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Archive for the ‘01 Daily Meditations’ Category

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“Saint Joseph, a teacher of the interior life”

In 01 Daily Meditations on 2011/06/01 at 9:09 AM
Saint Joseph, father of Christ, is also your father and your lord. Ask him to help you. (The Way, 559)

Saint Joseph, our father and lord, is a teacher of the interior life. Place yourself under his patronage and you’ll feel the effectiveness of his power. (The Way, 560)

Speaking of Saint Joseph in the book of her life, Saint Teresa says: ‘Whoever fails to find a Master to teach him how to pray, should choose this glorious Saint, and he will not go astray.’–This advice comes from an experienced soul. Follow it. (The Way, 561)

Saint Joseph. One cannot love Jesus and Mary without loving the Holy Patriarch. (The Forge, 551)

There are many good reasons to honour Saint Joseph, and to learn from his life. He was a man of strong faith. He earned a living for his family ‑‑ Jesus and Mary ‑‑ with his own hard work. He guarded the purity of the Blessed Virgin, who was his Spouse. And he respected ‑ he loved! ‑ God’s freedom, when God made his choice: not only his choice of Our Lady the Virgin as his Mother, but also his choice of Saint Joseph as the Husband of Holy Mary. (The Forge, 552)

Saint Joseph, our Father and Lord: most chaste, most pure. You were found worthy to carry the Child Jesus in your arms, to wash him, to hug him. Teach us to get to know God, and to be pure, worthy of being other Christs. And help us to do and to teach, as Christ did. Help us to open up the divine paths of the earth, which are both hidden and bright; and help us to show them to mankind, telling our fellow men that their lives on earth can have an extraordinary and constant supernatural effectiveness. (The Forge, 553)

Love Saint Joseph a lot. Love him with all your soul, because he, together with Jesus, is the person who has most loved our Blessed Lady and been closest to God. He is the person who has most loved God, after our Mother. He deserves your affection, and it will do you good to get to know him, because he is the Master of the interior life, and has great power before the Lord and before the Mother of God. (The Forge, 554)

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“Do whatever He tells you”

In 01 Daily Meditations on 2011/05/30 at 9:06 AM
In the middle of the rejoicing at the feast in Cana, only Mary notices that they are short of wine. A soul will notice even the smallest details of service if, like her, it is alive with a passion for helping its neighbour, for God. (Furrow, 631)

Our Lady was a guest at one of those noisy country weddings attended by people from many different villages. Mary was the only one who noticed the wine was running out. Don’t these scenes from Christ’s life seem familiar to us? The greatness of God lives at the level of ordinary things. It is natural for a woman, a homemaker, to notice an oversight, to look after the little things that make life pleasant. And this is how Mary acted.

—Do whatever he tells you.

Implete hydrias (John 2:7), fill the jars. And the miracle takes place. Everything is so simple and ordinary. The servants carry out their job. The water is easy to find. And this is the first manifestation of our Lord’s divinity. What is commonplace becomes something extraordinary, something supernatural, when we have the good will to heed what God is asking of us.

Lord, I want to abandon all my concerns into your generous hands. Our Mother—your Mother—will by now have said to you, as at Cana: “They have no wine!…”

If our faith is weak, we should turn to Mary. Because of the miracle at the marriage feast at Cana, which Christ performed at his Mother’s request, his disciples learned to believe in him (John 2:11). Our Mother is always interceding with her Son so that he may attend to our needs and show himself to us, so that we can cry out, “You are the Son of God.”

—Grant me, dear Jesus, the faith I truly desire. My Mother, sweet Lady, Mary most holy, make me really believe! (Holy Rosary, Second Luminous Mystery)

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“Mary, Queen of Apostles”

In 01 Daily Meditations on 2011/05/29 at 9:22 AM

What an extraordinary lesson each one of the teachings of the New Testament contains. The Master, before ascending to the right hand of the Father, told the disciples: “Go and preach to all nations”, and they had remained full of peace. But they still had doubts: they did not know what to do, and they gathered around Mary, Queen of Apostles, so as to become zealous preachers of the Truth which will save the world. (Furrow, 232)

If we look at ourselves humbly, we will see clearly that, in addition to his gift of faith, Our Lord has also granted us a number of talents and qualities. None of us has been mass‑produced. Our Father has created us one by one and shared out different goods among his children. It is up to us to use these talents, these qualities, in the service of all men. We are called to use the gifts God has given us as instruments to help others discover Christ…

Our task as children of God is to get all men to enter, freely, into the divine net; to get them to love each other. If we are Christians, we must seek to become fishermen like those described by the prophet Jeremiah with a metaphor which Jesus also often used: ‘Follow me and I will make you fishers of men’, he says to Peter and Andrew. (Friends of God, 258-259)

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Gospel Guide

In 01 Daily Meditations on 2011/05/25 at 11:10 PM

“In knowing Jesus Christ we will know the purpose of life and of all things.

‘It is not enough to have a general idea of the spirit of Jesus’ life; we have to learn the details of his life and, through hem, his attitudes…. When you love someone, you want to know all about him, his life and his personality, so as to become like him’ (Escriva Christ Is Passing By.)

‘In the Sacred Books the Father who is in Heaven comes lovingly to meet his children, and talks with them.’ (Second Vatican Council, Dei Verbum) 

‘We should listen to the Gospel as though Christ sere present and talking to us.’  St. Augustine, (Commentary on St. John, 30)

To read and meditate on the Gospel fruitfully we have to do so with faith, knowing that it contains the truths of salvation, and contains them without error….  We need to have the life of Christ  in our hearts and minds, so that at any time, without any book, we can close our eyes and contemplate his life, watching it like a film….  We must be completely involved and play a part in his life.  Christ’s words will enter deep into our soul and will really change us…..  Escriva, (Christ is Passing By, 107 )

As we read, we will recognize ourselves in some character in a parable, or we will feel that certain words are aimed at us in a particular way.

Try to do your Gospel reading first thing in the morning, trying to focus on some practical point which can help you in our presence of God during the day or help us to imitate Our Lord in some way.”

Fernandez, Francis  In Conversation with God, Vol.II, 74.

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“Mary’s throne is the Cross”

In 01 Daily Meditations on 2011/05/21 at 9:26 AM
Marvel at Mary’s courage: at the foot of the Cross, with the greatest of human sorrows–there is no sorrow like her sorrow–filled with fortitude. And ask her for that same strength, so that you too can remain beside the Cross. (The Way, 508)

Mary’s throne, like that of her Son, is the Cross. During the rest of her life, until she was taken body and soul into Heaven, what most impresses us about her is her quiet presence. St Luke, who knew her well, describes her as being close to the first disciples, in prayer. This was the way she lived to the end of her days on earth, she who was to be praised by all creatures for all eternity.

What a contrast between Our Lady’s hope and our own impatience! So often we call upon God to reward us at once for any little good we have done. No sooner does the first difficulty appear than we start to complain. Often we are incapable of sustaining our efforts, of keeping our hope alive. Why? Because we lack faith. ‘Blessed art thou for thy believing; the message that was brought to thee from the Lord shall have fulfillment.’ (Friends of God, 286)

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“She opens to us the way to the Kingdom of Heaven”

In 01 Daily Meditations on 2011/05/19 at 9:12 AM
Your love for Our Lady should be more lively, more supernatural. Don’t just go to the Virgin Mary to ask her for things. You should also go to give: give her your affection; give her your love for her divine Son; and show her your affection with deeds of service to others, who are also her children. (The Forge, 137)

Let us return once again to our everyday experience and see how we behave with our earthly mothers. What does a mother want most of all from her children, from those who are flesh of her flesh and blood of her blood? Her greatest desire is to have them close to her. When the children grow up and it is no longer possible to have them beside her, she waits impatiently for news from them, and everything that happens to them, from the slightest illness to the most important events, concerns her deeply.

Look: in the eyes of our Mother Mary we never cease to be little, because she opens to us the way to the Kingdom of Heaven, which will only be given to those who become little children. We should never separate ourselves from Our Lady. How should we honour her? By keeping close to her, talking to her, showing her that we love her, pondering in our hearts the scenes of her life on earth and telling her about our struggles, successes and failures. (Friends of God, 289-290)

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“Nothing is worthwhile if we are not close to Our Lord”

In 01 Daily Meditations on 2011/05/17 at 9:27 AM
Mary, your Mother, will bring you to the Love of Jesus. There you will be, with joy and peace. And you will be always “brought”, because on your own you would fall and get covered with mud: you will be brought onward, brought to believe, to love, and to suffer. (The Forge, 677)

Mary and Joseph ‘had gone a whole day’s journey before they made enquiry for him among their kinsfolk and acquaintances. When they could not find him, they made their way back to Jerusalem in search of him.’ The Mother of God, who looked for her Son so anxiously when he was lost through no fault of her own, and experienced such great joy in finding him, will help us retrace our steps and put right whatever may be necessary when, because of our carelessness or our sins, we have been unable to recognize Christ. With her help we will know the happiness of holding him in our arms once more, and telling him we will never lose him again.

Mary is also the Mother of knowledge, for it is with her that we learn the most important lesson of all, that nothing is worthwhile if we are not close to Our Lord. All the wonders of this earth, the fulfillment of our every ambition, all this is worthless unless the living flame of love burns within us, unless there is the light of holy hope giving us a foretaste of never-ending love in our true homeland in heaven. (Friends of God, 278)

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Apostolate of Faith

In 01 Daily Meditations on 2011/05/16 at 7:42 AM

“Our faith in the risen Christ impels us to go out to other and announce to them that Christ is alive, that we unite ourselves to Him by faith and love every day, that He guides us and gives meaning to our lives.

It is essential that our faith in Jesus Christ increases every day, that we learn to look upon happenings and persons as He looks on them, that our activity in the middle of the world be animated by Jesus’ doctrine.

St. Gregory the Great says ‘for we have not seen Him in the flesh but know Him in the mind.’  (St. Gregory, Homilies on the Gospel, 26, 7)

The Resurrection of Our Lord is a call to us to show with our lives that He lives. The deed of a Christian should be the fruit and the manifestation of his love for Christ.

St. Augustine also comments that: ‘Let the Creed be for you as a reminder of your faith and a mirror….Look at yourself, then, in it; check to see if you continue believing all the truths that you say in words that you believe, and rejoice daily in your faith.’

Show with you behavior and your words that Christ is alive.”

(Fernandez, Francis IN CONVERSATION WITH GOD, Vol.II, 54.1, 2,3.)

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“Help of Christians”

In 01 Daily Meditations on 2011/05/14 at 10:41 AM
Auxilium christianorum! — Help of Christians, says the litany of Loreto with confidence. Have you tried to repeat that aspiration in time of difficulty? If you do it with faith, with the tenderness of a daughter or a son, you will discover the power of the intercession of your Holy Mother Mary, who will lead you to victory. (Furrow, 180)

It is the moment to turn to your Blessed Mother in Heaven, so that she may take you into her arms and win for you a glance of mercy from her Son. And try at once to make some practical resolutions: put a stop once and for all, even though it hurts, to that little defect that holds you back, as God and you yourself know so well. Pride, sensuality and a lack of supernatural spirit will combine forces to suggest to you: ‘That? But what a small and insignificant little thing it is!’ Don’t play with the temptation. Instead, answer: ‘Yes, in this too I will surrender myself to the divine call.’ And you will be right, for love is shown especially in little things. Normally the sacrifices that Our Lord asks of us, even the most difficult ones, refer to tiny details, but they are as continuous and invaluable as the beating of our heart.

How many mothers have you known who have been the heroines of some epic or extraordinary event? Few, very few. Yet you and I know many mothers who are indeed heroic, truly heroic, who have never figured in anything spectacular, who will never hit the headlines, as they say. They lead lives of constant self‑denial, happy to curtail their own likes and preferences, their time, their opportunities for self‑expression or success, so that they can carpet their children’s lives with happiness. (Friends of God, 134)

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“Mary, Teacher of unlimited self-giving”

In 01 Daily Meditations on 2011/05/08 at 9:30 AM
The Blessed Virgin Mary, Teacher of unlimited self-giving. Do you remember? It was in praise of her that Jesus Christ said: “Whoever fulfils the Will of my Father, he — she — is my mother! …” Ask of this good Mother that her answer, with the generosity it shows, may grow stronger in your soul — with the strength of love and liberation. Behold the handmaid of the Lord. (Furrow, 33)

Ask yourself now whether you are holding firmly and unshakably to your choice of Life? When you hear the most lovable voice of God urging you on to holiness, do you freely answer ‘Yes’? Let us turn our gaze once more to Jesus, as he speaks to the people in the towns and countryside of Palestine. He doesn’t want to force himself upon us. ‘If you have a mind to be perfect…’, he says to the rich young man. The young man refused to take the hint, and the Gospel goes on to say: he went away forlorn. That is why I have sometimes called him the ‘sad lad’. He lost his happiness because he refused to hand over his freedom to God.

Consider now the sublime moment when the Archangel Gabriel announces to the Virgin Mary the plans of the Most High. Our Mother listens, and asks a question to understand better what the Lord is asking of her. Then she gives her firm reply: Fiat! Be it done unto me according to thy word! This is the fruit of the best freedom of all, the freedom of deciding in favor of God. (Friends of God, 24-25)