Álvaro García Cortés, 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)
Jesus, open my heart to listen to what you want from me. Remove from me those resistances that do not allow me to see you as my God and my Lord, and to welcome with love and trust your messages and inspirations. I want you to remain in my heart and guide me in this prayer. Jesus, I love you, but I know that you love me more.
Gospel of the day (to guide your meditation)
From the Holy Gospel according to Luke 11, 47-54
At that time the Lord said, “Woe to you who build mausoleums for the prophets after your fathers have killed them! Thus you are witnesses of what your fathers did, and you approve of it; for they killed them, and you build tombs for them. For this is why the wisdom of God said, ‘I will send them prophets and apostles; some of them they will persecute and kill’; and so this generation will be called to account for the blood of the prophets shed since the creation of the world; from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary.
Yes, I tell you again, this generation will be called to account. Woe to you, teachers of the law, who have kept the key of knowledge; you who have not entered and have shut out those who were trying to enter! As he went out from there, the scribes and Pharisees began to harass him and to pull his tongue with many leading questions, to catch him with his own words.
Word of the Lord.
Meditate on what God tells you in the Gospel
Reading this Gospel, the only thing that comes to my heart is the request not to be one of those who kill the prophets of God, nor to keep the key to knowledge and prevent others from entering the Kingdom of Heaven. God forbid! There may come the temptation to label people according to the characters of the Gospel, but this episode is applicable to every heart. Which prophets is Jesus talking about? Who in my heart are those Pharisees who reject the prophets and who also propose wrong ways?
God has placed in our hearts a prophet, the conscience, his sovereign presence that shows us the way. The Holy Spirit speaks to us through it day after day, knowing that many times we will turn a deaf ear to its voice. Only after a while we realize what that voice was warning us, and then we behave like the Pharisees who build mausoleums to what can no longer be.
We hear voices other than that of the prophets, the voice of caprice, of my own vanity and pride, the voice of those Pharisees who believe they hold the key to my happiness. But what a great joy that God continues to send us his messages day by day, waiting for his holy people to convert and finally listen to his voice. Not only does he give us prophets, he has also given us his Son. Will we listen to his voice today? Will we harden our hearts again?
What do you want from me today, Lord? Give me the same fineness of hearing that Mary Most Holy had at the voice of the Holy Spirit. I want to do your Will, because I know that you love me and that you are the way to my happiness.
«The Church needs prophets. I will say more: it needs all of us to be prophets. Not critics, this is something else. One thing is the always critical judge who does not like anything, does not like anything: ‘No, this does not go well, this does not go well, this does not go well, this does not go well. This must be so...”. He is not a prophet. The prophet is the one who prays, looks to God, looks to his people, feels pain when the people make mistakes, cries - he is capable of crying over the people - but he is also capable of taking a good gamble to tell the truth...".». (H.H. Francis, Homily, April 17, 2018).
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.
I will make a good examination of conscience before going to bed asking myself if I really made an effort this day to know what God's Will was for me.
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.
