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Freedom Saint Benedict, abbot Matthew 9:32-38 Introductory Prayer: Lord, you have come to bring freedom. I believe in your power, Lord. Today I want to rediscover that power. I trust in the power of your mercy for souls. Help me to enter into that mercy. Petition: Lord, help me to be an instrument of your mercy and power. 1. The Devil Was Driven Out. The devil is real. He works in souls to pull them away from God. He hates the special relationship with God that man has been offered. But Jesus is more powerful. Grace is more powerful. Christ has come to free man from the power of the devil. When we listen to Christ, when we pray and receive the sacraments, when we do his will, the devil flees. We renew today our confidence in the power of Christ. 2. Proclaiming the Good News. What is the Good News? Jesus tells us that the Good News is the closeness of God. He is just a step away from our lives. He loves us intimately. He calls us to be kings with him: kings over our passions, kings over the devil, kings who put their power at the service of others as he does. Already he is working in our lives and one day he will wipe away every tear from our eyes. We already see in Jesus the bursting forth of this kingdom. We should be joyful because of this Good News. 3. Who Will Help? We are like sheep without a shepherd. Christ came to be that shepherd, but he does not want to do so alone. He wants our collaboration. He wants us to help him bring his sheep to his kingdom. The alternative is dramatic: souls lost forever. Do I have a heart? Do I believe that Christ can work through me? Today I must take up again the invitation to spread the Good News if I want to show thankfulness for God’s love for me. I must pray also that he will send many more shepherds to the flock Dialogue with Christ: Lord, thank you for the freedom you have granted me in your kingdom. Thank you for the many times your grace has conquered in my life. I want to be a better instrument of your grace, Lord. I want to help spread your Good News. I resolve today to be braver and more joyful in helping the Church in the New Evangelization. Resolution: Today I will read a short message or thought from the Pope and comment it with some friends or family. |
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Hos 8:4-7, 11-13 / Mt 9:32-38 Good help is hard to find. It's always been so, and we need only listen to our own conversations to verify it. In the course of any week, a lot of us will have rendered judgment on the inadequacies of gardeners, politicians, grocery store clerks, teachers, preachers, and host of other available targets. And almost certainly those very people are equally busy casting aspersions on the performances of their own list of targets, which may well include us. One really does have to ask, if all the critics have such clean hands, how can there be so many who are deserving of criticism?! The answer, of course, is that there are no perfectly clean hands! None of us is entirely living up to the life's work God has assigned to us via the unique shape of our gifts. As Jesus said in today's gospel, "The harvest is great, but the laborers are few." By virtue of both our giftedness and our baptism, every one of us is called in a unique way to help those around us to thrive and to come to life ever more fully. It's the ultimate criterion of our success or failure as human beings. And that brings us to today's question: How are you doing? |