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)
Come, Holy Spirit! Enlighten me to experience your presence in this prayer. Help me to set aside my worries to give you the time and attention you deserve. Nothing is more important at this moment, reorient my life towards you and nourish my love for you in this meditation.
Gospel of the day (to guide your meditation)
From the Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew 9:14-17
Then John's disciples came to him and said, «Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?» Jesus said to them, «Can the wedding guests be sad while the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them; then they will fast. No one puts a patch of unsheared cloth on an old garment, for the added cloth pulls at the garment, and a worse tear results. Neither do men pour new wine into old skins; for otherwise the skins burst, the wine is spilled, and the skins are spoiled; but new wine is poured into new skins, and so both are preserved.».
Word of the Lord
Meditate on what God tells you in the Gospel
Joyful times and parties are for spending time happily, full of joy. If you are at a party, and you see a sad person, you ask yourself, what is this sad person doing here? It's the truth, you can't be sad at parties. That is why the apostles could not be sad when they were with Christ, because he is the one who gives happiness by his presence alone.
That is why the distinctive mark of Christians is joy in Christ, that joy which fills the depths of the soul. Tertullian already said: “See how they love one another and how they are ready to die for one another”. How much would the world change if all Christians lived the commandment of charity in depth?
Let us live this day always with a smile on our lips, so that God may bless us and make all the people around us happy.
«Paul distinguishes between: children of the law and children of faith. For new wine, new wineskins. And for this reason the Church asks us, all of us, to make some changes, she asks us to leave aside the perishable structures: they are useless! And take new ones, those of the Gospel. We cannot, for example, understand the mentality of these doctors of the law, these Pharisee theologians: you cannot understand their mentality with the spirit of the Gospel. The style of the Gospel is a different style, which brings the law to its fullness. Yes! But in a new way: it is new wine in new wineskins».
(Homily of H.H. Francis, September 5, 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.
Promote my family's participation in the Sunday Eucharist.
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.
