From the Gospel according to Matthew. Mt, 6:1-6, 16-18
Jesus said to his disciples: “Take care not to perform righteous deeds in order that people may see them; otherwise, you will have no recompense from your heavenly Father. When you give alms, do not blow a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets to win the praise of others. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right is doing, so that your almsgiving may be secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you. “When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, who love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on street corners so that others may see them. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go to your inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you.
“When you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites. They neglect their appearance, so that they may appear to others to be fasting. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you may not appear to be fasting, except to your Father who is hidden. And your Father who sees what is hidden will repay you.”
The Gospel of the Lord
Silence of a Diary
Praying is to speak of love with the one who we know loves us, said Saint Teresa. But any act of love that is done for show or to look good ceases to be an act of love and becomes an act of vanity.
In the intimacy of my relationship with God, I am going to offer Him my little treasures of the day, like the child who is very happy with the drawing he made for his father. It’s not much, but it’s the best I could do with my limitations. Before others, I always point to God as the artisan: He inspires me, He gives me strength, He pushes me, He illuminates me… Always! Glory to God!
In the intimacy of my relationship with God, I am going to offer Him my little treasures of the day, like the child who is very happy with the drawing he made for his father. It’s not much, but it’s the best I could do with my limitations. Before others, I always point to God as the artisan: He inspires me, He gives me strength, He pushes me, He illuminates me… Always! Glory to God!
Applied to married life:
One afternoon, when Martha was alone at her parents’ house, she accidentally found a shoebox full of notebooks. They were those old blue notebooks. They were her late mother’s diaries. She didn’t even know her mother wrote them…
So she begins to read one, opening it roughly in the middle. She gets hooked and can’t stop reading… nor crying. She discovered that her mother absolutely hated beets and always ate the ones her father left behind because, he too, didn’t like them. Martha had always thought her mother loved them. She was also very surprised to learn that her mother hated spending summers in the mountains. She always liked the beach, but Martha remembered her being happy every summer on the day they left for the little house her father had bought in the Pyrenees. She also discovered, and this was the hardest part, that they had a very serious marital crisis. It was a very tough time for her mother, when she cried a lot. The ink on those pages was smudged by tears, and the pages were deformed by the effect of humidity. But Martha, despite the dates written in the diaries, couldn’t place that in time, because her mother never showed the slightest expression of suffering.
In those notebooks, Martha found many clues on how to love her husband, in silence. As her mother used to say: “I want what God wants.”
So she begins to read one, opening it roughly in the middle. She gets hooked and can’t stop reading… nor crying. She discovered that her mother absolutely hated beets and always ate the ones her father left behind because, he too, didn’t like them. Martha had always thought her mother loved them. She was also very surprised to learn that her mother hated spending summers in the mountains. She always liked the beach, but Martha remembered her being happy every summer on the day they left for the little house her father had bought in the Pyrenees. She also discovered, and this was the hardest part, that they had a very serious marital crisis. It was a very tough time for her mother, when she cried a lot. The ink on those pages was smudged by tears, and the pages were deformed by the effect of humidity. But Martha, despite the dates written in the diaries, couldn’t place that in time, because her mother never showed the slightest expression of suffering.
In those notebooks, Martha found many clues on how to love her husband, in silence. As her mother used to say: “I want what God wants.”
Mother,
As in the Magnificat, the Lord does great things for us. May they always be for His greater glory. Blessed be the Lord who makes us partakers of His power. Amen.