I Sunday of Advent
Cristian Gutierrez 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)
Thank you, Lord, that once again I can be alone with you in prayer. Thank you for all the benefits you have granted me. I want to be with you. I need you and without you nothing in my life makes sense. That is why I come to you to beg for your permanent company at my side. Increase my faith, my trust and my love. Enkindle in me an ever more ardent zeal for the salvation of souls and an irresistible passion for you and for your Kingdom.
Gospel of the day (to guide your meditation)
From the Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew 24, 37-44
At that time, Jesus said to his disciples, “As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be when the Son of man comes. Before the flood, people ate and drank and married, until the day Noah entered the ark. And when they least expected it, the flood came and took them all away. The same thing will happen when the Son of man comes. Then of two men who are in the field, one will be taken and the other left; of two women who are grinding wheat together, one will be taken and the other left. Watch therefore and be ready, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. Be sure of this, that if a householder knew at what hour the thief was coming, he would keep watch and not let him get into his house through a hole. You also be ready, for the Son of man is coming at an hour you do not expect.
Word of the Lord.
Meditate on what God tells you in the Gospel
Today's world always invites me to live anchored in the present without looking much into the future. It presents me only with today's fashion, the latest song or movie, the new cell phone version or the most advanced application so far, but tomorrow everything has already changed. And so life goes by without thinking about the future.
However, today You give me a piece of advice to live in the present, but always with a view to the future. «The Son of Man will come. It may be that as a modern Christian this of your glorious return to this world sounds to me like a fable or superstition, an invention of the Middle Ages or something distant and foreign to my life. But You have promised to return and I know that You are always faithful to Your promises. So it is true.
Generally, when a loved one leaves me for a while, the most normal thing is to miss him or her. How much joy it must give me to be able to see you just as you are! And not only to see you but to touch you, to embrace you and say to you, «Lord you don't know how much I missed you. I missed you so much.» But it is obvious that this is only done with someone you know and love.
Perhaps that is the invitation hidden in this Gospel. An invitation to grow in the knowledge and love of you. It may be, Lord, that I don't quite believe this about your return because I don't know you that well and I still love you at a minimum. Give me the grace to know you and love you a little more so that I may live my life prepared for your return.
If I live my life seeking to know and love you then it will not happen to me like those you narrate in the Gospel, who ate and drank and did not think of the future. They lived as slaves to the present without looking beyond the concrete acts they performed. Help me, Lord, to live my life facing your coming, facing the encounter I will have with you, my God and my Lord.
«Jesus reminds us today that the expectation of eternal beatitude does not dispense us from the commitment to make the world more just and livable. Indeed, it is precisely our hope of possessing the Kingdom in eternity that impels us to work to improve the conditions of earthly life, especially for the weakest of our brothers and sisters. May the Virgin Mary help us not to be people and communities resigned to the present, or worse, nostalgic for the past, but oriented towards the future of God, towards the encounter with Him, our life and our hope».
(Homily of H.H. Francis, August 7, 2016).
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 I will try to pray as a family a simple prayer of thanksgiving for the gifts received.
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.
