Monthly Archives: March 2026

Always Yes. Reflection for married couples. Luke 1:26-38

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GOSPEL OF THE DAY

From the Gospel according to Luke 1:26-38

The angel Gabriel was sent from God

to a town of Galilee called Nazareth,

to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph,

of the house of David,

and the virgin’s name was Mary.

And coming to her, he said,

“Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you.”

But she was greatly troubled at what was said

and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.

Then the angel said to her,

“Do not be afraid, Mary,

for you have found favour with God.

Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son,

and you shall name him Jesus.

He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High,

and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father,

and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever,

and of his Kingdom there will be no end.”

But Mary said to the angel,

“How can this be,

since I have no relations with a man?”

And the angel said to her in reply,

“The Holy Spirit will come upon you,

and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.

Therefore the child to be born

will be called holy, the Son of God.

And behold, Elizabeth, your relative,

has also conceived a son in her old age,

and this is the sixth month for her who was called barren;

for nothing will be impossible for God.”

Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord.

May it be done to me according to your word.”

Then the angel departed from her.

The word of the Lord

 

Always Yes

We have reached the end of Lent, and as the mystery of the Cross draws near, this Gospel appears like an oasis in the desert. We contemplate the Annunciation as a great light that teaches us how to live the Cross. Our Lady’s Yes was neither naïve nor easy. Mary knew the Scriptures, and she knew that the path of the Messiah would pass through suffering. Even so, when the angel visited her, and without understanding everything, she responded with openness and trust: “Let it be done to me according to your word.” Mary knew that this Yes would involve pain, that a sword would pierce her mother’s heart, and yet she surrendered herself and accepted that God’s will be fulfilled in her.

The Lord also visits us in our daily lives—often in joy, but at other times through the Cross, in circumstances we do not understand, in difficulties, trials, moments of darkness… God speaks to us through the events of life and awaits our response, our trust in Him and in His plan for our marriage. How delicate God is: He does not impose Himself; He wishes to be welcomed and waits for our availability. Mary’s Yes allowed God to become incarnate in the world, and our small daily yes allows Jesus to become “incarnate” in some way in our ordinary life. Lord, who am I that you should want to count on me? Who am I that you should wish to share even a little of your Cross with me? From this sense of wonder, and united with Mary, we want to say to you: “Let your plan be fulfilled in our lives.”

 

 

Applied to married life:

Alicia: (in tears) Sam, the doctor was very clear… we can’t have children.

Sam: I still had hope, but after doing everything within our reach according to God’s law, when he said it, it felt like a stab inside.

Alicia: But how can this be? We always imagined a house full of children… we have so much love to give them…

Sam: It seems our life won’t be as we had imagined. It’s going to be very hard to accept that God has other plans… Perhaps He’s asking of us a different kind of fruitfulness, that we become spiritual parents to many souls, helping so many marriages to be born and to grow, marriages that need to discover God’s love…

Alicia: Now is when we must remember that nothing escapes God, that He allows everything for our sanctification, for our union with Him… that He is our Father, that everything about us matters to Him, and that even the hairs on our head are counted…

Sam: The Lord is visiting us through this cross. Lord, what are you coming to do in our hearts?

Alicia: Let’s unite ourselves to Mary; let’s offer her this immense pain so that she may present it to the Lord. And if you agree, let’s pray with trust, as Jesus and Mary did.

Sam: Lord, we unite our pain to yours. If you will, take this cup away from us, but not our will—yours be done.

Alicia: Let it be done in us according to Your Word. Amen.

 

Mother,

help us and teach us to say Yes to God always, as you did — with trust in Nazareth and with faithfulness at the foot of the Cross. Blessed and praised are you for ever!

Do you want your husband/wife to be converted? Reflection for married couples. John 8:21-30

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GOSPEL OF THE DAY

From the Gospel according to John 8:21-30

Jesus said to the Pharisees:

“I am going away and you will look for me,

but you will die in your sin.

Where I am going you cannot come.”

So the Jews said,

“He is not going to kill himself, is he,

because he said, ‘Where I am going you cannot come’?”

He said to them, “You belong to what is below,

I belong to what is above.

You belong to this world,

but I do not belong to this world.

That is why I told you that you will die in your sins.

For if you do not believe that I AM,

you will die in your sins.”

So they said to him, “Who are you?”

Jesus said to them, “What I told you from the beginning.

I have much to say about you in condemnation.

But the one who sent me is true,

and what I heard from him I tell the world.”

They did not realize that he was speaking to them of the Father.

So Jesus said to them,

“When you lift up the Son of Man,

then you will realize that I AM,

and that I do nothing on my own,

but I say only what the Father taught me.

The one who sent me is with me.

He has not left me alone,

because I always do what is pleasing to him.”

Because he spoke this way, many came to believe in him.

The word of the Lord

 

Do you want your husband/wife to be converted?

“When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that ‘I am’.”

The Lord tells us that it will be when He is lifted up on the cross that His identity will be revealed. On the cross.

Where do we believe that we reveal Jesus Christ?

When we speak about Him to others?

When we tell our husband what he ought to do in order to get things right?

When we help on a retreat or give catechesis?

But He points us to the cross. To love on the cross.

Nothing will reveal Jesus Christ in us more than loving in difficulty. Not even miracles, nor the most impressive preaching.

Do you want your husband or wife to be converted and believe?

Love him on the cross — love him when he doesn’t realise you need him, love him when he forgets to do what you asked, love him when he speaks to you harshly, love him…

Let yourself be lifted up with Christ on the cross, being a light of love in the midst of darkness. Only by continuing to love to the very end, united to Jesus, will His Heart and His divinity shine through you. And then, with God’s help, you will have prepared the way so that, seeing divine love in you, he may believe.

 

Applied to married life:

Elizabeth: Paul and kids, dinner’s ready!

Paul: I’m coming, Elizabeth…

Elizabeth: Come on, kids, set the table and do your little jobs.

Elizabeth thinks: It’s already nine o’clock and the children and I have been waiting for him for half an hour… Paul, come on, dinner’s ready!

Paul: Again? I said I’m coming… I’ve got loads of work, can’t you see? You’re so impatient!

Elizabeth: This is the moment when I need to keep calm, and understand that he’s stressed and tired from the demands of his job. Holy Spirit, help me, because on my own I can’t…Whenever you’re ready, love.

Paul: I heard you the first time…

Elizabeth: How hard this is for me… but this is the moment to understand him and love him.

Love, I made the meat with the sauce you like so much.

Paul thinks: After waiting for me, and after I snapped at her, she still greets me with a smile… It’s clear something has changed since they showed us the truth about the Cross in our lives. Elizabeth, thank you for your patience and for putting up with my bad mood.

Elizabeth: Paul, I love being faithful to what I told you on our wedding day: I take you and I give myself to you in prosperity and adversity, in health and in sickness…

Paul: How wonderful to live out what they taught us about embracing the Cross, just as you do.

Mother,

Thank you for giving us your Son, who gave Himself to the very end. Blessed be the Lord!

I do not condemn you. Reflection for married couples. John 8:1-11

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GOSPEL OF THE DAY

From the Gospel according to John 8:1-11

Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.

But early in the morning he arrived again in the temple area,

and all the people started coming to him,

and he sat down and taught them.

Then the scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman

who had been caught in adultery

and made her stand in the middle.

They said to him,

“Teacher, this woman was caught

in the very act of committing adultery.

Now in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women.

So what do you say?”

They said this to test him,

so that they could have some charge to bring against him.

Jesus bent down and began to write on the ground with his finger.

But when they continued asking him,

he straightened up and said to them,

“Let the one among you who is without sin

be the first to throw a stone at her.”

Again he bent down and wrote on the ground.

And in response, they went away one by one,

beginning with the elders.

So he was left alone with the woman before him.

Then Jesus straightened up and said to her,

“Woman, where are they?

Has no one condemned you?”

She replied, “No one, sir.”

Then Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you.

Go, and from now on do not sin any more.”

The Word of the Lord

 

I do not condemn you.

So often in our marriage we feel entitled to judge and condemn our spouse when they sin, especially when we are the ones who suffer the consequences. Faced with the judgement and condemnation of the Pharisees toward that woman—who had indeed acted wrongly—Jesus reminds them of their own sin, the impurity of their own hearts, which they must consider before condemning others. There is only one judgement permitted to us: the judgement of our own soul when, before God, we compare it with His purity. Only then will we clearly see how much we ourselves must purify in order to embrace Love.

He also reminds us that condemnation prevents a person’s restoration. Jesus abhors sin, but He loves the sinner deeply. This is why He sends the woman away with the words: “Go, and sin no more.” He desires her purity; He desires the salvation of all His people, and He will continue to wait for us to turn away from sin until the very last day of our lives.

 

Applied to married life:

Laura: Peter, at the beach today you couldn’t stop looking at the girls next to us. What a lack of respect… It really hurt me.

Peter: Me? Not at all! You’re imagining things.

Laura: But even they were laughing at how mesmerised you were. Don’t talk to me, and don’t even think about coming near me.

(Laura and Peter spent several days barely speaking to each other.)

Laura: Peter, I’ve been praying about the anger I felt. Although what you did wasn’t right, I can see that I also have many faults that hurt you. I don’t want us to stay distant.

Peter: Laura, you were right, and I really struggle not to fall into that temptation. I’ve already been to confession, and I’m glad you’re willing to forgive me too. I’m ready to do whatever it takes to overcome this weakness.

Laura: Look, the Gospel says: “If your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out.”

Peter: Well, I was thinking of starting with something a bit less drastic — I wouldn’t look very good with one eye. How about next time we go to the beach, we sit in the grandparents’ area? That’ll help me while I work on this with my spiritual director.

Mother,

May the only judgement we make be that of our own heart, so that we may see what we must purify. Praised be God, who frees us from our sin.

How He Loved Him! Reflection for married couples. John 11:1-45

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Gospel

‘I am the resurrection and the life.’
John 11:1-45

At that time: A certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. It was Mary, who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was ill. So the sisters sent to him, saying, ‘Lord, he whom you love is ill.’ But when Jesus heard it he said, ‘This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.’
  Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So, when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was. Then after this he said to the disciples, ‘Let us go to Judea again.’ The disciples said to him, ‘Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone you, and are you going there again?’ Jesus answered, ‘Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.’ After saying these things, he said to them, ‘Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awaken him.’ The disciples said to him, ‘Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover.’ Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that he meant taking rest in sleep. Then Jesus told them plainly, ‘Lazarus has died, and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.’ So Thomas, called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, ‘Let us also go, that we may die with him.’
  Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off, and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary remained seated in the house. Martha said to Jesus, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Your brother will rise again.’ Martha said to him, ‘I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.’ Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?’ She said to him, ‘Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.’
  When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary, saying in private, ‘The Teacher is here and is calling for you.’ And when she heard it, she rose quickly and went to him. Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha had met him. When the Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary rise quickly and go out, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there. Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to him, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.’ When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. And he said, ‘Where have you laid him?’ They said to him, ‘Lord, come and see.’ Jesus wept. So the Jews said, ‘See how he loved him!’ But some of them said, ‘Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?’
  Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. Jesus said, ‘Take away the stone.’ Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, ‘Lord, by this time there will be a smell, for he has been dead four days.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?’ So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, ‘Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.’ When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come out.’ The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, ‘Unbind him, and let him go.’
  Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what he did, believed in him.

The Gospel of the Lord

How He Loved Him!

Just as Jesus loved Lazarus, so He loves each one of us—personally, individually. And just as He wept for His friend Lazarus, He also weeps for us. Not because our bodies have died, but because our souls do.
He is Life itself. And every time, within our marriage, we forget Him and try to do things on our own—imposing ourselves on our spouse, forgetting that without Him we can do nothing—we begin to die. Every time we fail to recognise our poverty, our sin, we move further from life. Because He is the Life—the only life truly worth living: through Him, with Him and in Him.
As we continue through Lent, we are encouraged to rekindle our hearts and our intimacy—with Him and with one another—so that when Easter comes, we too may rise again, like Lazarus.

Applied to Married Life

Rachel: Daniel, during prayer today, the Lord showed me that we’re not really living Lent well—we’ve become a bit complacent.
Daniel: Well, not entirely… although it’s true that we always start Lent with lots of resolutions, and then they slowly fade away.
Rachel: That’s exactly what I mean. I think we’ve just drifted along, treating it like any other Lent. We’ve tried to rely on our own strength—and it hasn’t worked.
Daniel: You’re right, Rachel—we haven’t really counted on Him. But it’s not too late to start again. I suggest we begin with a good confession, to prepare our hearts for Easter.
Rachel: Yes, we need to ask for forgiveness. And maybe we could also make a small sacrifice—perhaps help at a retreat, and take time for Adoration as well. We really need those quiet moments with the Lord.
Daniel: Agreed. And finally, let’s make a real effort to live Holy Week accompanying the Lord.
Rachel: Yes—but first, we need to ask for His help, so that with His grace, and our effort, this can truly become a beautiful time.
Daniel: Right then—let’s begin. First, prayer—together, united in the Lord.

Mother,

help us to recognise our smallness, so that, in humility, we may ask the Lord to call us
and raise us from the sin that leads us to death. Praised be the Lord!

Doubt Draws Us Apart. Reflection for married couples. John 7:40-52

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Gospel

‘Is the Christ to come from Galilee?’
John 7:40-52

At that time: When the crowd heard these words of Jesus some of the people said, ‘This really is the Prophet.’ Others said, ‘This is the Christ.’ But some said, ‘Is the Christ to come from Galilee? Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the offspring of David, and comes from Bethlehem, the village where David was?’ So there was a division among the people over him. Some of them wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him.
  The officers then came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, ‘Why did you not bring him?’ The officers answered, ‘No one ever spoke like this man!’ The Pharisees answered them, ‘Have you also been deceived? Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him? But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed.’ Nicodemus, who had gone to him before, and who was one of them, said to them, ‘Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does?’ They replied, ‘Are you from Galilee too? Search and see that no prophet arises from Galilee.’

The Gospel of the Lord

Doubt Draws Us Apart

In this passage from the Gospel of John, we see how the conflict surrounding Jesus continues to grow. It is no longer just a discussion, but the beginning of a rejection that will gradually harden hearts until it leads to His Crucifixion. And this does not happen all at once, but little by little: doubt, prejudice and pride slowly close the heart to the truth.
The people become divided: some believe, others doubt, and others judge based on preconceived ideas. The division does not come from Jesus, but from the way people choose to look at Him.
Something very similar happens in marriage. Doubts gradually distance us as spouses because they distort our way of seeing. When I allow suspicion to enter, I no longer look at my spouse with gratitude, but with judgement; I no longer listen with openness, but with defensiveness. I begin to interpret everything through my fears rather than through the truth of the other.
In this way, almost without noticing, a distance is created that breaks communion between spouses. And it does not break suddenly—it happens slowly, when doubt replaces trust and suspicion overcomes the gift we have received.
In the midst of this conflict, Nicodemus appears and teaches us something essential: before judging, we must listen; before assuming, we must welcome. It is a direct invitation for spouses not to close their hearts without first seeking the truth in the heart of the other.
When we return to seeing our spouse as a gift—as the place where God comes to meet us—doubt loses its strength, and the heart regains the joy of loving in truth.

Applied to Married Life

Lucy: John, I can see you’ve spent £400 today…
John: Lucy, I’ll explain later—I’m running late for a meeting.
Lucy: “Later I’ll explain”? John, what I’m seeing is that lately you’re making important decisions without including me.
John: Lucy, it’s not like that, honestly. I’ll explain everything properly later—it was something necessary.
Lucy: I think I know what your “necessities” are… Was it really necessary, or just impulsive?
(An uncomfortable silence follows.)
Alright… I think I’m letting suspicion take over, and I don’t want to judge without listening. Love, can you tell me what happened?
John: Lucy, something went wrong with the car this morning and it had to be fixed today. I did think of telling you, but I was in such a rush that I planned to explain it properly later.
Lucy: John, thank you for telling me… and forgive me for letting doubt and suspicion get the better of me.
John: Love, it’s alright. Next time, I’ll make the effort to tell you beforehand.

Mother,

help us to trust as you do, and to listen with open hearts, always with your tenderness. Blessed and praised be the Lord, for ever.