H. Erick Flores, L.C.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Christ, our King, Thy Kingdom come!
Preparatory prayer (to put me in the presence of God)
Hello, Jesus. I forget everything, everything that worries me. I want to be with You, but first it is You who wants to come into my life because You know that this is my happiness. You, Father, who know me as a son in Jesus, see that I am ready to contemplate the truths that my heart seeks and which only have an answer in your Son. Holy Spirit, guide my mind and heart to find your love and your consoling strength.
Gospel of the day (to guide your meditation)
From the Holy Gospel according to Luke 12:1-7
At that time, the crowd surrounded Jesus in such great numbers that they ran over one another. Then Jesus said to his disciples:
“Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, that is, hypocrisy. For there is nothing hidden that will not be revealed, and nothing secret that will not be known. Therefore, whatever you have said in the dark will be said in the light, and whatever you have said quietly and privately will be proclaimed from the housetops.
I say to you, my friends: Do not be afraid of those who kill the body and then can do nothing more.. I will tell them whom they should fear: Fear him who, after he has killed you, is able to cast you into the place of punishment.. I repeat: He is the one to be feared.
Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them does God forget; and as for you, all the hairs on your head are numbered. Fear not, therefore, for you are worth more than all the sparrows.
Word of the Lord.
Meditate on what God tells you in the Gospel
We are before a love that we must never forget. We are before God. Now I want to recall the mission of Christ, to bring the merciful love of God the Father. Christ, as our brother, invites us not to fear. He, more than anyone else, knows our feelings and knows that we have many fears. For example, think of how much we have feared in the time of the pandemic. Christ knows us and that is why he calls us not to fear.
A big mistake that can be made is to focus on the point of not speaking in the dark or in a low voice. I believe that Christ wants to give us a lesson of life, if there are fears and this we carry in the concrete of the day.
In the Gospel, Christ challenges us concretely about speaking, but it is important to think that he also does so about acting and listening. Let us reflect on our fears and how we carry them into our acting, thinking and speaking. Hypocrisy is living fragmented, it is living a lie. Christ motivates us to struggle to live in the truth of who we are, to see the dignity that we have and receive from God. Thinking and praying about it through the lens of Divine Providence. What does Divine Providence mean in my life?
«Let us examine ourselves inwardly. If we are sincere with ourselves, we will realize our unfaithfulness. How much falsehood, hypocrisy and duplicity. How many good intentions betrayed. How many promises not kept. How many vanished purposes. The Lord knows our heart better than we know ourselves, he knows that we are very weak and inconstant, that we fall many times, that it is difficult for us to get up again and that it is very difficult for us to heal certain wounds. And what did he do to come to meet us, to serve us? What he had said through the prophet: “I will heal your disloyalty, I will love you generously”. He healed us by taking upon himself our unfaithfulness, by erasing our betrayal. So that we, instead of being discouraged by the fear of failure, may be able to raise our eyes to the Crucified One, receive his embrace and say: “Look, my infidelity is there, You have borne it, Jesus. You open your arms to me, you serve me with your love, you continue to sustain me... Therefore, I go forward!”.»
(Homily of H.H. Francis, April 5, 2020).
Dialogue with Christ
This is the most important part of your prayer, prepare yourself to talk with much love with the One who loves you.
Purpose
Propose a personal one. The one that involves the most love in response to the Beloved... or, if you believe that this is what God is asking of you, live what is suggested below.
Motivate a person to move forward with hope, trusting in Divine Providence in the face of the current pandemic circumstances.
Farewell
We thank You, Lord, for all Your benefits, You who live and reign forever and ever.
Amen.
Christ, our King!
Thy Kingdom come!
Most prudent Virgin, Mary, Mother of the Church.
Pray for us.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
