GOSPEL OF THE DAY

From the Gospel according to Matthew

Mt 6:19-23

Jesus said to his disciples:

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth,

where moth and decay destroy, and thieves break in and steal.

But store up treasures in heaven,

where neither moth nor decay destroys, nor thieves break in and steal.

For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be.

“The lamp of the body is the eye.

If your eye is sound, your whole body will be filled with light;

but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be in darkness.

And if the light in you is darkness, how great will the darkness be.”

The gospel of the Lord

Bad experiences?

The Lord teaches me that if I see darkness, it is because there is darkness in me.

How important it is to make a good interpretation of the elements, the situations we experience, rational behind it, limitations and conditions of the people who cause them. Thus, the experiences we live will always be experiences of God. They will remain stored as such in our memory and therefore our emotions will be organized.

Landed to Married life:

Miguel: I realise that, every time there is a bad experience between us, I keep it for myself and it charges my feelings for you with negativity, distancing me from you. This is terrible!

Laura: The same thing happens to me, and we are entering into bad periods between us that impact negatively our relationship and become very difficult to purify.

Miguel: But the problem is at the origin, at that moment when I keep that experience by attaching one or more feelings against you. God does not do this, because he never has anything against us.

Laura: I hear you. The solution is, before it happens, we should see all our experiences with the eyes of Lord, how the Lord will see it. For example, yesterday when you were clearly worried and you were not kind to me, I was left with the fact that your limitation was that worry and that God was putting me in that situation to offer myself as a sacrifice for your sanctification. So I did, and I lived that opportunity with joy. Obviously, there is no resentment afterwards, but rather an experience of surrender and union with you.

Miguel: Exactly. That is the point. Thanks for the example, it’s perfect. And thank you for your understanding.

Mother,

This is how Your spirit rejoiced in God in any circumstance. Praise the Lord who allows us to be in Him. Amen

GOSPEL OF THE DAY

From the Gospel according to Matthew

MT 6:7-15

Jesus said to his disciples:

“In praying, do not babble like the pagans,

who think that they will be heard because of their many words.

Do not be like them.

Your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

“This is how you are to pray:

‘Our Father who art in heaven,

hallowed be thy name,

thy Kingdom come,

thy will be done,

on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread;

and forgive us our trespasses,

as we forgive those who trespass against us;

and lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from evil.’

“If you forgive others their transgressions,

your heavenly Father will forgive you.

But if you do not forgive others,

neither will your Father forgive your transgressions.”

The gospel of the Lord

The protagonist.

How wonderful to have this prayer from Jesus to learn to pray. On it I see something that we always say: In prayer the protagonist is God. In between of us, He is greater and more important that we cannot quantify it. Therefore, it is He on whom I have to focus my eyes.

I also see that I have a total dependence on Him, and since He knows it, He has made Himself our Father.

However, there is a moment in which I assume the main character in prayer, it is at the moment of forgiveness, because only by being one, I can call Him Father.

Landed to Married life:

Mayte: Only when we are in communion, I’m able to experience the union with the Lord.

Carlos: The same thing happens to me. As soon as I distance myself from you, I also distance myself from the Lord.

Mayte: At the moment when we are aware that you and I are one body as we form one Body with Christ, both unions can happen.

Carlos: I have to become aware and ask the Lord to be similar to Him and to help me see you as part of me, for His greater glory.

Mayte. Amen.

Mother,

In the Gospel it is clearly seen who has the leading role. You are always in the second row. Praise the Lord.

GOSPEL OF THE DAY

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 others 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.

Offered is delivered.

The only valid and pleasing offering to God is that of his Son who gives himself on the cross. It is what we commemorate in each Eucharist. But just as in His passion,  He is alone. However, in the Eucharist, He offers himself with His mystical body, which is the Church. Therefore, in the Eucharistic prayer we ask for three things:

1. That God accepts the sacrifice of his Son that we are offering every day to him;
2. That through him we may be gathered into the unity of the Church; and
3. That therefore we become victims offered with Christ to the Father, by the grace of the Holy Spirit.

Hence, our sacrifices are something that we offer to the Father and we do not make them public, because the only public sacrifice is that Christ and we are allowed to be united to Him through the grace of the Holy Spirit.

Landed to Married life:

Juan: Have you seen our desire to show off? It is especially noticeable because of what it costs us to offer a sacrifice to God without keeping it between Him and us.

Marta: The Bishop said that an offering that is given to the Father has already been given, and therefore no longer belongs to us. If we show it or discuss it with someone, then we are no longer delivering it.

Juan: You are right, Besides, it has no value if it is not through the grace of the Holy Spirit who unites it to the Sacrifice of Christ in the cross.

Marta: Do you know how can we notice the ones that have already offered themselves to the Lord? They are always happy and avoid talking about themselves. Those are the Host pleasing to Lord

Juan: I love it. I would like it to be my goal for this month. Thank you wife.

Mother,

You kept all things in your Heart, because all things were between God and You. Amen

GOSPEL

Love your enemies.

Reading from the Holy Gospel according to Matthew 5:43-48

You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbour and hate your enemy. But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you ,that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

The word of the Lord.

Thank you for your testimony.

Perhaps, this way of loving is the one that should most differentiate us as Christians, and it is the one that allows us to bear witness to Christ before the world. Because if we love those who love us, what differentiates us from non-believers? Being in God’s image and acting in His likeness is what keeps us still His children in the Son.

Grounded in Married Life:

Eduardo: Yesterday I was asked by a wife whose husband had left her, if she could come to the Proyecto Amor retreat Conjugal with another partner.

Valeria: And what did you say to her?

Eduardo: I told her that we do not exclude anyone, because many of those who are doing it could be in that same situation if the Virgin had not rescued them; therefore, that we understand it perfectly, but that this retreat is to make the most of the sacramental grace of marriage and that only those who can access that grace can come. Nor can a nun or a bachelor come, no matter how holy they may be.

Valeria: The truth is that there have to be very hard situations, but there are husbands who have been abandoned and who continue to give their lives for their spouses. A precious mission that deserves a life, because Christ remains between them and their spouses and we cannot abandon Christ. It is a mission for holiness that of those who are separated or divorced and faithful to the bond, which can only be understood from the eyes of Christ who came into the world and his own did not receive him, and in response to that rejection, gave his life for them.

Eduardo: What a great opportunity to be with Him and live this situation in Him. What a marvel of a mission, what a great dignity that of those who live it. We thank God for his great witness of life, worthy of a Saint. May He bless you.

Mother

Your Son was taken from you and you continued to love those who condemned Him and executed Him. That is why you are the Mother of God and the Mother of the Church. Thank You, Blessed Mother, for Your witness. Amen