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 thank You for the day You give me. At this moment I desire to meet You; You are my rock and my fortress.
Gospel of the day (to guide your meditation)
From the Holy Gospel according to John 15:18-21
At that time Jesus said to his disciples: “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but the world hates you because you are not of the world, for in choosing you, I have separated you from the world.
Remember what I said to you: ‘The servant is not superior to his master. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you, and if they have heeded my words, they will heed yours. All this they will do to you for my sake, for you do not know him who sent me.’.
Word of the Lord.
Meditate on what God tells you in the Gospel
A few weeks ago we celebrated the resurrection of Christ. Christ, at this moment, opens the doors to life, to new life, eternal life. If we are faithful to his word, we will be with him. To say that we will be with Christ in eternity is not simple, but certainty comes through faith. And this certainty in faith about eternal life encourages us to suffer hatred, offenses, disrespect, even persecution.
If we go deeper into this, Christ was hated, persecuted, scourged, even killed, not to be a hero and to be the protagonist of history. Christ gives His life out of obedience, because the Father in heaven asks Him to do so. Christ wants to please the Father because He is good and because Christ wants to be good like His Father, He is able to forgive, to heal, to keep silent....
Thus, as God calls us to see him as criterion, center and model in the midst of suffering, so he asks us to contemplate the face of the Father day and night to strengthen the spirit, because the flesh is weak and feeble. Man with a heart and mind united to the Father, creator of the whole universe, will be able to unite himself to the merciful love of Christ, forgiving those who offend him, healing those who hurt him and loving those who hate him. In short, we are called to overcome death and we will succeed, because Christ did it.
«In the book of Acts, persecution appears as the permanent state of life of the disciples, in accordance with what Jesus had said: “If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also”. But persecution, instead of extinguishing the fire of evangelization, fuels it even more. [The Holy Spirit is the protagonist of evangelization. “Father, I am going to evangelize” - “Yes, what do you do?” - “Ah, I announce the Gospel and I say who Jesus is, I try to convince people that Jesus is God”. Friend, that is not evangelization, if there is no Holy Spirit there is no evangelization. That can be proselytizing, advertising..... But evangelization is to let the Holy Spirit guide you, let Him be the one who pushes you to the proclamation, to the proclamation with testimony, even with martyrdom, even with words.»
(Audience of H.H. Francis, October 2, 2019).
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.
Pay special attention to the signs of God's love on this day.
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.
