From the Gospel according to Matthew
MT 7:6, 12-14

Jesus said to his disciples:
Do not give what is holy to dogs, or throw your pearls before swine,
lest they trample them underfoot, and turn and tear you to pieces.“Do to others whatever you would have them do to you.
This is the Law and the Prophets.“Enter through the narrow gate;
for the gate is wide and the road broad that leads to destruction,
and those who enter through it are many.
How narrow the gate and constricted the road that leads to life.
And those who find it are few.

Word of the Lord.

For the freedom of the gift.

The gates of heaven have been opened by the Lord, for He is the gate. And He has already shown us the way, for He is the way. The way is a surrender like His to reach His glory, and that surrender happens on the Cross. In our case, that cross is the daily cross, and surrendering to yesterday’s cross does not exempt me from surrendering to today’s.

Each of us knows the kinds of crosses we bear, but let us illustrate with some examples.

Word of the Lord.

The gates of heaven have been opened by the Lord, for He is the gate. And He has already shown us the way, for He is the way. The way is a surrender like His to reach His glory, and that surrender happens on the Cross. In our case, that cross is the daily cross, and surrendering to yesterday’s cross does not exempt me from surrendering to today’s.

Each of us knows the kinds of crosses we bear, but let us illustrate with some examples.

Applied to Married Life:

Him: When my wife tells me that I have not considered her, and I ask for forgiveness without making excuses.
Her: When my husband makes a decision without consulting me, and I embrace it as my own.
Him: When I hear her complaints repeatedly, the same as always, and I listen with understanding, whether she is right or not, which is irrelevant.
Her: When I am feeling down, and he ignores me, seeming not to care.
Him: When she suggests something that seems absurd to me, and I join her with joy.
Her: When he says it’s time to go, and I get up and go without needing to be asked twice.

And a long list of similar acts until we are freed from our attachments, from our pride, and become free for the freedom of the gift.

Mother,

Help us prepare to enter through the narrow gate by the way of Christ’s Love. Through Him, we ask this for His greater glory.

Now the time came for Elizabeth to be delivered, and she gave birth to a son. And her neighbours and kinsfolk heard that the Lord had shown great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her. And on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child; and they would have named him Zechariah after his father, but his mother said, “Not so; he shall be called John.” And they said to her, “None of your kindred is called by this name.” And they made signs to his father, inquiring what he would have him called. And he asked for a writing tablet, and wrote, “His name is John.” And they all marvelled. And immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed, and he spoke, blessing God. And fear came on all their neighbours. And all these things were talked about through all the hill country of Judea; and all who heard them laid them up in their hearts, saying, “What then will this child be?” For the hand of the Lord was with him. And the child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness till the day of his manifestation to Israel.

GOSPEL OF THE DAY

From the Gospel according to Mark

Mk 4:35-41

On that day, as evening drew on, Jesus said to his disciples:

“Let us cross to the other side.”

Leaving the crowd, they took Jesus with them in the boat just as he was.

And other boats were with him.

A violent squall came up and waves were breaking over the boat,

so that it was already filling up.

Jesus was in the stern, asleep on a cushion.

They woke him and said to him,

“Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”

He woke up,

rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Quiet! Be still!”

The wind ceased and there was great calm.

Then he asked them, “Why are you terrified?

Do you not yet have faith?”

They were filled with great awe and said to one another,

“Who then is this whom even wind and sea obey?”

The gospel of the Lord

Coincidence

As per Fr Jacinto’s comments, Jesus transforms the disciples’ fear to the forces of nature into a reverential fear filled with amazement to His lordship. When we begin to know the Lord and He introduces us to His Heart, our biggest fear becomes being away from Him.

Landed in Married Life:

Juanjo: For a while my desire has been that our marriage gets out of the crisis, but I had tried everything and had already lost hope. When I thought that everything was lost, when I thought that I had nowhere to hold on, I realised that I could only turn myself to the Lord. So I put myself in His hands and asked for help. I hadn’t finished my prayer, and I received a WhatsApp with an invitation to a Marriage retreat. I couldn’t believe it! That couldn’t be a coincidence, and it certainly wasn’t.

Martha: The Lord saved our marriage. They were a chain of events. I had a commitment the weekend of the retreat, and the same day that Juanjo received the invitation, a colleague of mine asked me to swop days, so I became free. And so, several coincidences happened until the day of the retreat. We got converted. It was a before and an after. Our marriage did not heal at the retreat, there were still many things to do, but in that retreat we received the light and the encouragement we needed. Glory to God!

Mother,

It is the moments of turbulence that allow us to show the Lord that we believe in Him. They are also those moments in which we can be a light for those around us, who are surprised when they see us calmly living these difficult situations. Increase our faith, Mother. Through Jesus Christ Our Lord. Amen.

GOSPEL OF THE DAY

From the Gospel according to Matthew

Mt 6:24-34

Jesus said to his disciples: “No one can serve two masters.

He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear.

Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds in the sky; they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are not you more important than they?

Can any of you by worrying add a single moment to your life-span? Why are you anxious about clothes? Learn from the way the wild flowers grow.

They do not work or spin. But I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendour

was clothed like one of them. If God so clothes the grass of the field, which grows today and is thrown into the oven tomorrow, will he not much more provide for you, O you of little faith? So do not worry and say, ‘What are we to eat?’ or ‘What are we to drink?’ or ‘What are we to wear?’ All these things the pagans seek.

Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given you besides.

Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself.

Sufficient for a day is its own evil.”

The gospel of the Lord.

Crosses on their way.

The Lord says in another Gospel that whoever wants to be His disciple must deny himself, take up their “daily” cross and follow Him. One of the crosses that should not overwhelm us is that of what is going to happen tomorrow, because that does not yet correspond to today.

In other recent Gospels, the Lord spoke to me about purifying my memory or purifying current circumstances by interpreting them according to God. Now He talks to me about also purifying my projection towards the future, looking forward putting my trust in Him, believing more in the power of God’s Love than in that of material means.

Landed to Married life:

Almudena: It is true that accepting faith is accepting many crosses, but on the other hand it frees us from the heavy ones.

Mario: Which ones, for example?

Almudena: Well, for example, all the stress. How much you suffer from stress, right?

Mario: True. It feels terrible. But why do you say they are the heaviest?

Almudena: Because when you experience your crosses with faith you also experience them with love, with LOVE in capital letters, the love of God, which is the Holy Spirit.

Mario: Now I understand. When you truly love you are willing to give yourself. And when it is the Holy Spirit who moves you, that surrender is joyful and sanctifying.

Almudena: I see that you have experienced what I’m talking about. That’s why you understand it. May the Lord continue to give you light.

Mother,

Being in Your maternal Heart, we are so comfortable. Thank you Lord for giving us to Your Mother. Amen

GOSPEL OF THE DAY

From the Gospel according to Matthew

Mt 6:19-23

Jesus said to his disciples:

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth,

where moth and decay destroy, and thieves break in and steal.

But store up treasures in heaven,

where neither moth nor decay destroys, nor thieves break in and steal.

For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be.

“The lamp of the body is the eye.

If your eye is sound, your whole body will be filled with light;

but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be in darkness.

And if the light in you is darkness, how great will the darkness be.”

The gospel of the Lord

Bad experiences?

The Lord teaches me that if I see darkness, it is because there is darkness in me.

How important it is to make a good interpretation of the elements, the situations we experience, rational behind it, limitations and conditions of the people who cause them. Thus, the experiences we live will always be experiences of God. They will remain stored as such in our memory and therefore our emotions will be organized.

Landed to Married life:

Miguel: I realise that, every time there is a bad experience between us, I keep it for myself and it charges my feelings for you with negativity, distancing me from you. This is terrible!

Laura: The same thing happens to me, and we are entering into bad periods between us that impact negatively our relationship and become very difficult to purify.

Miguel: But the problem is at the origin, at that moment when I keep that experience by attaching one or more feelings against you. God does not do this, because he never has anything against us.

Laura: I hear you. The solution is, before it happens, we should see all our experiences with the eyes of Lord, how the Lord will see it. For example, yesterday when you were clearly worried and you were not kind to me, I was left with the fact that your limitation was that worry and that God was putting me in that situation to offer myself as a sacrifice for your sanctification. So I did, and I lived that opportunity with joy. Obviously, there is no resentment afterwards, but rather an experience of surrender and union with you.

Miguel: Exactly. That is the point. Thanks for the example, it’s perfect. And thank you for your understanding.

Mother,

This is how Your spirit rejoiced in God in any circumstance. Praise the Lord who allows us to be in Him. Amen