Tag: lectio divina

Tuesday of Fifth Week of Easter: Reflection

“And now I have told you this before it happens, so that when it happens you may believe. I will no longer speak much with you, for the ruler of the world is coming. He has no power over me, but the world must know that I love the Father and that I do just as the Father has commanded me.”

Jesus shows the depth of his love for the disciples by taking great care in affirming their faith in what they are about to witness and in modeling for them obedience to the Father. There is also in this Gospel passage Jesus’ reassurance “I am going away and I will come back to you”—words that not only console but are true. Jesus not only speaks of peace; he is living peace.

God, thank you for this beautiful Easter season, when the resurrection of your Son and the words he spoke before his Passion glorify you and draw us to you! It is not enough, Lord, to understand how the disciples received Jesus’ words and followed the life he modeled; it is for me to grasp that he says to me, “I am going away and I will come back,” and it is I who must know that Jesus loves the Father and does as he commanded him.

So often I know that I can rest in God’s presence throughout the day, that God takes delight in me, as a good father does his child. Yet, I find it hard to let go of the drive toward efficiency and accomplishing as much as possible with the time given. Can I make the effort today to break away from that a couple of times and quiet down to reconnect with God? “I am going away and I will come back to you.”

This day will bring its moments when I am troubled or afraid or anxious. Let me remember to ask Jesus to accompany me today not as a sign or symbol of peace but through him, with him, and in him, the peace of the risen Christ in his love for the Father.

USCCB Readings

Monday of the Fifth Week of Easter

“Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him.”

Jesus says these words as he teaches his disciples about the coming of the Advocate, the Holy Spirit. If I recognize the Holy Spirit as the love between the Father and the Son, it is easier to see that that same love can come to dwell in me. This is true, as Jesus says, for “whoever has my commandments and observes them.” In this short Gospel reading of 155 words, Jesus uses the word love seven times in the sense of both loving the Father and the Son and being loved by the Father and the Son.

God, help me understand that you call me to love you and love the Father by doing your will; in turn, you send the Advocate to teach and remind me of all that your Son said and did. Realizing this in myself is a way, as the Psalm says, to give glory not to myself but to your name.

The workday has a way of occupying a huge amount of mental space. God, I know you want me to give my anxieties and cares to you as a little child does who comes to his mother and father when hurt or troubled. Thank you for the gift of family and the many opportunities I will have today to do your will and share the joy of having the Advocate teaching me.

Today I will remember the particular love that Jesus reveals for each of those who observe his commandments. Jesus invites me into that same love through his life, death, and resurrection, and also in his Father sending the Advocate in his Son’s name. Let me recall that in keeping the word of Jesus, I make a place for him to dwell within me so that I can then go out and give glory to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

USCCB Readings

Fifth Sunday of Easter: Reflections

“My children, I will be with you only a little while longer. I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another. This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Jesus spoke these words at the Last Supper between Judas’s betrayal at the table and Jesus’ prediction of Peter’s denial. From that position, he gives his disciples the new commandment, the way they will be recognized as his disciples: “love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another.” Through Judas’s betrayal and the Passion that will follow, Jesus’ love of the Father and obedience to his will is accomplished. Through it, Jesus gives glory to the Father and God will glorify Jesus as the Son of Man.

God, please help me understand the depth and breadth of how your Son is glorified. Just as he glorified you through the Passion and resurrection, revealing to others his divine identity, so you ask me to reveal my identity as a disciple by loving one another. Jesus’ obedience to his Father is a model for me also to love and follow him and avoid the alternative paths of betrayal and denial. In Jesus’ fulfillment of the will of the Father, as John describes in the second reading from the Book of Revelation, “there shall be no more death or mourning, wailing or pain, for the old order has passed away.” The old order has passed away, and God has made all things new.

Father in heaven, Abba, be with me today as I receive your grace. Let me understand and appreciate the gifts you give me and return them to you to glorify you in my words and actions.

Today let me give glory to God by loving one another. That is one small way to do as Jesus did by giving glory to the Father through his obedience.

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Feast of Saint Matthias, Apostle

“You are my friends if you do what I command you. I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father.”

In friendship, when one friend withholds essential truth from the other, it enslaves the other to a false image. How can the friends really know and love each other if the basis of the relationship is founded on falsehood? Jesus calls his disciples friends because he has told them everything he heard from his Father. In Jesus’ sharing this, the disciples are free in Jesus’ authentic gift of self to them.

God, help me understand that Jesus also calls me into friendship with him—a more trusting friendship than I could possibly imagine. But time after time, I fail to take him up on the invitation; for that reason, like the disciples, it is not I who choose him but he who chooses me. Time after time after time, Jesus chooses me, like Francis Thompson’s character in the poem “The Hound of Heaven”: I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways / Of my own mind; and in the mist of tears / I hid from Him, and under running laughter. / Up vistaed hopes I sped.”

Many plans for today pull me in so many directions I feel like I will tear apart. Jesus says in today’s Gospel reading, “go and bear fruit that will remain.” I ask for God’s grace to know which ways to go today that will keep me in friendship with his Son.

Today I want to slow down and ask myself where I am going and why in such a hurry. Will I look at another and see this as an opportunity to hear the Father and remain in his love through seeing Christ in others?

USCCB Readings

Friday of the Fourth Week of Easter

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God; have faith also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If there were not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you?”

In this Gospel reading, Jesus affirms the faith of his disciples in God only to teach them later in the passage that he is the “way and the truth and the life” in response to Thomas’s question, “Master, we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?” Here, Thomas questions Jesus in a way that hints at his doubts about Jesus resurrection, after Jesus appeared to the disciples behind locked doors and Thomas upon touching Jesus’ wounds from the crucifixion, proclaimed, “My Lord and my God!”

God, thank you for sending you Son, who has a place prepared for us. Help me understand the challenges I face daily as a believing Catholic who wants to increase my faith and bring my unbelief to “the way and the truth and the life.”

God hears me, without a multiplication of words, without droning on. Let me trust that and know the peace of trusting him.

Today let me remember to be merciful as God is merciful, taking me to himself. Let me remember to forgive others as he forgives me. Let me remember to ask for the grace to know that where I am going is where Jesus also may be.

USCCB Readings

Prayer Service for National Day of Prayer

Audio Friday of the Fourth Week of Easter

Thursday of the Fourth Week of Easter: Reflection

“Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever receives the one I send receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.”

Jesus says these words after washing the disciples’ feet, so it is unmistakable that he speaks to them about discipleship and sharing the Gospel. He says, “From now on I am telling you before it happens, so that when it happens you may believe that I AM.” In the Gospel readings from the past several days, John reveals in Jesus’ words his oneness with the Father, so here he connects the disciples’ mission through him with God the Father.

God, help me understand the depth of meaning behind your “I AM.” In the first reading, Paul stands up in the synagogue and recounts salvation history from the time that God chose Israel as a people set apart, a holy nation, to the coming of Our Savior Jesus Christ. Jesus’ I AM is a truth he presents to the disciples not to lord it over them, but so that they might believe he is who he says he is.

I want to be able to accept these words of Jesus and trust that he is the Son of God. On my own, part of me holds onto unbelief. Jesus himself asks of me, “From now on I am telling you . . . so that when it happens you may believe that I AM.” With the trust of a little child, God, give me the grace to believe, and help my unbelief.

Today let me be ready when I witness God at work in the world around me. Will I be able to marvel at even the most mundane experiences or realizations and be willing to say to others, “That is the great I AM at work in the world; that is the gift of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Thanks be to God!”

USCCB Readings

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Wednesday of the Fourth Week of Easter

“Whoever rejects me and does not accept my words has something to judge him: the word that I spoke, it will condemn him on the last day, because I did not speak on my own, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and speak.”

Today’s Gospel from John begins in Jerusalem as Jesus “cried out” to the crowd. One with the Father, he tells the crowd that he came not to condemn the world but to save it. It sounds as if the crowd is off the hook, that Jesus saves with no questions asked. But then he says, “the word that I spoke, it will condemn him on the last day,” and it’s clear Jesus isn’t playing Monopoly, handing out free get out of jail cards. “Whoever believes in me believes not only in me but also in the one who sent me,” Jesus says. This is the story of Adam and Eve all over again: God gives us a choice to observe his words or reject them. Jesus, the Son of God, comes in mercy to say, “Let’s try again.”

God, help me understand that your Son’s obedience to you, following your commandment of mercy and eternal life, is a model for my words and actions. Whatever pleases you, whatever brings your light into the darkness, is a gift I am able to choose to give back to you for the life of the world; whatever is a rejection of your gift, whatever brings darkness into the world will by my choice condemn me on the last day. God, you are just, and I know the words of your Son will judge me.

My Jesus, mercy! In your mercy, I ask that you remove any obstacles that prevent me from believing in you and doing your Father’s will. Let me look back at the end of this day and know that what I have said and done, I have said and done as the Father told me.

Today I want God’s light to shine on me even as I see more in others than myself the darkness where the light needs to penetrate. Let me believe in Jesus and the Father who sent him and leave judgment to the only just judge, God the Father.

USCCB Readings

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Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Easter

“My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish. No one can take them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one can take them out of the Father’s hand. The Father and I are one.”

Jesus says these words near the Portico of Solomon during the Feast of the Dedication, during winter. A footnote in the reading says that the Portico of Solomon faces east and offered protection from the cold desert winds. So people gathered around Jesus not only because of what he had to say but because they wanted to seek basic comfort, protection from the cold.

The people surrounding Jesus don’t believe that he is the one with the Father but instead believe he is “keeping them in suspense.” This makes for a long winter of the heart for them because, as Jesus says, “I told you and you do not believe.” God, help me understand the suspense is over; you sent your Son Jesus, the Good Shepherd, to give us eternal life, and you are one with your Son.

When my plans and hopes for the day bend and break, Lord, help me step out of the winter of frustration and into your own will. How will I be able to hear and follow your voice if my own mind is a beehive of noise and activity, if I refuse to come out of the cold?

Today I want to rest in knowing that the winter is over. Jesus has come into the world and destroyed death. He himself is the Eternal Word and has the words of eternal life. God, keep me from the suspense of unbelief.

USCCB Readings

Monday of the Fourth Week of Easter

“Amen, amen, I say to you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate.”

In this Gospel passage from John, Jesus says to the Pharisees that he is the gate for the sheep. Yesterday, in the Good Shepherd Sunday Gospel reading, Jesus tells the Jews gathered around him at the Portico of Solomon that the sheep hear his voice and follow him. So Jesus identifies himself as both shepherd and gatekeeper. Although this is a mixed image, it shouldn’t raise unnecessary questions since just as Jesus is the second person of the Trinity, isn’t it conceivable that he is both gatekeeper (perhaps the Holy Spirit) and shepherd (Son of God)?

God, help me understand that it is the voice of Jesus that I should seek from day to day and as I grow in faith and understanding. Other voices abound—the voice of strangers, the voice of thieves who come to steal my attention, the voice of thieves who come to destroy, the voice of Satan who denies “whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious.” Help me, God, hear the voice of your Son and give me the wisdom to know that what I find in him is the truth.

God, you are the Lord of time. In you, I have all the time I need because all time is in your hands. Be with me today as I try to make the best of the gift of time that you give, hearing your voice and going where you want me to go.

Today I want to listen for the voice of the shepherd in making big and small decisions. How will I respond when I’m given a choice between time-wasting activities that steal time from me and destroy my opportunity to participate in what is good and life-giving and a God-given gift?

USCCB Readings

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Fourth Sunday of Easter

“My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish. No one can take them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one can take them out of the Father’s hand. The Father and I are one.”

In just a few words, Jesus summarizes his identity and purpose. Although taken from a different part of John’s Gospel than last week’s Bread of Life readings, Jesus makes clear why he is able to give eternal life to those who believe in him and follow him. He has power over life and death because in his words, “The Father and I are one.”

In those same words, Jesus affirms his place within the Trinity, a person distinct within it yet part of the undivided unity. God, help me recognize how to place myself in the Father’s hands. Help me understand that the place I want to be for eternity is with before the throne of the Lamb. An image of this, an image of martyrs in heaven, is presented in the second reading: “For the Lamb who is in the center of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to springs of life-giving water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

“My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me.” How many ways are there to call on the name of the Lord to hear his voice: Abba, Father; Father in heaven; Lamb of God; Word Incarnate; and countless others. Or simply, Jesus. Whatever way I speak the Lord’s name, let it please him and bring him near me so that I can hear his voice.

Today I will let a lot of things slip through my fingers—wishes, desires, possibilities. I will let opportunities go, some of them losses; some, by God’s grace, near misses I might have willed. But I will let them go because the day ends and because I must; I have no choice. But let me ask the Lord to help me stay in his presence or have him come after me, especially after Communion, when I stand before God’s throne and have within me the “body and blood, soul and divinity” of the Lamb, the one who sits at the right hand of God.

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