We all love the parable of the Good Samaritan, but how well do we live out its message? In this meditation we use Pope Francis’ commentary on the parable in his encyclical Fratelli tutti to see the many lessons it contains and to suggest practical ways of putting these lessons into practice.
With God and Christian values being pushed more and more out of our laws, culture and lives, people agree that the world is not in a good place. But what can be done to change this? In this meditation we use texts of the Second Vatican Council, St John Paul II, St Josemaria and Edmund Burke to consider how:
Christ sent twelve apostles out to the whole world and they transformed the Roman Empire
Society is transformed through man, through each person
God will do the work but he needs us to help him
We begin by struggling for holiness
We can help parents to bring up their children in faith and values
We can help politicians, journalists, teachers and others to have good values
We can join political parties, professional associations and pro-life groups
One of the most powerful and most loved devotions is the Rosary. In this meditation we use St John Paul II’s Apostolic Letter “Rosarium Virginis Mariae”, by which he introduced the Luminous Mysteries in 2002, to come to a deeper understanding of the Rosary so that we can say it better. We consider how:
The Rosary unites us with the liturgy
The Rosary, in addition to being a Marian prayer, is essentially centred on Christ
The Rosary is a contemplative prayer
The repetition of Hail Marys is an expression of love
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus teaches us to pray to God our Father, giving us, among other things, the Lord’s Prayer, the Our Father. In this meditation we reflect on how we are to pray to our loving Father God, using texts from Scripture, St Augustine, St John Vianney and St Josemaria Escriva. We consider how:
Jesus himself prays to his Father
Our Father always hears and answers us
He always gives us what is best, even if it is not what we asked for
The benefits we receive from the very act of praying are themselves an answer to our prayer
We should pray with faith, confidence and perseverance
The Canaanite woman who begged Christ to free her daughter from a demon, only to meet with apparent rejection, shows us how to pray. In this meditation we use the text of the gospel of St Matthew plus quotations of St John Chrysostom, St Augustine, St Thomas Aquinas, St John Vianney and others to consider five lessons this woman teaches us:
St Matthew relates in his gospel how Christ, after multiplying the loaves and fish to feed the multitude, went up onto the hillside to pray. Before dawn the following day he walked on the water to the apostles who were in the boat and calmed the storm. In this meditation we consider how:
Prayer is very important in our life, especially when we are going through storms
Sometimes works of charity take precedence over our prayer
As a result of original sin, there will always be suffering in various forms
Christ does not abandon us; he always comes to our aid
We should continue praying with faith, confident that Christ always hears us
When Christ multiplied the loaves and fish to feed a vast throng, he asked the apostles to bring the loaves and fish to him and to distribute them to the people. Today too, he wants to feed the people of our generation, who are hungry for his word, and he needs us to help him. In this meditation we use texts of Scripture and of St Josemaria Escriva to consider how:
Like the apostles, we need to be docile in carrying out what Our Lord is asking of us
Our Lady, the Handmaid of the Lord, was docile to God and brought the Word of God into the world.
We will be more useful in this work if we are very united to Christ through our spiritual life and we are humble
We should ask God throughout the day what he is expecting from us
If we are docile, God will multiply our efforts, as he did with the apostles
We all have situations in which we find it difficult to be patient. In this meditation we use texts of Scripture and St Josemaria Escriva’s book The Way to consider:
How patience is part of the virtue of fortitude
How there are degrees of patience
How difficulties in life can help sanctify us
How love for God is essential to grow in this virtue
How we can grow in patience if we consider how patient God is with us
Christ chose his apostles and gave them the mission to go out and bear fruit, fruit that would abide. He warned them that they would be persecuted as he was. After his ascension into heaven they went to the upper room to pray. We too have been sent out, into a very damaged world, and we too need to be very united to the vine of Christ if we are to hold on to our faith and share it with others. In this meditation we consider how:
We are united to the vine of Christ through our life of prayer and penance
We need a daily plan for our spiritual life just as we do for our bodily life
Having a plan gives us order and peace
Our plan might include such activities as mental prayer, Holy Mass, spiritual reading, the rosary, reading of Scripture, and a visit to the Blessed Sacrament.
Jesus has loved us “to the end” and we should love him in return, but in spite of our good intentions we all sin. In this meditation we use texts from Scripture, St Augustine, St John Vianney and St Josemaria Escriva to consider how:
We cannot avoid sinning
For a sin to be mortal three conditions must be met
Mortal sin has serious consequences
Venial sins too have great importance
We should make a special effort to avoid deliberate sins
We can be moved to greater sorrow for our sins by meditating on the Passion of Christ
Our sorrow should include the effort to avoid the occasions of sin and to try not to commit the sins again
If we are truly repentant we will experience the joy of the Prodigal Son