Daily Prayer
July 12th, 2010
‘Anyone who does not take up his cross and follow in my footsteps is not worthy of me. Any one who finds his life will lose it: anyone who loses his life for my sake will find it’.
Matthew 10: 38-39
A preacher once said that we should beware of cheap religion! He went on to explain that anyone who wants to be a follower of Jesus, must be prepared to practice self-denial, overcome selfishness and take up his cross daily.
What does it mean to take up our cross? First of all it means accepting the demands of daily life. For most people this will mean working hard to earn a living and provide for a family. For many of us it will mean carrying the burden of ill health, of unemployment; loneliness. His presence will not change our daily struggles but he will give us the strength to keep going and be faithful to our vocation in life.
It’s always a joy to meet people who are generous and accept the cost of discipleship with a loving heart. We can think of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta who worked tirelessly for the poor and always with a smile. But there is no need to go abroad to meet such people. There are many who touch our lives daily – a parent caring for a mentally or physically challenged child with great love and devotion – a daughter sacrificing her career to look after an aged parent. These people are a living proof that Jesus is true to his promise when he says that a person who loses his/her life for his sake will find it.
Prayer
Dearest Lord, teach me to be generous.
Teach me to serve you as you deserve:
To give and not to count the cost:
To fight and not to heed the wounds:
To toil and not to seek for rest:
To labour and not to ask for any reward,
save that of knowing that I do your will. ( St. Ignatius of Loyola )
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.”
