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)
Lord Jesus, your resurrection is the greatest proof that love can triumph in the world and in my life. You teach me that love is stronger and that with you it is always possible to start over and work for a world based on charity. Illuminate my prayer to live this day, and my entire life, with an eye toward eternity.
Gospel of the day (to guide your meditation)
From the holy Gospel according to John 11:19-27
At that time, many Jews had come to comfort Martha and Mary because their brother Lazarus had died. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him; but Mary remained at home. Martha said to Jesus, «Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will grant you whatever you ask.» Jesus said to her, «Your brother will rise again.» Martha answered, «I know he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.» Jesus said to her, «I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?» She said to him, «Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.».
Word of the Lord
Meditate on what God tells you in the Gospel
Saint Thomas Aquinas said: “Only a fool tries to console a mother over her dead son.” These words arise as a direct fruit of contemplating this passage in which Jesus, faced with the tomb of his friend Lazarus, sheds some of the few tears expressly mentioned in the gospel.
Jesus is aware of the value of life in the face of eternity and death. He knows that Lazarus' soul rests, waiting, as do the souls of all men, for the sublime moment of redemption. However, Jesus is also a man. What at first doesn't cost him to postpone for four days, will later turn into tears and weeping: the contemplation of his friend's tomb.
The resurrection of Lazarus is a foretaste, a prophecy, of what the resurrection of the dead will be in the future. Jesus' friends, his intimates, his most beloved, will return to life before the astonishment of his enemies and the mean-spirited glances of those who did not welcome Jesus into their hearts during their lives.
Let us ask Christ today to keep a place for us in His heart. Let us tell Him with all our spirit that we want to be His friends and His confidants.
Jesus, You love me so much that, in order to save me, You overcame the fear of suffering and death. I too, Jesus, want to live like this, without fear of sacrifice or detachment, in order to live in Your grace and thus be able to bring others closer to Your love, especially those members of my family who are far from Your love.
«All divine revelation is the fruit of dialogue between God and his people, and faith in the Resurrection is also linked to this dialogue, which accompanies the journey of God's People throughout history. We should not be surprised that such a great, decisive, and superhuman mystery as the Resurrection required the entire journey, all the time necessary, until Jesus Christ. He can say: ‘I am the resurrection and the life’ because in him this mystery is not only fully revealed, but it is fulfilled, it happens, it becomes reality for the first and definitive time. We are called to first stand before Jesus‘ cross, but also to hear his final cry and his last breath, as well as the silence that continues throughout Holy Saturday. And then we are called to go to the tomb, to see that the great stone has been rolled away, to hear the announcement: ’He has risen, he is not here.‘ There is the answer. There is the foundation, the rock. Not in »persuasive words of wisdom, but in the living word of the cross and resurrection of Jesus.".
(Homily of H.H. Francis, November 3, 2014).
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.
To visit that sick or lonely person who I know no one visits, to cheer them up.
Farewell
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.
