At that time: Again Jesus entered the synagogue, and a man was there with a withered hand. And they watched Jesus, to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him. And he said to the man with the withered hand, ‘Come here.’ And he said to them, ‘Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?’ But they were silent. And he looked round at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, and said to the man, ‘Stretch out your hand.’ He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. The Pharisees went out and immediately held counsel with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him.

My good Jesus, You love me infinitely. You have shown me this a thousand times, above all by giving Your life for me in a terrible Passion…
What causes You suffering? In this Gospel You tell us: “grieved by the hardness of their hearts.” My hardness of heart grieves You. And I do not want You to suffer in the slightest—I want You to delight in me. Yet I know I have a hardened heart, because so often I do not look at my spouse with Your eyes: I speak harshly, accuse, judge, fail to excuse…
Sometimes I do not even notice this hardness of heart, and that is worse still—because it is there, it hurts You, and if I do not see it, I cannot fight against it.
Please help me to recognise the hardness of my heart, to be truly attentive and to discover it in my daily life. If I think I hardly have any, then I have a great deal—because it lies behind every sin.
Heal me, Lord, with the medicine of the heart: Your Word.
“Listen: you shall love the Lord your God above all things, and your neighbour as yourself.”
“Deny yourself, take up your cross each day.”
“Pray, pray.”
A path of prayer and sacraments, of humility and purification of heart. To seek only Your Will, to flee from my own—because my will must never be the measure.
Thank You, Lord. With You, I will succeed.

Applied to Married Life

Martha: Andrew, please forgive me for the way I’ve been this week. I’ve just come from confession and spent a long time with the Lord, and I can see clearly again. Forgive me. I’ve been overwhelmed with work and barely prayed at all—and now I see the harm I’ve caused you. Without prayer, I cannot listen to the Lord. I end up listening only to myself, judging you, seeing everything from my side alone, speaking badly to you… and then justifying myself, thinking I’m right after all I do. Evil blinds me. It strikes me how, as soon as I drift even a little from the Lord, everything starts to fall apart.
Andrew: I love you very much. Hearing this fills me with joy. These days I’ve tried to help you more, to encourage you not to neglect prayer, to avoid reacting badly… and it felt as though nothing worked, as though nothing helped. Forgive me too, because I didn’t always put myself fully in your place. It’s so clear: when we neglect daily prayer, the Lord cannot guide us because we are no longer listening—and then we know very well who does guide us. And without our couple prayer, it becomes harder to see each other’s hearts, to share our intimacy… and we know who takes advantage of that.
Martha: Yes. Please, let’s help each other to be truly disciplined about this. Not a single day without prayer—so that we may learn to live with Jesus and in Jesus. He loves us so much!

Mother,

please help us to persevere in prayer. We want to live in you and, through you, in your Son.
Blessed and praised be the Lord! Glory to God!