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)
Lord my Father, I abandon myself to you. Do with me as you will. Whatever You do with me, I thank You, I am ready for everything, I accept everything. As long as Your will is done in me and in all Your creatures, I desire nothing more, my God. I place my life in Your hands. I give it to You, my God, with all the love of my heart, because I love You, and because for me to love You is to give myself, to give myself into Your hands without measure, with infinite trust, because You are my Father. (Prayer of Blessed Charles de Foucault)
Gospel of the day (to guide your meditation)
From the Holy Gospel according to Luke 17, 7-10
At that time Jesus said to his apostles: “Which of you, if he has a servant who tills the ground or herds the flocks, will say to him when he returns from the field, ‘Come in at once and eat,’ or will he not say to him, ‘Prepare food for me and serve me, that I may eat and drink; then you shall eat and drink?’ Should he be grateful to the servant because he has fulfilled his duty? So you also, when you have fulfilled all that you were commanded, say: “We are but servants, we have only done what we had to do”.
Word of the Lord
Meditate on what God tells you in the Gospel
Today you present me with a parable in which you invite me to strive for purity of intention in all my actions. It would be interesting to ask myself what are the deepest motivations for my actions, the intentions that lead me to work, to pray, to dedicate time to one thing instead of another, to welcome one person and reject another. Intentions show a lot about what place you occupy in my life.
Today you invite me to act always for your glory, for your Kingdom, for love of you. Avoid in my life everything that may sound like vanity, pride, indifference, self-love. When I fulfill your will, may I do it out of love, because I really want to do it and not just to fulfill a mandate, to get out of that commitment.
You want me to have before you, moreover, the humility of one who knows he is a creature, in need of his Lord, from whom he has received everything. To put myself in the place that corresponds to me, as a son, a creature, a servant, already implies giving you the place that you deserve in my life and in all that I do.
Lord, remove from my life the vanity of appearing before others as someone I am not, the pride of believing that I can do everything by my own means, the pride of thinking myself superior to others, the rebelliousness of not giving you the first place in my existence.
«With serenity of body and spirit we can dedicate ourselves to service. Serenity, serving the Lord in peace. Obstacles - both the desire for power and disloyalty - take away peace and lead to that itching of the heart of not being at peace, always anxious, bad... without peace. A dissatisfaction that leads us to live in that tension of worldly vanity, living to appear. This is how we see many people who live only to show off, to appear, so that they say: “ah, how good he is”, for the sake of fame, worldly fame. But this is not the way to serve the Lord. Therefore, we ask the Lord to remove the obstacles so that with serenity, both of body and spirit, we can freely dedicate ourselves to his service».
(Homily of H.H. Francis, November 8, 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.
I will strive to fulfill my responsibilities for the love of God and without complaining.
Farewell
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.
