Daily Prayer
June 22nd, 2010
“Do to others what you would have them do to you.”
Matt. 7:12
This is commonly known as the Golden Rule. In many Religions it is stated negatively: “Don’t do to others what you would not want them to do to you.” By stating it positively Jesus made it more significant. It is not very hard to refrain from harming others; it is much more difficult to take the initiative in doing something good for them. The Golden Rule as Jesus formulated it is the foundation of active goodness and mercy – the kind of love God shows to us every day.
Betsie Ten Boom, who died in Ravensbruck concentration camp, steadfastly refused to hate the guards who beat her and eventually beat her to death. When she was dying she said, “We must tell the people what we have learned here. We must tell them that there is no pit so deep that God is not deeper still.” Do you find it difficult to forgive? A spoken word and a thrown stone cannot be recalled.
Lots of people in today’s world die of a broken heart. Jesus has touched each of our lives and given us the ability to ‘touch’ the lives of others. We need to be sensitive to that and to continue to build his kingdom through loving and respecting each other.
Jesus calls us to love one another. No matter how unchristian another person may act towards us, we still have it in our power to act in a Christian way towards him or her.
Think of a good and merciful action you can take today.
Prayer
Lord, help me to be kind, understanding and compassionate towards the people I shall meet today.
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.”
