José Romero, 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, give me the grace to listen to your Sacred Heart.
Gospel of the day (to guide your meditation)
From the Holy Gospel according to Luke 14:25-33
At that time a large crowd was walking with Jesus, and he turned to his disciples and said to them, “If anyone desires to follow me and does not prefer me to his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and indeed to himself, he cannot be my disciple. And he who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, if he wants to build a tower, does not first calculate the cost, to see if he has enough to finish it? Lest, after he has laid the foundation, he be unable to finish it, and all who hear of it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ Or what king, going to fight another king, does not first consider whether he will be able to go out with ten thousand soldiers to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? For if not, when the other is still far off, he will send him an embassy to propose terms of peace. So, whoever of you does not renounce all his possessions, cannot be my disciple”.
Word of the Lord.
Meditate on what God tells you in the Gospel
Many of us are afraid of the idea of having to carry a cross, this is something natural, nobody likes to have pain or suffer for something. Some time ago a person asked me, why is it necessary to carry a cross to be a Christian? If God is good, why does he ask us to do that?
To be a Christian is not to carry a cross, to be a Christian is to respond to Jesus“ ”follow me"; it is to walk with Him every day. To be a Christian is not to have a simple or easy life, to be a Christian is to have a life where Christ is. Christ does not promise me a life without a cross, but He promises me a life with Him. It is up to me to carry a cross with Christ or without Christ.
But the cross is something real, something that costs and weighs. Christ himself was weighed down and fell, but he kept on walking because he did not look at the cross, he walked looking at us, he walked looking at us, he walked loving us. This is how I must carry my cross, looking at Him and loving Him.
To be a Christian means to walk looking at the face of Christ with the heart, to love him when the cross is heavy or light, when the cross is big or small. To be a Christian is to be with Christ. How do I carry my cross, do I look to Christ?
Lord, may I never turn my heart away from your face, may I always be able to see you even when the cross weighs me down, may I always be able to love you. Amen.
“Not to wear the cross only as a symbol of belonging, as “a badge”, but to look at the Crucified One as “this God who became sin” to save us”.
«To place Jesus in the midst of his people is to assume and want to help carry the cross of our brothers and sisters. It is to want to touch the wounds of Jesus in the wounds of the world, which is wounded and longs, and asks to be resurrected. To place ourselves with Jesus in the midst of his people. Not as voluntarists of the faith, but as men and women who are continually forgiven, men and women anointed in baptism to share that anointing and the consolation of God with others».
(Homily of H.H. Francis, February 2, 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.
To see the face of Christ in the crosses that are presented to me today.
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.
