Archive for month: April, 2024
Let us pray that all become one in Jesus, our true vine: Our living and loving God, you have made yourself close and dear to us in your Son Jesus Christ. Through him may we live your life, rich and generous and reaching out to others. May your Son draw all together so that all become branches on the same vine and that the new wine of justice and love fill all this earth with joy and peace. Amen.
(Claretian Publications)
Prayer for the Week
Let us pray that Jesus be the shepherd of our lives: God our Father, by his own free will Jesus gave his life for us so that we might live and be saved. Give us the courage to
listen to his voice and follow him on the way to you. May we reflect the love he has shown us by caring for one another with the same self-forgetting kindness he has shown to us.
We ask you this in the name of Jesus the Lord.
Amen.
(Claretian Publications)
The Holy Spirit guides us to lead others, yet how do we know we are in the truth, not in a romanticized sense, but in reality? It is to love in word and deed (1 John 3:17-18). Truth and action begin with those around us – family, friends, neighbors, co-workers. It starts with those around us who do not like us and those we do not particularly like.
Again, how do we know we are in the truth? This medieval monk from Britain guides us. “When we love our neighbors in deed and in truth, we assure our hearts in the light of the supreme truth. When we do works of godliness, it becomes apparent that we are of the truth, which is God, because we are copying his perfect love to the best of our ability (Venerable Bede).”
The Holy Spirit progressively produces within us and among us a likeness unto the character of Christ so that we live out the commandment of love, which characterizes both the present and future. I do not always find enacting love and compassion easy; thus, this appeal from First John (3:3): “Everyone having this hope [of beholding Christ face to face] purifies himself/herself as that one is pure, and that one who is pure is Jesus Christ.” The perfect and pure one accepts us in our imperfection and impurity, offering comfort and encouragement on our journey.
The light of God’s love revealed in Christ purifies our hearts of hatred, malice, bigotry, and prejudice. The light of God’s love purifies our hearts from that which demeans another human being or a group of people. The light of God’s love purifies our hearts of that which leads us to overlook the injury we cause others. “Purification of the heart is a response to God’s love as we obey the commands of Christ” (Interpretation Commentary). This process of purification, fueled by love and compassion, gives us hope and motivates us to continue our journey.
Let us pray that we live the risen life of Jesus: God of the living, who will believe that your Son is risen, if he is not alive among us today? Do not let the death of sin hold us, for he has set us free by his blood. Make us brim with his life so that it may overflow upon those around us in deeds of compassionate forgiveness and generosity without measure. Nourish our life together with you and one another through the Holy Spirit and Jesus Christ. Amen.
(Claretian Publications)
