GOSPEL OF THE DAY 

From the Gospel according to John 10:31-42

The Jews picked up rocks to stone Jesus.

Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from my Father.

For which of these are you trying to stone me?”

The Jews answered him,

“We are not stoning you for a good work but for blasphemy.

You, a man, are making yourself God.”

Jesus answered them,

“Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, ‘You are gods”‘?

If it calls them gods to whom the word of God came,

and Scripture cannot be set aside,

can you say that the one

whom the Father has consecrated and sent into the world

blasphemes because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’?

If I do not perform my Father’s works, do not believe me;

but if I perform them, even if you do not believe me,

believe the works, so that you may realize and understand

that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.”

Then they tried again to arrest him;

but he escaped from their power.

He went back across the Jordan

to the place where John first baptized, and there he remained.

Many came to him and said,

“John performed no sign,

but everything John said about this man was true.”

And many there began to believe in him.

The word of the Lord

 

We Are Children of God

By pure grace, when we receive the Sacrament of Baptism, God makes us His children. What an undeserved gift. This is the dignity my wife has, and it is the dignity I have. No one can take it from me, though I can lose it through sin. And if that happens, the Lord is so good and so merciful that He has prepared another great Sacrament for us: Penance. Once we repent and confess our sins to the priest, we regain that dignity we had lost.

Husbands and wives — we also have the Sacrament of Matrimony. Let us not waste even a drop of the grace the Lord pours out upon us so abundantly.

 

Applied to Married Life

(Mike and Magda in prayer after finishing their meeting with the couple they are guiding)

Mike: Lord, I feel such deep sorrow seeing how this married couple treat each other without respect. If this is what they say in front of us, what must they say when they’re at home? Give us light so that we may know how to help them recognise themselves as your children.

Magda: Indeed — what pain the Father must feel seeing them like this. We need to pray a great deal for them and make reparation for the offences they commit against each other and against the Lord.

Mike: Today it seemed that, by the end of the meeting, they left with a little more hope. Let’s pray that they persevere, begin their conjugal prayer, and go to confession, just as we suggested.

Magda: I’m sure that will set them on a path of purification — and that will be what saves their marriage.

Mike: We place our trust in you, Mother. You never consider any marriage lost, and neither do we. Glory to God.

 

Mother,

May we know how to live these last days of Lent at your side, at the foot of the Cross, making reparation for the many offences we commit against your Son.

Blessed are you.

Praised be the Lord in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar.