Br. Julián Álvarez, 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)
Give me, Jesus, the grace to open my heart to listen to Your voice and to want and embrace what You want for me.
Gospel of the day (to guide your meditation)
From the Holy Gospel according to St. Mark 2, 23-28
One Sabbath Jesus was walking among the crops, and his disciples began to pluck ears of corn as he passed by. Then the Pharisees asked him, “Why do your disciples do something which it is not permitted to do on the Sabbath?”
He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he and his companions were in need and were hungry? He went into the house of God in the time of Abiathar the high priest and ate of the sacred bread, which only the priests could eat, and he gave it to his companions.
Then Jesus added: “The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath. And the Son of man also owns the Sabbath”.
Word of the Lord
Meditate on what God tells you in the Gospel
A few days ago I read a story of a lady living in the United States who, as a gift for her mother, had to buy three books. She knew that the easiest thing to do was to go online and buy them. In a matter of days, even if she wanted them the next day, the books would be on her doorstep with just a click. But she decided to go, as she had not done for a long time, to buy the books in a bookstore. And to her surprise, she could not find the first two of the three books where they were supposed to be and, to make matters worse, a lady told her: you'd better go home, so you spend less, order them online and they will arrive, it's much easier. After a long search, he found the third book and when he was about to pay, he saw that the first two books he was looking for were on a two-by-one shelf.
Then, on his way home, he realized that, indeed, it might have been easier to buy the books online, but nothing brought back the smiles he saw in that place, the kindness of some of the people he encountered and so many other details that happened to him when he went out to the bookstore.
Why am I telling you this? Because I believe that our days can sometimes go like this. We may prefer to do a lot of shopping in line with our life, and so spend a day and another day, and one more, until, when we remember, several years have already passed. God gives us each day to enjoy, to live and to be fulfilled. Far from online shopping, God wants us to stop and see all the details with which He speaks to us, details with which He loves us.
Let us find in our day those two for one; let us let God love us through those who are next to us, so that at the end of life we can say: I preferred to go to the bookstore of life and enjoy it, instead of online shopping; that we can say: we truly live each day that God gives us.
«The whole scene and the discussions reveal how difficult it is to understand the actions and priorities of Jesus, capable of placing at the center the one who was on the periphery, especially when one thinks that the primacy is given to “the Sabbath” and not to the love of the Father who seeks that all men be saved; the blind man had to live not only with his blindness but also with that of those who surrounded him. Such are the resistances and hostilities that arise in the human heart when, instead of finding people, particular interests, labels, theories, abstractions and ideologies are placed at the center, which only succeed in blinding everything in their path. On the other hand, the logic of the Lord is different, far from hiding in inaction or ideological abstraction, he seeks the person with his face, his wounds and his history. He goes to meet them and does not allow himself to be duped by discourses incapable of prioritizing and placing at the center what is really important.» (Homily of H.H. Francis, June 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.
Visit or write to a special person you have forgotten and share with them how much God loves them.
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.
