayer and speedy justice. In my experience, I know that God hears my prayers, but I wait a long time to see a response to them or any kind of justice as a result of my prayers. What is apparently contradictory, is not contradictory at all. God works in his own time and in his own way, and what seems like an eternity to me is to God like a flash of lightning. God’s time is not my own. I know it must be that his will is accomplished even as I pray but am unable to see results.

God, help me understand and be at peace with how you accomplish justice on earth; that is, how your will is carried out in my life and the world around me. Figuring out your timetable is futile and irrelevant, but learning to trust you and believe that you hear me and act in my life is absolutely vital. “But when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

God, you sent your Son to every one of us out of love and mercy, and he will come again in glory. These invisible realities I hold in faith; strengthen me through your grace to accept them as truth. Thank you for your goodness, Lord, and let me remember to return to you throughout the day in my prayers, words, and actions. You are my Father in heaven, and I want you to be well pleased with 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.

Readings

Memorial of Saint Martin of Tours, Bishop

Jesus said to his disciples: “Remember the wife of Lot. Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses it will save it.”

In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus tells his disciples the story of Noah, how during his time people were going about their customary ways of eating, drinking, and marrying when the floods came and destroyed them all. “Similarly,” Jesus says, in the days of Lot, “they were eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting, building; on the day when Lot left Sodom, fire and brimstone rained from the sky to destroy them all. So it will be on the day the Son of Man is revealed.” Although the angels told Lot and his wife not to look back, Lot’s wife did look back and turned into a pillar of salt. “Remember the wife of Lot,” Jesus says. How clearly does the meaning of this ring out in the words of Jesus? “Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses it will save it”? Do I move forward in my faith, or do I look back on the desolate ruins of my past?

God, help me understand today’s Scripture readings. What do I gain by trying to grasp what instead I should let go of? My hope is to let go of what I should lose so that I can gain what endures by striving to hear and do God’s will. As Saint John says in the first reading: “Look to yourselves that you do not lose what we worked for but may receive a full recompense. Anyone who is so ‘progressive’ as not to remain in the teaching of the Christ does not have God; whoever remains in the teaching has the Father and the Son.” Today, we remember Saint Martin of Tours, a fourth-century priest and bishop, who was known for saying near the time of his death: “Lord, if your people still need me, I do not refuse the work. Your will be done.”

Today, God, let your spirit work in me. I am eager to face the strife of the day when I can put to the test the words of Jesus: “Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses it will save it.” Through your grace may I have the courage when my faith is tested to lose my life for the sake of gaining Christ. Thank you, God, for your great goodness!

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.

Readings

Memorial of Saint Leo the Great, Pope and Doctor of the Church

“The coming of the Kingdom of God cannot be observed, and no one will announce, ‘Look, here it is,’ or, ‘There it is.’ For behold, the Kingdom of God is among you.”

Jesus speaks about the Kingdom of God in today’s Gospel reading in a mysterious way that seems almost self-contradictory. The Kingdom of God, Jesus says, cannot be observed yet at the same time is among us. The Greek word entos, from which midst is translated (also translated as among) means “within” or “inside.” Within each of us is a dwelling place for the Holy Spirit, the Kingdom of God within us. Later in the Gospel passage, Jesus says that the appearance of the Kingdom of God (the Son of Man) will leave no doubt about its presence among us: “For just as lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other, so will the Son of Man be in his day.” That said, the Kingdom of God is both within (invisible) and external (visible in the sky) when Christ comes again.

God, help me understand the mystery of your kingdom. How will I see it today, whether looking within or looking outside of myself for its manifestation in others and in opportunities you present to me? Through your grace let me live in the light of Christ today. In the words of Saint Leo the Great: “Recall how you had been wrested from the power of darkness and brought into the kingdom of God. Through the sacrament of baptism you were made a temple of the Holy Spirit.”

Thank you, Lord, for your gift of the Holy Spirit, present in the sacraments. Help me order my day with the gift of discernment so that I can please you in all I do and say as a child of your kingdom. Be with me, 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.

Readings

Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome

Jesus answered and said to them, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews said, “This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and you will raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking about the temple of his Body. Therefore, when he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they came to believe the scripture and the word Jesus had spoken.”

Today the Church celebrates the Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome. The cathedral church of Rome, known as the mother church, was dedicated by Pope Sylvester in 324. The church was dedicated after Emperor Constantine’s Edit of Milan, which gave religious freedom to Christians. In the Gospel reading, Jesus makes clear through his words and actions that the temple is a sacred place, not to be desecrated by being made into a marketplace. But Jesus’ zeal is not for physical buildings but for the temple of his Body, the foundation on which Jesus builds the Church. As Saint Paul says in the second reading, “Do you not know that you are the temple of God” and that “the temple of God, which you are, is holy.”

Help me understand, Lord, the sanctity of my body through the Spirit of God who dwells in me, which is constantly nourished by the sacraments. I am your building, built by you. Let me accept this body and spirit as your pure gift allowing me to live a life that will bring me to you, forever praising your name in the company of saints and angels.

Spirit of God, dwell in me today to make me holy. I know you love me with perpetual care; I know also that I will look away from you today. Keep me in your care, Lord, and let me see you in the people and opportunities you set before me today. Thank you, God, for your goodness!

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.

Readings

Tuesday of the Thirty-second Week in Ordinary Time

Jesus said to the Apostles, “When you have done all you have been commanded, say, ‘We are unprofitable servants; we have done what we were obliged to do.’ ”

In the the first reading from Paul taken together with today’s Gospel reading, the Scriptures provide a guidance on how to live and what attitude to take toward life. Do all you can, Jesus suggests, and think little of what you were obliged to do. Addressing men and women, Paul says, “For the grace of God has appeared, saving all and training us to reject godless ways and worldly desires and to live temperately, justly, and devoutly in this age, as we await the blessed hope, the appearance of the glory of the great God and of our savior Jesus Christ.” Still, to hear the words of Jesus—that we are unprofitable servants—seems harsh and hard to accept. What more is there that Jesus says to me in these words?

God, help me understand that everything I have in this life—my all—is yours. Acknowledging that, my only recourse is to give back to you what is yours for your glory. Any other way to live is an exercise in self-glorification and a lie. Even as I consider this, I test it to see if it is true. Help me, Lord, to learn truth from you, doing what I am obliged to do by acting on your Divine Will. The words of Saint Paul give sound guidance in carrying this out as we await the blessed hope: “be temperate, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, love, and endurance.”

Come to me, Lord, and stay with me every minute of this day. Since I am certain to forget that you are with me, rouse me through the breath of the Holy Spirit to take heart. Give me the grace and quiet consolation to know you are near and the ears to hear your still small voice. I know that you delight in me; let my delight be to please you and be, as Paul says, “a model of good deeds in every respect.” Thank you, Lord, for all the gifts you give me every day.

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.

Readings

Monday of the Thirty-second Week in Ordinary Time

“Things that cause sin will inevitably occur, but woe to the one through whom they occur. It would be better for him if a millstone were put around his neck and he be thrown into the sea than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin.”

What catches my attention immediately from today’s Gospel reading is Jesus’ acknowledgment of the inevitability that things lead to sin. As people in constant need of God’s forgiveness, I feel relieved that Jesus recognizes the inevitability of fallen human nature. In the Sacrament of Reconciliation, the slate is wiped clean through contrition and the forgiveness of the priest, who absolves sins in persona Christi. To those who cause others to sin, however, Jesus says, “It would be better for him if a millstone were put around his neck and he be thrown into the sea than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin.” Hearing and believing that, I want to put myself in check whenever an opportunity comes to cause others to sin. Jesus then tells the Apostles to forgive those who hurt you—over and over forgive them. Just as in the Our Father, forgiveness from God comes with a spirit that cooperates with his will in forgiving others. “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”

Lord, you say to me, “Things that cause sin will inevitably occur.” Let me consider further these words in relation to the Our Father. “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” The word us prompts us to consider that this prayer embraces others—our family, the community, and larger spheres of interaction. Keep me, Lord, from causing others to sin, and let me pray that you deliver them from the same. For this, Lord, the Apostles said to you, “Increase our faith.”

God, you take the little faith I have and assure me that astounding things can happen. Today, when I am troubled at the tasks I face, help me remember that you call me back to sit still and rest in you and forgive those who wrong me. Through your grace and my humility to receive it, keep me from being a people pleaser for the sake of pride. Instead, work in me today to accomplish all that is fully pleasing to 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.

Readings

Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time

“The children of this age marry and remarry; but those who are deemed worthy to attain to the coming age and to the resurrection of the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. They can no longer die, for they are like angels; and they are the children of God because they are the ones who will rise.”

The words of Jesus from this Sunday’s Gospel reading are difficult to hear for couples who have been blessed throughout life with a sacramental marriage. Jesus himself says there will be no marriage or marrying in heaven. He also says we will be like angels, the children of God, and the ones who will rise. He says this in response to a challenging question from the Sadducees, who did not believe in the resurrection. For the sake of disproving the resurrection of the dead, they tried to trap Jesus with a question about which of the seven husbands a woman will be married to in heaven.

God, help me understand that the Sadducees were playing a game with Jesus that drew attention away from the truth: namely, the ones who are deemed worthy through the way they live their life will attain everlasting life in heaven as your children. Jesus speaks of the coming age and the resurrection of the dead. I am not certain, but I take that to mean the coming age as life after death and the resurrection as fulfillment of the Second Coming of Christ. In the second reading, Saint Paul says that the Lord Jesus Christ and God our Father encourage our hearts and strengthen them in every good deed and word. “That the dead will rise,” says Jesus, “even Moses made known . . . and [God] is not God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.”

God our Father and Lord Jesus Christ, thank you for the ultimate gift of hope, the hope of the resurrection. God of all that is seen and unseen, you sent your Son to live among a people shrouded in death to be the first to rise to new life. Let that hope and realization sink deep into my soul so that in the coming age and in the resurrection, I may see your face, the living God.

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

Readings