Jun 5, 2015 |
Day Three: Love that is Universal, Extending to AllÂ
Opening Prayer:Â God our Father, in obedience to you, your only Son Jesus Christ accepted death on the cross for the salvation of humankind. We acknowledge the mystery of the cross on earth. May we receive the gift of redemption in heaven. . We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Scripture Reading:Â Eph. 3:14-19 …the breadth and length and height and depth of Christ’s love
Matt. 8: 5-13 Many will come from east and west and find a place at the banquet in the kingdom of God.
Reflection:Â Christian faith, modelled upon the love of God as manifest in the Sacred Heart of Jesus, a Heart of love, says that we are all brothers and sisters. It affirms that our love must be universal, extended to all, and not only to my own, to my kin, and my group.
In one of the most challenging passages of the Bible, we are given a new command of Jesus: love your enemies; pray for your persecutors (Mt. 5:44). Jesus then explains that his heavenly Father shows this universal love, a love that extends even to one’s enemies: His sun rises on the bad and the good, he rains on the just and the unjust (Mt. 5:45).
In the Jewish tradition there is a saying: if two persons claim your help, and one is your enemy, help him first. We, as followers of Jesus Christ, are to be instruments of God’s love. God’s love is universal, and so our love cannot, should not be anything less than universal, extending to all of God’s children.
Resolution/Practice:
1. Think of a particular person, or a particular group of persons that you find it very hard to love. Pray to God for help to learn how to love that person or group.
2. Take a page of paper and write out on it the names of friends, relatives, co-workers, that you would like to pray for. Resolve every few days to read over that page, and entrust all those persons to the love of the Sacred Heart.
3. Pray regularly for the progress of the ecumenical movement, for unity among all God’s people, that they may be one.
This Novena in Honor of the Sacred Heart was written by Rev. Peter Schineller S.J. for the Apostleship of Prayer/League of the Sacred Heart.
Jun 3, 2015 |
Dear Sisters in Christ,
I do not think it is a coincidence that today, the Birthday of Leonie Martin, is the first day of the Novena to Sacred Heart, leading up to the Solemnity on Friday, June 8th. Leonie was a Visitation Sister, the very same order as Saint Margaret Mary Alocoque who, with the help of her confessor Saint Claude de la Columbiere, helped promulgate the formal devotion to the Sacred Heart.
The devotion to the side of Christ has existed since His side was pierced on the Cross on Good Friday, but the many devotions, prayers, and novenas we pray today came after Jesus appeared to Saint Margaret Mary. These next nine days we will be posting Novena Prayers and praying them for those who have left the convent and all of those who have asked for our prayers.
Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us.
Servant of God Leonie Martin, intercede for us.
Jun 3, 2015 |
Day One: Love that is Total and Unconditional
Opening Prayer: Almighty God and Father, we glory in the Sacred Heart of Jesus, your beloved Son, as we call to mind the great things his love has done for us. Fill us with the grace that flows in abundance from the Heart of Jesus, the source of heaven’s gifts. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Scripture Reading: 1 Cor. 13: 1-13 Love is patient, love is kind, love is not jealous
Matt. 5:43-48 If you love those who love you, what merit is there in that?
Reflection: St. Paul writes to the Corinthians and describes for them the qualities of love. Paul is really describing the qualities of the love that God revealed to us in the Heart of His Son. Paul is challenging us to love the way Jesus did. “Love is patient, kind, not jealous, not prone to anger, there is no limit to its trust, hope, and power to endure…” God wants to mold our heart so that it resembles the Heart of His Son. Let us generously and unconditionally accept that love, and then try to practice unconditional love in our relationship with our neighbor.
Resolution/Practice:
1. Pray daily the Prayer of St. Ignatius for Generosity:
Dear Lord, teach us to be generous. Teach us 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 labor and not ask for reward, save that of knowing that I am doing your will. Amen.
2. At Mass, we see how Jesus gave himself completely for us. Every time you attend Mass, make an unconditional offering of yourself to God the Father, in union with the complete offering of Jesus.
This Novena in Honor of the Sacred Heart was written by Rev. Peter Schineller S.J. for the Apostleship of Prayer/League of the Sacred Heart .
Sep 22, 2014 |
Opening Prayer
Daily Meditation from The Story of a Soul:
Like the Prophets and Doctors, I would be a light unto souls, I would travel to every land to preach Thy name, O my Beloved, and raise on heathen soil the glorious standard of Thy Cross. One mission alone would not satisfy my longings. I would spread the Gospel to the ends of the earth, even to the most distant isles. I would be a Missionary, not for a few years only, but, were it possible, from the beginning of the world till the consummation of time. Above all, I thirst for the Martyr’s crown. It was the desire of my earliest days, and the desire has deepened with the years passed in the Carmel’s narrow cell. But this too is folly, since I do not sigh for one torment; I need them all to slake my thirst. Like Thee, O Adorable Spouse, I would be scourged, I would be crucified! I would be flayed like St. Bartholomew, plunged into boiling oil like St. John, or, like St. Ignatius of Antioch, ground by the teeth of wild beasts into a bread worthy of God. With St. Agnes and St. Cecilia I would offer my neck to the sword of the executioner, and like Joan of Arc I would murmur the name of Jesus at the stake.
Leonie’s Longing Prayer:
Saint Therese, your love could not be contained within the boundaries of one vocation: you longed to give everything to God. Teach us, too, to extend our love beyond any limitations we have set, and to seek new paths in the service of Christ all our days.
Concluding Prayer:
O God, who didst inflame with Thy spirit of love the soul of Saint Therese of the Child Jesus, grant that we may also love Thee, and make Thee much loved. Amen.
Dear Sisters in Christ,
Day One: Love that is Total and Unconditional
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