From the Gospel according to Mark
Mark 8:1-10

In those days when there again was a great crowd without anything to eat,
Jesus summoned the disciples and said,
“My heart is moved with pity for the crowd,
because they have been with me now for three days
and have nothing to eat.
If I send them away hungry to their homes,
they will collapse on the way,
and some of them have come a great distance.”
His disciples answered him, “Where can anyone get enough bread
to satisfy them here in this deserted place?”
Still he asked them, “How many loaves do you have?”
They replied, “Seven.”
He ordered the crowd to sit down on the ground.
Then, taking the seven loaves he gave thanks, broke them,
and gave them to his disciples to distribute,
and they distributed them to the crowd.
They also had a few fish.
He said the blessing over them
and ordered them distributed also.
They ate and were satisfied.
They picked up the fragments left over–seven baskets.
There were about four thousand people.

He dismissed the crowd and got into the boat with his disciples
and came to the region of Dalmanutha

The Human and the Divine.

How easy it is to give you spiritual advice and how difficult it is many times to attend you in the human way. To cook for you with love, to pick up your things, to listen to you in silence when you need it, to accept what you say just because you’re going through a hard time…  

To make sure I love you: first the human, then the divine.

Applied to Married Life:

Teresa: You should be more comprehensive with the kids. You need to sit with them and listen before correcting them.  

Juanjo: Yeah, I lack that. I don’t do it with you either. How important it is to listen to the other when they have something to say.  

Teresa: Yes. That’s where love begins. That’s also how love for God begins. By the way, now that you mention it, I’m correcting you without having listened to you first…

Mother,

How important it is to be attentive to the needs of others. That’s how the Lord would do it. Blessed be He forever.

Gospel of the day Luke 10:1-9

After this the Lord appointed seventy-two[a] others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.  Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. Do not take a purse or bag or sandals; and do not greet anyone on the road.

“When you enter a house, first say, ‘Peace to this house.’ If someone who promotes peace is there, your peace will rest on them; if not, it will return to you. Stay there, eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages. Do not move around from house to house.

 “When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is offered to you. Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’

Guaranteed assistance.

The battle of the demon against marriage and the family is fierce. Our Lady of Fatima warned us about this through Sister Lucia. But she also told us that Her Immaculate Heart will triumph. For this, she needs an army of apostles to fight with the weapons of God: proclaiming the good news of marriage, its beauty and greatness, being compassionate and merciful to those who suffer…

Our Mother is pushing hard to save many marriages. She needs a holy marriage to change the world; she needs many hands to reach many. There are marriages suffering today. There are families on the brink of destruction today, yes, today. There are others already destroyed, but they can still be saved if we have hope and place ourselves at the service of Mary. “Pray, then, to the Lord of the harvest,” the Lord tells us. Hands, voices, witnesses… and prayer. Lots of prayer.

If you don’t believe in us, believe in His works. Wherever you are, offer yourselves to His service in this His Marital Love Project. And the Hearts of Jesus and Mary will triumph.

In marital life:

Marta: Jesus, shall we join in this mission to save marriages?

Jesus: Us? We’re not ready for that.

Marriage Mentor: The Pope says that, through Baptism, we are guaranteed the assistance of the Holy Spirit. What is certain is that if we do nothing, we won’t help anyone. It’s better to be a married couple that go in the name of the Lord than to be a married couple that fail due to the omission of responsibilities. You don’t have to be experts, you just need to be Christian spouses. We’ll have time to grow and form ourselves more every day.

Jesus: Well, you’re right. If we wait until we consider ourselves ready to bring the good news of marriage, we’ll die trying.

Marriage Mentor: Moreover, we already have the experience that married couples that give of themselves grow much more as a couple and as Christians than those who only receive. You know, God gives back a hundredfold, always. All the custodian and mentor married couples say it. It has helped them immensely in their marriage and in their faith journey together. So, as Saint John Paul II said, don’t be afraid!

Marta: We can’t wait to start. Right, Jesus?

Jesus: It makes my head spin, but I trust in Our Mother. With Her, there’s no fear!

Mother,

We know how much You love us because we feel how much You push us. You need marriages that offer sacrifices of mutual self-giving to make Christ present… Marriages willing to save the world under Your Mantle. Lord, send workers to Your harvest. Amen.

From the Gospel according to Mark
Mark 7:24-30

Jesus went to the district of Tyre.
He entered a house and wanted no one to know about it,
but he could not escape notice.
Soon a woman whose daughter had an unclean spirit heard about him.
She came and fell at his feet.
The woman was a Greek, a Syrophoenician by birth,
and she begged him to drive the demon out of her daughter.
He said to her, “Let the children be fed first.
For it is not right to take the food of the children
and throw it to the dogs.”
She replied and said to him,
“Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s scraps.”
Then he said to her, “For saying this, you may go.
The demon has gone out of your daughter.”
When the woman went home, she found the child lying in bed
and the demon gone.

It’s by faith. 

“The crumbs that the children throw away.” How sad that we waste the graces that God gives us, and there are so many that they could heal others who have more faith. Today we highlight, on one hand, the sorrow of wasting the grace we’ve received, largely through the Sacrament of Marriage, and on the other hand, the power of our faith, which can cast demons out of our children. Here, the Lord doesn’t look at the daughter, He relates only to the mother, but by the power He has granted to the mother’s faith, the daughter is saved. Amazing! Let’s not waste this grace for our children (biological or spiritual) due to a lack of faith. 

Applied to married life: 

Inés: We’re going through a rough patch, first with our children, who seem to be getting farther away, and there’s no way to bring them back to God; and second with our mentees, who hardly pay attention to what we tell them, so there are no advancements, and it seems they’re starting to get tired.
Pedro: This is the time for faith, Inés. This is the time for faith. Let’s ask the Lord for them and trust that the Lord will act for sure. One word from Him will be enough to heal them.
Inés: Thank you, Pedro. Sometimes I forget that we can do nothing without Him, but with Him, being united, you and I can do everything through the strength of our Marriage Sacrament.
Pedro: He will do as much as our faith allows. He already said it, and He never lies. 

Mother, 

Increase our faith. Always more, we always need more. Blessed be the Lord who allows us to act through faith.

From the Gospel according to Mark
Mark 7:14-23

Jesus summoned the crowd again and said to them,
“Hear me, all of you, and understand.
Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person;
but the things that come out from within are what defile.”

When he got home away from the crowd
his disciples questioned him about the parable.
He said to them,
“Are even you likewise without understanding?
Do you not realize that everything
that goes into a person from outside cannot defile,
since it enters not the heart but the stomach
and passes out into the latrine?”
(Thus he declared all foods clean.)
“But what comes out of the man, that is what defiles him.
From within the man, from his heart,
come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder,
adultery, greed, malice, deceit,
licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly.
All these evils come from within and they defile.”

You are my treasure.

Yes, the origin or cause of my sorrows is not external, it is not in my husband but in my heart. It is there where I make interpretations, it is from there that my intentionality arises. It is there where I sanctify myself. In my heart. Therefore, it is my heart that I must heal if I want to love and/or want to be holy.
The heart is the most precious thing that God has given me because it allows me to love you, but it is also the most dangerous because it is disordered, and I can also hate you. Therefore, I must purify it by eliminating self-love so I can truly love, so that: For a Christian, the treasure is the other. 

Applied to married life:
 
Lorena: I have been in love with the Lord for a long time, but now I can truly say that it is not a passionate love, but a sincere love, because my heart is with you, Marino.
Marino: And what new experience are you living in your heart that allows you to say that your heart is with me, Lorena?
Lorena: Well, you have become my treasure. Now my treasure is you, and this is how I experience you. Don’t you notice?
Marino: Yes, I can feel how you care for me. I thought it was just my birthday gift.
Lorena: Hahaha. No, silly. Now it’s for real. My treasure is you, above anything else, any book, any prayer, any experience I live inside. My treasure is you. I’m glad you notice because that means my experience is true, and my love for God is true. 

Mother,

I love my husband/wife with all my heart and I give myself completely to him/her. My heart is set on him/her, and this is my way of telling the Lord: “I love You.” Blessed and loved be You forever.

From the Gospel according to Mark
Mark 7:1-13

When the Pharisees with some scribes who had come from Jerusalem
gathered around Jesus,
they observed that some of his disciples ate their meals
with unclean, that is, unwashed, hands.
(For the Pharisees and, in fact, all Jews,
do not eat without carefully washing their hands,
keeping the tradition of the elders.
And on coming from the marketplace
they do not eat without purifying themselves.
And there are many other things that they have traditionally observed,
the purification of cups and jugs and kettles and beds.)
So the Pharisees and scribes questioned him,
“Why do your disciples not follow the tradition of the elders
but instead eat a meal with unclean hands?”
He responded,
“Well did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites,
as it is written:

This people honors me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me;
in vain do they worship me,
teaching as doctrines human precepts.

You disregard God’s commandment but cling to human tradition.”
He went on to say,
“How well you have set aside the commandment of God
in order to uphold your tradition!
For Moses said,
Honor your father and your mother,
and Whoever curses father or mother shall die.
Yet you say,
‘If someone says to father or mother,
“Any support you might have had from me is qorban”‘
(meaning, dedicated to God),
you allow him to do nothing more for his father or mother.
You nullify the word of God
in favor of your tradition that you have handed on.
And you do many such things.”

Where the heart goes.

Well, that’s it, honoring Him with lips while my heart is far from the Lord is hypocrisy. The key question today is: Is my heart close to the Lord? If I leave my heart “loose,” will it automatically go towards the Lord, or will it veer off in any other direction?

Applying it to married life:

Rosa: It’s true that at first it’s hard until one gets used to it and until one truly falls in love with the Lord and with the vocation of marriage, but when it happens, the Lord steals your heart, and so does your husband.

Ramón: And marriage becomes a priority. But it takes quite some time to reach that affection in the heart.

Rosa: Yes, it also depends on how determined and firm we are about it, because in that measure, grace can act and transform our priorities.

Ramón: That’s true. It took us a few years…

Mother,

I love the Lord above all things, and my husband with all my heart. They are the center of my life. Praise be to God who gives me His Love.