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Daily Prayer

June 15th, 2010

"Love your enemies"
Matt. 5 : 44

The word running through today’s Gospel is the word love. Over the centuries, many persons have argued that this is an extremely difficult command. The Jewish Law teaches that the way to live is to love your neighbour and hate your enemy. Jesus, however, transforms this understanding, teaching us to love both our neighbour and our enemy. He says that as children of the heavenly Father, we should imitate His ways, especially in showing love and mercy without making any distinction. This command is an absolute necessity for the survival of our civilization, love even for our enemies. The American President Abraham Lincoln said: “The best way to destroy an enemy is to make him a friend,” and Nelson Mandela simply refused to hate his jailors. Jesus’ Disciples should go beyond natural goodness and extend their love even to the undeserving. They must be guided by only one consideration: the Father Himself is prodigal with His love and mercy.

Prayer


Lord Jesus, may I walk the path of love in all that I do and say. May I, by very grace, answer your call to be a Kingdom person called to perfect love. "You must therefore be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect."

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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.”

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