Juan Pablo García Hincapié, 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 thank you for giving me this new day in which I come to place myself in your presence. I thank You for having given me so many blessings during these days. Give me the grace to be faithful to each of them. Remind me during this meditation that I want to unite myself to you in prayer so that with your love I may overcome the temptations and the division that the devil wants to bring. Give me your grace Lord to be victorious in the battle at all times.
Gospel of the day (to guide your meditation)
From the Holy Gospel according to Luke 11:14-23
At that time Jesus was casting out a demon who was mute, and as soon as the demon went out, the mute spoke. The crowd was amazed, but some of them said, “If he casts out demons, it is by the hand of Beelzebub, the prince of demons”. Others, to test him, asked him for a sign in heaven. He, reading their thoughts, said to them, “Every kingdom in civil war goes to ruin and collapses house after house. If Satan also is in civil war, how will he maintain his kingdom? You say that I cast out demons by the power of Beelzebub; and if I cast out demons by the power of Beelzebub, by whose power do your children cast them out? Therefore they themselves shall be your judges. But if I cast out devils with the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. When a strong and well-armed man guards his palace, his goods are safe. But if a stronger man assaults him and defeats him, he takes away the weapons he trusted in and divides the spoils. He who is not with me is against me; he who does not gather with me scatters”.
Word of the Lord.
Meditate on what God tells you in the Gospel
Today the Gospel explains to us where Christ gets his authority from. The Lord performing so many miracles and especially casting out demons creates a stir among those who listen to him. When He is asked with what power He does things, He manages to explain that He does it with the power of the finger of God. What Christ wants every time we have a spiritual battle is that we grow in love and get closer to Him. Every time we manage to put our eyes on God's love and that we want to give ourselves more and more to Him, there will come many opportunities in which we will have to show God how much we love Him and that only with Him we will win the battle. The heart that is truly united to God is capable of seeking Him in the most difficult moments through prayer. To live in continuous union with God, making our life a prayer, is what the Lord recommends us to be able to overcome the division that the devil seeks in our heart. Whoever has the Lord in his heart lives strengthened to be victorious in every battle.
«Once again the Gospel shows us what God does in the face of our evil: God does not come to «teach a lesson» about pain; nor does he come to eliminate suffering and death from the world; rather, he comes to take upon himself the burden of our human condition, to carry it to its ultimate consequences, to free us in a radical and definitive way. This is how Christ fights the evils and sufferings of the world: by taking them upon himself and overcoming them with the power of God's mercy». (H.H. Francis, Angelus of February 15, 2015).
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.
Ask God what evils I have to expel from my interior, perhaps vanity, selfishness, pride... and ask Him for the strength to remove those demons from my life.
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.
