José Torres, LC
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, I ask that during this time of prayer you give me the graces I need most, the strength to be faithful to you and renew my hope.
Gospel of the day (to guide your meditation)
From the Holy Gospel according to Luke 1:57-66.80
In those days it was time for Elizabeth to give birth, and she bore a son. When her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown her such great mercy, they rejoiced with her. Eight days later they went to circumcise the child and wanted to name him Zechariah, like his father; but the mother objected, saying, “No. His name shall be John.” And they said, “But none of your relatives has that name. Then they asked the father by signs what he wanted the child to be called. He asked for a tablet and wrote: ”John is his name“. Everyone was astonished. At that moment Zechariah's tongue loosened, he regained his speech and began to bless God. A feeling of fear gripped the neighbors, and all over the hill country of Judea people were talking about this event. Those who heard about it asked in amazement, ”What will become of this child?“ They said this because the hand of God was really with him. The child was developing physically and his spirit was growing stronger, and he lived in the wilderness until the day he was made known to the people of Israel.
Word of the Lord.
Meditate on what God tells you in the Gospel
On today's feast, in which the Church celebrates the birth of the forerunner, we should ask ourselves: What is our attitude as apostle and forerunner for the second coming of our Savior Jesus Christ?
It is a good composition of place to imagine Jesus and John as children playing, what would they talk about, what would they play, what would it be like when Mary found out about John's birth?
Let us contemplate those moments in our hearts, let us make the effort to silence our worries, our pending and let us remain for a moment accompanying Elizabeth and Zacharias and, if necessary, let us read the Gospel again and let us try to find some detail, some light.
Let us look at Zechariah's attitude, his faithfulness to what the Lord asks of him in something that seems so simple perhaps for us, but not for the Hebrew culture since it is the name of his firstborn son. How hard, but how beautiful to be able to be faithful to God in something so small. And that is exactly what he asks of each one of us every day, in the details of the things we do, not only out of duty, but it is our means of sanctification, so we do it with love and responsibility, keeping in mind our condition as children of God.
Let us ask St. John the Baptist to help us to be faithful in our mission as apostles of Christ wherever he asks us to be, knowing that our ordinary daily life is an opportunity to attain holiness.
«Like yesterday, God is still looking for allies, still looking for men and women capable of believing, capable of remembering, capable of feeling part of his people in order to cooperate with the creativity of the Spirit. God continues to walk our neighborhoods and our streets, he goes everywhere in search of hearts capable of listening to his invitation and of making it become flesh here and now. Paraphrasing St. Ambrose, we can say: God continues to look for hearts like Mary's, ready to believe even in absolutely exceptional conditions. May the Lord increase in us this faith and hope».
(Cf Homily of H.H. Francis, March 25, 2017).
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.
Today during the day I will seek to make at least two ejaculatory prayers to Jesus.
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.
