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Daily Prayer

July 7th, 2010

“As you go, proclaim the good news, ‘the kingdom is close at hand”
Mt. 10 : 7

The Scriptures, and especially the Gospels, are a resource to help us live the life God has planned for each one, and to help build a world of love, justice, harmony and care of all that God has created. This is what we pray for in the Lord’s Prayer—the OUR FATHER—‘May your Kingdom come.’ Jesus instructed his disciples as they were setting out to preach and teach, care for the sick, help the dying and cleanse the lepers. Today, we can expand on this mission. For not only do we tend those in need of a cure from physical illness, but in our day there are so many who are in need of spiritual support. Those who suffer from the effects of lack of spiritual care are, like the lepers of Jesus’ time, ostracising themselves from the mission Jesus has given to all his creation.

Prayer


Lord, may your kingdom come. Help me to spread your love and concern for all creation through my daily prayer, my listening to your voice and putting aside my own desires for a comfortable life, neglecting the work you have given me to do as a follower of yours.

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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.”

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