Daily Prayer
July 15th, 2010
‘Come to me all ye who labour and are overburdened and I will give you rest. Shoulder my yoke and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart and you will find rest for your souls’
Matthew 11: 28 - 29
In today’s gospel, Jesus invites us all to come to him when we are burdened with the demands of life. We need never be afraid to approach Our Lord, as he is gentle and will not crush the bruised reed. He is humble too and will have a special welcome for us if we find ourselves isolated and overlooked by others.
Our Lord invites us to share our burdens with him whatever they may be. He will help us to carry them and give us the strength we need to keep going. He also calls us to imitate him in his gentleness and humility of heart and promises us that we will experience inward peace and rest for our weary spirits.
Devotion to the gentle heart of Jesus – the Sacred Heart- goes back a long way in the church. Sr. Margaret Mary a Visitation nun who lived in France in 17th. Century, received visions of Our Lord in which he showed her his heart burning with love for all mankind. Jesus longed for a return of love but often this desire was not fulfilled. Our failure to return love for love was poignantly expressed in the words heard by St. Margaret Mary, ‘Behold this heart which has loved people so much and in return receives only ingratitude’. What response will I make?
Prayer
Lord, you have asked us to imitate you in your humility and gentleness, so I pray with great confidence: ‘Jesus meek and humble of heart, make my heart like unto thine’
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.”
