D.R.R.
January 25th 2004, 02:29 PM
The Mission Begins
Author: Father Ernest Daly, LC
January 25, 2003
Third Sunday in Ordinary time
Luke 1:1-4, 4:14-21
Since many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the events that have been fulfilled among us, just as those who were eyewitnesses from the beginning and ministers of the word have handed them down to us, I too have decided, after investigating everything accurately anew, to write it down in an orderly sequence for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may realize the certainty of the teachings you have received.
Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news of him spread throughout the whole region. He taught in their synagogues and was praised by all. He came to Nazareth, where he had grown up, and went according to his custom into the synagogue on the sabbath day. He stood up to read and was handed a scroll of the prophet Isaiah. He unrolled the scroll and found the passage where it was written: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord." Rolling up the scroll, he handed it back to the attendant and sat down, and the eyes of all in the synagogue looked intently at him. He said to them, "Today this scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing."
Introductory Prayer: Lord, I want to discover again today your love. Thank you sending your Son, Jesus Christ. Thank you for revealing to me today in Christ your deep love for man. Through Christ I believe that you are a Father who is rich in mercy and love.
Petition: Lord, help me to experience anew today this surprise at the Father’s love, and help me to work with you to bring the Father’s love to the world around me.
1. “The eyes of all looked intently at him.”
There is clear suspense here. Expectancy. Jesus has already begun to preach in other towns. News has gotten back about the power of his preaching and about some incredible things that have been happening. Now he returns to his hometown.
This was a decisive moment. A cutting moment. The people of Nazareth sensed it. Jesus was going to take a stand. And they would have to take a stand towards him: accept something greater than they ever suspected about him, or reject him and reject all the signs of God’s power that he would now begin to give.
Even though it may appear to the contrary, modern man is looking for Jesus Christ. But modern man can only find the face of Christ in the life of true Christians. My mission as a Christian, whether I realize it or not, is to show the face of Jesus Christ to modern man.
2. Love for sinners: clear sign of the Father
In his encyclical on the mercy of God, Pope John Paul II explains how Christ in the Gospel text we have before us begins to unveil the mystery of man by revealing the Father: “Making the Father present as love and mercy is, in Christ’s own consciousness, the fundamental touchstone of His mission as the Messiah…. It is especially for [sinners] that the Messiah becomes a particularly clear sign of God who is love, a sign of the Father. In this visible sign the people of our own time, just like the people then, can see the Father.” (Pope John Paul II, Dives in Misericordia no. 3)
Read again the list of things that Christ will now do. Allow yourself to experience the joy that the poor in spirit lived as Christ began his public ministry. Every person in front of God is in a state of radical poverty: poverty of sin. Man frequently knows in his heart that he has lost his greatest treasure, his love for God. He often fears, and even believes, that he is no longer loved by God. He has lost his trust in his Father.
Christ has come with fantastic, good news: man is deeply loved by God. God has not given up on man. God offers to man the original holiness he had always dreamed of for man. He offers man again, and more deeply, the chance to truly become his sons and daughters. “Especially through his lifestyle and through his actions Jesus revealed that love is present in the world in which we live - an effective love, a love that addresses itself to man and embraces everything that makes up his humanity.” (Ibid.)
3. Our response to the Father: lives of love and mercy
“…We must note that Christ, in revealing the love-mercy of God, at the same time demanded from people that they also should be guided in their lives by love and mercy.” (Dives in Misericordia, no. 3)
The grace of witnessing God’s mercy through Christ in my life is also a call. The call to mercy is essential to the ethos of the Gospel. Christ shows us by his life that mercy is essential in order to become a true man. Our will becomes closed to God if we do not imitate in our lives this program of mercy that Christ lives. “In this instance it is not just a case of fulfilling a commandment or an obligation of an ethical nature; it is also a case of satisfying a condition of major importance for God to reveal Himself in His mercy to man: ‘The merciful...shall obtain mercy.’" (Ibid.)
Dialogue with Christ: Lord, thank you for the surprise of the Father’s faithful love. Help me believe more deeply today in the Father’s love. Today through faith in you I will consciously discover many signs of the Father’s love and cultivate the Christian virtue of joy. Help me to be a messenger of the Father’s love as you were.
Resolution: Today I will grow in trust of the Father’s presence, and carry the Father’s love for sinners in my efforts to contribute to the new evangelization.
By Father Ernest Daly, LC
We would like to announce that Catholic.net will be publishing daily meditations for young people. Many of you have wished to share this wonderful prayer resource with your children. Now you have the chance. To check them out please visit Catholic.net by clicking here.
Want to help us maintain this free service? Make a tax-deductible donation online by clicking here.This link will take you to the online donation page of the Legion of Christ, but accessing it by this specific link will create a report letting us know your donation is for the daily meditation service from RegnumChristi.org.Thank you and God bless you.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Red light!
Author: Father Ernest Daly, LC
January 26, 2003
Saints Timothy and Titus
Mark 3 : 23 - 30
Summoning them, he began to speak to them in parables, "How can Satan drive out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand; that is the end of him. But no one can enter a strong man’s house to plunder his property unless he first ties up the strong man. Then he can plunder his house. Amen, I say to you, all sins and all blasphemies that people utter will be forgiven them. But whoever blasphemes against the holy Spirit will never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an everlasting sin." For they had said, "He has an unclean spirit."
Introductory Prayer: Lord, thank you for this new day. Thank you for the light of your Word. I believe that you are true God. I believe that you are seeking the best for me by your word and your actions in my life.
Petition: Lord, help me to see the times and ways that I try to hide from your light. I ask for your grace to open my heart and allow your light and love to penetrate and demand the best from me.
1. Idiots. That’s us! Sometimes it happens in our lives that, since we do not want to do what Christ says, we invent all sorts of excuses for how it could not be God’s will. “How can I see Christ in this person?” “How can it be God’s will that I do such-and-such a thing when it will bring difficulties and suffering?” The Pharisees invented lies about Jesus that were ridiculous. Are we really that different from the Pharisees? We sometimes feel threatened by Christ. We feel he is going to dethrone us as the ones in charge of our lives. We even go so far as to see evil in the ones who are trying to help us see God’s will (parents, spouses, children, maybe even the Holy Father...). When there is something in our lives we are consciously denying conversion from, we can become very mean, and also very stupid, illogical, and incoherent.
2. Sober warning “…But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never have forgiveness, but is guilty of everlasting sin.” A heart can become frozen in lack of trust of Christ. A heart that thinks it knows better can deny the truth. A heart can even become frozen in hatred of God. This is the ultimate death. And this death can sneak into our lives. Our lack of trust. Our lack of faith. Our lack of charity. Our lack of cutting clearly with evil.
3. Christ gives light Christ cuts through our excuses with just one simple word. He shows us our radical poverty. He shows us that he reads our hearts and sees our insincerity. But his light is not meant to torture us. It is meant to invite us to come to our senses. It is an invitation to use our intelligence and our heart for good. Christ helps us in the discernment of spirits. He helps us see what is from God and what is from the devil in our attitudes. Constant, daily contact with Christ in the Gospel, in prayer, in examining our conscience, in the Eucharist, can slowly imbue our hearts with true wisdom, with the instinct for choosing God’s will. Frequent contact with Christ in the Sacrament of Reconciliation also helps in this discernment and constant conversion.
Dialogue with Christ: Lord, help me to remember that you love me so much that you do not just leave where I am, but call me to true greatness. You call me to be like you. Lord, I do believe. Help my unbelief. I will try to give you that special thing today that I often deny you. Jesus, I trust in you.
Resolution: I will trust Christ more deeply today and do my absolute best to not deny him that one virtue that I often withhold from him.
By Father Ernest Daly, LC
We would like to announce that Catholic.net will be publishing daily meditations for young people. Many of you have wished to share this wonderful prayer resource with your children. Now you have the chance. To check them out please visit Catholic.net by clicking here.
Want to help us maintain this free service? Make a tax-deductible donation online by clicking here.This link will take you to the online donation page of the Legion of Christ, but accessing it by this specific link will create a report letting us know your donation is for the daily meditation service from RegnumChristi.org.Thank you and God bless you.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Truly part of Christ’s family
Author: Father Ernest Daly, LC
January 27, 2003
Tuesday of the Third Week in Ordinary Time
Mark 3: 31-35
His mother and his brothers arrived. Standing outside they sent word to him and called him. A crowd seated around him told him, "Your mother and your brothers (and your sisters) are outside asking for you." But he said to them in reply, "Who are my mother and (my) brothers?" And looking around at those seated in the circle he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers. (For) whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother."
Introductory Prayer:Lord, you seek hearts that are open. I want to be close to you today. I believe that you will draw close to me as I open up my heart and will do your will. I give you today, Lord, my heart and will. I know that this is the treasure that you most seek.
Petition:Jesus, help me to put your will above all my desires today. Help me to seek you by doing your will.
1. Physical closeness or even biological closeness to Christ does not count. Christ seems to separate himself from his family here as if they were not relevant. God honors family ties, but Christ here seems to reject them. What he is doing is putting them in perspective. There is something even more important than just being physically close to Christ or belonging to his family. What truly makes someone related to Christ is a certain type of action: doing the will of his Father. That action springs from a heart that accepts the Father as completely trustworthy. A heart that puts God’s will above every other attraction, priority, feeling, or convenience. We have to do God’s will. Nothing else counts. There are no other privileges from being with Christ.
2. What does count is very simple and very hard to do. Do the will of the Father. Live charity. Live zeal for souls. Be faithful to your duty as a husband, wife, student, son, or daughter. Seek out souls as Christ sought out souls. Live the teachings of the Church. No sophisms. No excuses. Just do it. It is that simple. And it is that hard.
3. Christ’s heart is won by those who humbly do the will of the Father Christ calls us his brother, his sister, even his mother. If you are family, your place is assured in the house. And Christ’s house remains forever. We do not merit heaven. It is a much bigger gift than we could ever merit by our actions. But Christ wants to give us this gift, if we would only trust him and do as the Father asks us. There is a certain power that some people have over Christ’s heart, not because of their astuteness, but because of their simplicity. Am I part of Christ’s family? Do I truly do the Father’s will? Is there something in my life where I am still holding out?
Dialogue with Christ: Lord, help me to be forthright. Help me to see what the Father wants in my life and just get busy doing it. I believe that through your mercy I can even make you be born in the hearts of those around me by simply doing your will day by day. Help me to not hide from your will.
Resolution: Today I will live God’s will with simplicity, especially in living charity with those that I deal with.
By Father Ernest Daly, LC
We would like to announce that Catholic.net will be publishing daily meditations for young people. Many of you have wished to share this wonderful prayer resource with your children. Now you have the chance. To check them out please visit Catholic.net by clicking here.
Want to help us maintain this free service? Make a tax-deductible donation online by clicking here.This link will take you to the online donation page of the Legion of Christ, but accessing it by this specific link will create a report letting us know your donation is for the daily meditation service from RegnumChristi.org.Thank you and God bless you.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You can send your testimony to testimonies@regnumchristi.org
If you would like any further information please contact infoeng@regnumchristi.org
If you did not subscribe to this service or you would like to cancel your subscription please click here or send an email to wmeditation-request@regnumchristi.org with the word unsubscribe in the subject line.
© Regnum Christi http://www.regnumchristi.org/
Author: Father Ernest Daly, LC
January 25, 2003
Third Sunday in Ordinary time
Luke 1:1-4, 4:14-21
Since many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the events that have been fulfilled among us, just as those who were eyewitnesses from the beginning and ministers of the word have handed them down to us, I too have decided, after investigating everything accurately anew, to write it down in an orderly sequence for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may realize the certainty of the teachings you have received.
Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news of him spread throughout the whole region. He taught in their synagogues and was praised by all. He came to Nazareth, where he had grown up, and went according to his custom into the synagogue on the sabbath day. He stood up to read and was handed a scroll of the prophet Isaiah. He unrolled the scroll and found the passage where it was written: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord." Rolling up the scroll, he handed it back to the attendant and sat down, and the eyes of all in the synagogue looked intently at him. He said to them, "Today this scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing."
Introductory Prayer: Lord, I want to discover again today your love. Thank you sending your Son, Jesus Christ. Thank you for revealing to me today in Christ your deep love for man. Through Christ I believe that you are a Father who is rich in mercy and love.
Petition: Lord, help me to experience anew today this surprise at the Father’s love, and help me to work with you to bring the Father’s love to the world around me.
1. “The eyes of all looked intently at him.”
There is clear suspense here. Expectancy. Jesus has already begun to preach in other towns. News has gotten back about the power of his preaching and about some incredible things that have been happening. Now he returns to his hometown.
This was a decisive moment. A cutting moment. The people of Nazareth sensed it. Jesus was going to take a stand. And they would have to take a stand towards him: accept something greater than they ever suspected about him, or reject him and reject all the signs of God’s power that he would now begin to give.
Even though it may appear to the contrary, modern man is looking for Jesus Christ. But modern man can only find the face of Christ in the life of true Christians. My mission as a Christian, whether I realize it or not, is to show the face of Jesus Christ to modern man.
2. Love for sinners: clear sign of the Father
In his encyclical on the mercy of God, Pope John Paul II explains how Christ in the Gospel text we have before us begins to unveil the mystery of man by revealing the Father: “Making the Father present as love and mercy is, in Christ’s own consciousness, the fundamental touchstone of His mission as the Messiah…. It is especially for [sinners] that the Messiah becomes a particularly clear sign of God who is love, a sign of the Father. In this visible sign the people of our own time, just like the people then, can see the Father.” (Pope John Paul II, Dives in Misericordia no. 3)
Read again the list of things that Christ will now do. Allow yourself to experience the joy that the poor in spirit lived as Christ began his public ministry. Every person in front of God is in a state of radical poverty: poverty of sin. Man frequently knows in his heart that he has lost his greatest treasure, his love for God. He often fears, and even believes, that he is no longer loved by God. He has lost his trust in his Father.
Christ has come with fantastic, good news: man is deeply loved by God. God has not given up on man. God offers to man the original holiness he had always dreamed of for man. He offers man again, and more deeply, the chance to truly become his sons and daughters. “Especially through his lifestyle and through his actions Jesus revealed that love is present in the world in which we live - an effective love, a love that addresses itself to man and embraces everything that makes up his humanity.” (Ibid.)
3. Our response to the Father: lives of love and mercy
“…We must note that Christ, in revealing the love-mercy of God, at the same time demanded from people that they also should be guided in their lives by love and mercy.” (Dives in Misericordia, no. 3)
The grace of witnessing God’s mercy through Christ in my life is also a call. The call to mercy is essential to the ethos of the Gospel. Christ shows us by his life that mercy is essential in order to become a true man. Our will becomes closed to God if we do not imitate in our lives this program of mercy that Christ lives. “In this instance it is not just a case of fulfilling a commandment or an obligation of an ethical nature; it is also a case of satisfying a condition of major importance for God to reveal Himself in His mercy to man: ‘The merciful...shall obtain mercy.’" (Ibid.)
Dialogue with Christ: Lord, thank you for the surprise of the Father’s faithful love. Help me believe more deeply today in the Father’s love. Today through faith in you I will consciously discover many signs of the Father’s love and cultivate the Christian virtue of joy. Help me to be a messenger of the Father’s love as you were.
Resolution: Today I will grow in trust of the Father’s presence, and carry the Father’s love for sinners in my efforts to contribute to the new evangelization.
By Father Ernest Daly, LC
We would like to announce that Catholic.net will be publishing daily meditations for young people. Many of you have wished to share this wonderful prayer resource with your children. Now you have the chance. To check them out please visit Catholic.net by clicking here.
Want to help us maintain this free service? Make a tax-deductible donation online by clicking here.This link will take you to the online donation page of the Legion of Christ, but accessing it by this specific link will create a report letting us know your donation is for the daily meditation service from RegnumChristi.org.Thank you and God bless you.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Red light!
Author: Father Ernest Daly, LC
January 26, 2003
Saints Timothy and Titus
Mark 3 : 23 - 30
Summoning them, he began to speak to them in parables, "How can Satan drive out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand; that is the end of him. But no one can enter a strong man’s house to plunder his property unless he first ties up the strong man. Then he can plunder his house. Amen, I say to you, all sins and all blasphemies that people utter will be forgiven them. But whoever blasphemes against the holy Spirit will never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an everlasting sin." For they had said, "He has an unclean spirit."
Introductory Prayer: Lord, thank you for this new day. Thank you for the light of your Word. I believe that you are true God. I believe that you are seeking the best for me by your word and your actions in my life.
Petition: Lord, help me to see the times and ways that I try to hide from your light. I ask for your grace to open my heart and allow your light and love to penetrate and demand the best from me.
1. Idiots. That’s us! Sometimes it happens in our lives that, since we do not want to do what Christ says, we invent all sorts of excuses for how it could not be God’s will. “How can I see Christ in this person?” “How can it be God’s will that I do such-and-such a thing when it will bring difficulties and suffering?” The Pharisees invented lies about Jesus that were ridiculous. Are we really that different from the Pharisees? We sometimes feel threatened by Christ. We feel he is going to dethrone us as the ones in charge of our lives. We even go so far as to see evil in the ones who are trying to help us see God’s will (parents, spouses, children, maybe even the Holy Father...). When there is something in our lives we are consciously denying conversion from, we can become very mean, and also very stupid, illogical, and incoherent.
2. Sober warning “…But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never have forgiveness, but is guilty of everlasting sin.” A heart can become frozen in lack of trust of Christ. A heart that thinks it knows better can deny the truth. A heart can even become frozen in hatred of God. This is the ultimate death. And this death can sneak into our lives. Our lack of trust. Our lack of faith. Our lack of charity. Our lack of cutting clearly with evil.
3. Christ gives light Christ cuts through our excuses with just one simple word. He shows us our radical poverty. He shows us that he reads our hearts and sees our insincerity. But his light is not meant to torture us. It is meant to invite us to come to our senses. It is an invitation to use our intelligence and our heart for good. Christ helps us in the discernment of spirits. He helps us see what is from God and what is from the devil in our attitudes. Constant, daily contact with Christ in the Gospel, in prayer, in examining our conscience, in the Eucharist, can slowly imbue our hearts with true wisdom, with the instinct for choosing God’s will. Frequent contact with Christ in the Sacrament of Reconciliation also helps in this discernment and constant conversion.
Dialogue with Christ: Lord, help me to remember that you love me so much that you do not just leave where I am, but call me to true greatness. You call me to be like you. Lord, I do believe. Help my unbelief. I will try to give you that special thing today that I often deny you. Jesus, I trust in you.
Resolution: I will trust Christ more deeply today and do my absolute best to not deny him that one virtue that I often withhold from him.
By Father Ernest Daly, LC
We would like to announce that Catholic.net will be publishing daily meditations for young people. Many of you have wished to share this wonderful prayer resource with your children. Now you have the chance. To check them out please visit Catholic.net by clicking here.
Want to help us maintain this free service? Make a tax-deductible donation online by clicking here.This link will take you to the online donation page of the Legion of Christ, but accessing it by this specific link will create a report letting us know your donation is for the daily meditation service from RegnumChristi.org.Thank you and God bless you.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Truly part of Christ’s family
Author: Father Ernest Daly, LC
January 27, 2003
Tuesday of the Third Week in Ordinary Time
Mark 3: 31-35
His mother and his brothers arrived. Standing outside they sent word to him and called him. A crowd seated around him told him, "Your mother and your brothers (and your sisters) are outside asking for you." But he said to them in reply, "Who are my mother and (my) brothers?" And looking around at those seated in the circle he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers. (For) whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother."
Introductory Prayer:Lord, you seek hearts that are open. I want to be close to you today. I believe that you will draw close to me as I open up my heart and will do your will. I give you today, Lord, my heart and will. I know that this is the treasure that you most seek.
Petition:Jesus, help me to put your will above all my desires today. Help me to seek you by doing your will.
1. Physical closeness or even biological closeness to Christ does not count. Christ seems to separate himself from his family here as if they were not relevant. God honors family ties, but Christ here seems to reject them. What he is doing is putting them in perspective. There is something even more important than just being physically close to Christ or belonging to his family. What truly makes someone related to Christ is a certain type of action: doing the will of his Father. That action springs from a heart that accepts the Father as completely trustworthy. A heart that puts God’s will above every other attraction, priority, feeling, or convenience. We have to do God’s will. Nothing else counts. There are no other privileges from being with Christ.
2. What does count is very simple and very hard to do. Do the will of the Father. Live charity. Live zeal for souls. Be faithful to your duty as a husband, wife, student, son, or daughter. Seek out souls as Christ sought out souls. Live the teachings of the Church. No sophisms. No excuses. Just do it. It is that simple. And it is that hard.
3. Christ’s heart is won by those who humbly do the will of the Father Christ calls us his brother, his sister, even his mother. If you are family, your place is assured in the house. And Christ’s house remains forever. We do not merit heaven. It is a much bigger gift than we could ever merit by our actions. But Christ wants to give us this gift, if we would only trust him and do as the Father asks us. There is a certain power that some people have over Christ’s heart, not because of their astuteness, but because of their simplicity. Am I part of Christ’s family? Do I truly do the Father’s will? Is there something in my life where I am still holding out?
Dialogue with Christ: Lord, help me to be forthright. Help me to see what the Father wants in my life and just get busy doing it. I believe that through your mercy I can even make you be born in the hearts of those around me by simply doing your will day by day. Help me to not hide from your will.
Resolution: Today I will live God’s will with simplicity, especially in living charity with those that I deal with.
By Father Ernest Daly, LC
We would like to announce that Catholic.net will be publishing daily meditations for young people. Many of you have wished to share this wonderful prayer resource with your children. Now you have the chance. To check them out please visit Catholic.net by clicking here.
Want to help us maintain this free service? Make a tax-deductible donation online by clicking here.This link will take you to the online donation page of the Legion of Christ, but accessing it by this specific link will create a report letting us know your donation is for the daily meditation service from RegnumChristi.org.Thank you and God bless you.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You can send your testimony to testimonies@regnumchristi.org
If you would like any further information please contact infoeng@regnumchristi.org
If you did not subscribe to this service or you would like to cancel your subscription please click here or send an email to wmeditation-request@regnumchristi.org with the word unsubscribe in the subject line.
© Regnum Christi http://www.regnumchristi.org/