Daily Prayer
September 24th, 2010
"Who do you say I am?"
Luke 9 : 19
In today’s Gospel passage we see Jesus praying alone in the presence of His disciples. He often spent the night in deep communication with His Heavenly Father, whom He addressed as Abba – Dad! Jesus was deeply aware of His identity as God’s Son. St. John makes this very clear in his Gospel. Describing Our Lord’s inner state at the Last Supper, he writes, ‘Jesus knew that the Father had put everything into His hands, that He had come from God and was returning to God’ (John 13: 3 )
Having spent 3 years with His Apostles ministering to the people, Jesus now wonders if the crowd really know who He is. Having asked the disciples what the crowds were saying, He then puts the same question to them “Who do you say I am?” It is Peter who answers. ‘you are the Christ of God’. (Luke 9:20 ) It must have been some consolation for Jesus to know that at least Peter recognised Him for who he was.
Today, Jesus asks the same question of each of us. ‘Who do you say I am.’ It is easy to proclaim that Jesus is Lord, but is He Lord of my life? Am I proud to confess His name – to make Him known?
Prayer
Father in heaven, form in us the likeness of your son and deepen His life within us. Send us as witnesses of Gospel joy into a world of fragile peace and broken promises.
(Roman Missal V111 Sunday of the year)
The prayer for each day has been prepared by various members of the Holy Family Association. All who visit our website are remembered in prayer. If you would like us to pray for a particular need, simply complete and submit the form on the right hand side of this page. You may wish to leave a comment in the space below.
Just a Thought
How the Holy Family prayer: A Reflection by Pope Benedict XVI
“I would like to invite you to reflect on the place of prayer in the life of the Holy Family of Nazareth. The home of Nazareth, in fact, is a school of prayer where we learn to listen, to ponder and to penetrate the profound meaning of the manifestation of the Son of God, drawing our example from Mary, Joseph and Jesus.
Pope Paul VI during his visit to Nazareth said “we come to understand the need for a spiritual discipline, if we wish to follow the teaching of the Gospel and become disciples of Christ.” And he added: “First, it teaches us silence. Oh! That there would be reborn in us the esteem for silence, that wonderful and indispensable atmosphere of the spirit: while we are deafened by so many noises, sounds and clamorous voices in the frantic and tumultuous times of modern life. Oh! Silence of Nazareth, teach us to be resolute in good thoughts, intent upon the interior life, ready to listen well to the secret inspirations of God and the exhortations of the true masters.”
We can glean several insights on the Holy Family’s prayer and relationship with God from the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ childhood. We may begin with the Presentation of Jesus in the temple. St. Luke tells us that Mary and Joseph, “when the time came for their purification according to the Law of Moses, brought the child up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord”(2:22). Like every observant Jewish family, Jesus’ parents go up to the temple to consecrate the firstborn son to God and to offer sacrifice. Moved by fidelity to the law’s prescriptions, they set off from Bethlehem and go up to Jerusalem with Jesus, who is now forty days old. Instead of a one-year-old lamb, they present the offering of simple families; that is two young pigeons. The Holy Family’s pilgrimage is one of faith, of the offering of gifts, a symbol of prayer, and of encounter with the Lord, whom Mary and Joseph already see in the son Jesus.”
