Jesús Salazar Brenes, 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)
Send, Lord, your Spirit upon me so that I may listen to you and become a messenger of your peace and truth.
Gospel of the day (to guide your meditation)
From the Holy Gospel according to John 16:12-15
At that time, Jesus said to his disciples: “I still have many things to tell you, but you cannot yet understand them. But when the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth, for he will not speak on his own, but will tell you what he has heard and will declare to you the things that will take place. He will glorify me, for he will first receive from me what he will communicate to you. All that the Father has is mine. That is why I said that he will take what is mine and pass it on to you.
Word of the Lord.
Meditate on what God tells you in the Gospel
Does Jesus still speak today, or are we Christians crazy to think that we are going to receive a message millennia away?
There is nothing impossible for God, what we have to do is to learn to recognize the means by which he speaks to us, because Jesus himself told us that he still has many things to tell us. From the very first verse of the Bible, the Lord reveals his way of communicating with us, in the midst of the chaos, God the Father spoke and the Spirit hovered over the waters. In the midst of the waters of our chaos, God the Father speaks through Jesus Christ, Word incarnate, and that word is brought to life by the Holy Spirit. When all seems dark, the Spirit is ready to bring us the peace we seek so much. We need only act like Mary who kept the Word in her heart, because she knew firsthand what it was like to have the Word of God in her womb. In this way, when we relate our lives to the Gospel, we can understand and overcome what happens to us in our daily lives.
Secondly, the Spirit guides us toward the whole truth. When we sharpen our ear to see what God wants to tell us, we do not always agree with what he asks of us; however, seeking the truth in his will brings us one step closer to being saints. The world proposes many pseudo-truths, but to distinguish between that and the Truth of God, which alone sets us free, we need silence and to discern the voice of the Holy Spirit.
In conclusion, Jesus cannot be silent today, because He, being the eternal Word of the Father, continues to speak to us also through human means. The voice of God is not heard exclusively in preaching or explanations of «knowledgeable» people, the voice of God is heard in the humility and simplicity of daily life in knowing how to be attentive to observe, think and act as Jesus would. In this way we become the living Gospel of God.
«Concrete, tender and humble: in this way evangelization will be joyful. Evangelization cannot be presumptuous. The integrity of the truth cannot be rigid, because the truth has become flesh, has become tenderness, has become a child, has become man, has become sin on the cross. The Spirit announces and teaches “the whole truth” and is not afraid to make us sip it. The Spirit tells us at every moment what we have to say to our adversaries and illuminates the little step forward that we can take at that moment».
(Homily of H.H. Francis, April 13, 2017).
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 talk about the joy of my encounter with the Word of God with another person.
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.
