Jesus Christ loved us so much that he suffered and died on the Cross to redeem us, to reconcile us with the Father after the original sin of Adam and Eve. In this meditation we follow the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary to see how Christ has loved us “to the end” and how we can correspond to this love:
St Josemaria Escriva calls St Joseph “our father and lord”. We can learn much from this great saint and entrust all our needs to him. In this meditation we consider how:
St Joseph was chosen by God from all eternity to be the spiritual father of Jesus and the guardian of the Holy Family
God gave St Joseph special graces and virtues for his mission
Like Our Lady, St Joseph is a model of all the virtues and we have much to learn from him
St Joseph was the greatest saint after Our Lady
St Joseph is a most powerful intercessor, as attested by St Teresa of Avila, Pope Pius XI and Pope Francis, and we can entrust all our needs to him, assured of being heard
The word Lent comes from the ancient word Lencten, meaning springtime. If we live Lent well we have a true springtime, with new growth in our spiritual life. In this meditation we consider how:
In Lent we accompany Jesus in his forty days of prayer and fasting in the desert.
We respond to his invitation, if we want to be his disciples, to deny ourselves, take up our cross daily and follow him.
We can choose something from each of the three traditional areas of prayer, fasting and charity.
If we live Lent with generosity, we will be much closer to God on Easter Sunday than we were on Ash Wednesday.
In the Nicene Creed we profess our belief that the Church is one, holy, catholic and apostolic. In this meditation we pray about the first of these four “marks of the Church”, its unity. We consider that:
Christ founded only one Church
He prayed in the Last Supper for the unity of the Church
The Church is one because of her source, her founder and her soul
The Church is one because she professes one faith, has one celebration of worship and has one government
St Irenaeus writes about the unity of the Church at the end of the second century
The ecumenical movement works to bring about the unity of all Christians in the one Church of Christ
We all face difficulties in life: sickness and pain, the loss of loved ones, problems in work and in relationships, financial worries, temptations to sin, etc. Our tendency is to complain about them and thus lose their great value. In this meditation we consider how:
In the lead-up to Christmas, the liturgy reminds us repeatedly of the important role of St John the Baptist, the precursor of Jesus in preparing the people to receive him. In this meditation we consider:
The similarities between the annunciations by the archangel Gabriel to Zechariah and Mary of the birth of a child
The importance of John’s role as the last and greatest prophet to announce the way of the Lord
John’s virtues of detachment from comforts and humility that make him so efficacious in carrying out his role
John’s efficacy in announcing Christ to two of his own disciples: John the Evangelist and Andrew
Our own mission of making Christ known to the people of our day
In this season of Advent we accompany Our Lady and St Joseph as they make their way from Nazareth to Bethlehem. In this meditation we learn from the many aspects of their journey and from their preparations for Jesus’ birth in the stable in Bethlehem how we can live Advent better. It can become a “little Lent” where we find practical ways of improving our:
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.