Category Archives: Sin categoría

Pay Attention. Reflection for marriages. Matthew 13:18-23

Leave a Reply
From the Gospel according to Matthew 13:18–23

Jesus said to his disciples: “Hear the parable of the sower. The seed sown on the path is the one who hears the word of the Kingdom without understanding it, and the Evil One comes and steals away what was sown in his heart. The seed sown on rocky ground is the one who hears the word and receives it at once with joy. But he has no root and lasts only for a time. When some tribulation or persecution comes because of the word, he immediately falls away. The seed sown among thorns is the one who hears the word, but then worldly anxiety and the lure of riches choke the word and it bears no fruit. But the seed sown on rich soil is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold.”

Pay Attention.
The Lord always has something to say to us through His Word today, right now, in this particular situation, to me personally, and to each one of us.
In this Gospel, He tells us that we can hear His Word and keep it with us in prayer, or we can choose not to listen and ignore it. But what the Lord is asking of us is to put it into practice, to let His Word take root in our hearts and bear fruit in our lives, in our marriages, and in our families through concrete actions. He wants us to live every situation the way He would, so that it is truly Him living in me. So that where there is pride in me, there may be His humility. Where there is my impatience, there may be His patience. Where there is my anger, there may be His gentleness. Where there is my selfishness, there may be His self-giving love.
Thank You, Lord, for Your Word, which is always alive.
Applied to Married Life:
Carmen: The priest explained the Gospel so beautifully today. It really struck me when he said that God’s Word is useless if we leave it at church and don’t take it home with us.
Elías: Yeah, that’s true. Sometimes we hear really beautiful things, but then we just go on living the same way. We have to let the Lord truly change us.
Carmen: I hope we can actually do that.
Carmen: Elías, can you come and help me get this box upstairs for a minute? I can’t do it by myself.
Elías: Not now… Hang on, I’m just finishing watching this… It’s a key moment for the World Cup.
Carmen: Elías, it’s been a few minutes already. Can you come now? I could really use your help.
Elías: Oh, come on! Can’t you see I’m watching the game? You can take it upstairs later.
Carmen: Elías, look at me for a second. Do you remember what we heard this morning? The priest said that God’s Word has to show up in the little things, in the way we serve the person right next to us. I think the Lord is giving us a chance right now to actually live it out.
Elías: You’re right… I just realized it. A few hours ago, I was saying that I wanted to live the Gospel, and then the first chance I got, I thought only about myself. Please forgive me.
Carmen: Of course I forgive you.
Elías: I’ll come right now. We’ll take the box upstairs together.
Carmen: Thank you. Sometimes the Lord isn’t asking us to do extraordinary things. He simply asks us to be willing to put our own plans aside out of love for the other person.
Elías: That’s so true. It’s easy to walk out of a homily feeling inspired… and so much harder to actually live it a few hours later, right there in our own living room.
Carmen: What matters is that the Lord always gives us another chance to turn His Word into action.
Elías: Then let’s make the most of this one. And tonight, when we pray together, let’s thank Him for correcting us with so much love.
 
Mother,
Help us to embody the Word of God as you did, so that we may draw closer to your Son. Praised be the Lord.

Remaining in Christ. Reflection for marriages. John 15:1-8

Leave a Reply
From the Gospel according to John, 15:1–8.
Jesus said to his disciples: “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower. He takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit, and every one that does he prunes so that it bears more fruit. You are already pruned because of the word that I spoke to you. Remain in me, as I remain in you. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing. Anyone who does not remain in me will be thrown out like a branch and wither; people will gather them and throw them into a fire and they will be burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you. By this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.”
Remaining in Christ
How easy it is to fall into the trap of thinking that our love depends on our own strength, our good intentions, or whether the other person responds the way we expect. But today Jesus reminds us: “without me you can do nothing.”
He is the Vine, and we, as husband and wife, are two branches called to remain attached to Him. It’s not enough to stay attached to each other. If we stop nourishing ourselves from the love of Christ, our love slowly weakens, dries up, and starts relying only on human effort. That’s when expectations, demands, and disappointments begin to take over.
The Father, like a good gardener, also prunes our marriage. Sometimes that pruning comes through hardships, illness, personality differences, children, or simple exhaustion. At first, those things can feel like losses. But when we live them united with Christ, they become opportunities for our love to be purified of selfishness, pride, and false security. God doesn’t prune us to make us suffer; He prunes us so that our love can bear more fruit.
Remaining in Christ means making Him the center of our married life: praying together, receiving the sacraments, listening to His Word, and seeking His will before our own. Then we stop fighting against each other and begin fighting together for our marriage. The abundant fruit Jesus speaks about isn’t just outward achievements. The first fruit is a marriage where patience, forgiveness, tenderness, hospitality, and self-giving continue to grow. A marriage like that proclaims the Gospel without needing many words, because it makes God’s love visible.

Applied to Married Life
Matthew: Today what really struck me was when Jesus said, “whithout me you can do nothing.” I realized that so often I try to make our marriage work by relying only on my own effort.
Rose: I do the same. And when I stop leaning on the Lord, I become more impatient and start expecting you to be the one who needs to change.
Matthew: And the hard times… I used to see them as signs that we were failing. But today I understand they can also be God’s way of pruning us so we can love each other better.
Rose: Exactly. If we go through those moments united with Christ, instead of driving us apart, they help us grow in love and become even closer.
Matthew: So instead of asking God to take away our problems, maybe we should ask Him to help us remain united to Him.
Rose: That’s it. Because if we’re both connected to the Vine, we’ll naturally be more connected to each other.
 
Mother,
Keep us close to your heart, so that we may always remain in the heart of your Son. Blessed are you, our faithful Mother.

To Love You Like Mary Magdalene. Reflection for marriages. John 20:1-2

Leave a Reply
From the Gospel according to John 20:1-2, 11–18
On the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early in the morning, while it was still dark, and saw the stone removed from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and told them, “They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we don’t know where they put him.”
Mary stayed outside the tomb weeping. And as she wept, she bent over into the tomb and saw two angels in white sitting there, one at the head and one at the feet where the Body of Jesus had been. And they said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken my Lord, and I don’t know where they laid him.” When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus there, but did not know it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” She thought it was the gardener and said to him, “Sir, if you carried him away, tell me where you laid him, and I will take him.” Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni,” which means Teacher. Jesus said to her, “Stop holding on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am going to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'” Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord,” and then reported what he told her.

To Love You Like Mary Magdalene

My dear Lord, I love the three Marys of the Gospel: Your Mother, Mary of Bethany, and Mary Magdalene. How deeply they loved You! Lord, please teach me to love You as they did. I know that if I persevere in prayer and in the sacraments, striving to live every moment in Your presence, You will teach me.

How tender Mary Magdalene was! How she searched for You, how she wept in Your absence! Yet she wept so much that she did not recognise You when You were standing beside her. Lord, how often I cry because, in the midst of my problems, I cannot see anything and it looks like You are not there. Yet You are always by my side. You suffer even more than I do, because Your Heart is infinitely more sensitive than mine. Jesus, help me to trust You completely. You know everything. You can do everything. If You allow things to happen, it is because You will bring about a greater good if I embrace them with You.

Lord, may I take every opportunity to love You more, especially where it hurts. And above all, may I love You in my spouse. May I be like You towards him/her. May I be attentive, quick to go to him/her, to look into his/her heart, to ask how he/she is, to comfort him/her, and to love him/her. Lord, by loving my spouse, I love You.

Applied to Married Life

Dylan: Theresa, during this time of prayer I want to ask your forgiveness for being in such a bad mood. And I especially want to thank you for not getting angry with me, but for welcoming me as you did. It’s wonderful to see how much you’ve changed and how you help me through my difficult moments.

Theresa: Dylan , I love you very much. It’s God’s love that makes this possible, not me. Before, I simply couldn’t do it. My pride got in the way, and I felt it was unfair for you to react like that. Now I live it with Jesus. I know I am so loved and so forgiven that all I want is to love as He loves. And those difficult moments are the perfect opportunities to do so. So thank you very much!

Dylan:(Laughing) Well then, maybe I’ll grumble more often so you have even more opportunities! Just kidding! Please help me grow further along this path. I want to love the Lord much more, so that I can love you much more too, because you deserve everything. How do I do that?

Theresa: Starting today, let’s persevere more faithfully in prayer. That’s where we discover God’s love, and where Jesus shows us what prevents us from loving as He does, our self-love. And let’s make the most of the summer by going to Mass together every day. Aware that, filled with Christ in the Eucharist, we will be able to give ourselves as He does. And let’s encourage one another to see every difficult situation as an opportunity to learn how to love. What do you think?

Dylan: Let’s do it! Thank You, Lord!

Mother,

Please teach me to love Your Son as You love Him. Help me to receive His infinite love so that I may love as He loves.

Blessed and praised be God!

His Will. Reflection for marriages. Matthew 13:46-50

Leave a Reply
From the Gospel according to Matthew 12:46–50
While Jesus was speaking to the crowds, his mother and his brothers appeared outside, wishing to speak with him. Someone told him, “Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, asking to speak with you.” But he said in reply to the one who told him, “Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?” And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my heavenly Father is my brother, and sister, and mother.”
His Will

How easy it is for us to say that we want to do “God’s will,” and yet how difficult it is to actually do it! Our concupiscence, our own way of thinking, our tendency towards self-pity, comfort, vanity, laziness… so often our fallen nature prevents us from discerning and living the Lord’s true will each day, so that His plan for our marriage may be fulfilled.

For this reason, what truly matters is knowing the path that leads to holiness and remaining on it. The path is persevering, helping one another, and above all, as husband and wife, seeing each other as brother and sister in Christ, with the dignity of children of God, rather than as a burden or even as enemies. We must recognise that each of us has weaknesses, but also gifts, and those gifts are meant to be placed at the service of the other, so that together we may reach Heaven. We must not demand from our spouse what we ourselves have not yet achieved.

Applied to Married Life

(Paula arrives home exhausted after a hard day at work, in a bad mood because of the unbearable heat. She thinks to herself: “Enough is enough! Another day when Josh has left without making the bed. He even gets up later than I do, and I’m the one who takes the children to school! When he gets home, we´re going to have a word.”)

(Josh arrives home, also tired after collecting the children from school. Happy to see Paula, he kisses her, unaware of the look of irritation on her face.)

Josh: Hi, darling! How was your day? Children, put everything away and go and have your showers, you smell like caged lions! Goodness, this heat is unbearable! My love, I’ll make dinner tonight. Go and sit by the fan and have a nice cold glass of water.

Paula: Josh, you’ve completely disarmed me.

Josh: What do you mean, my love? I don’t understand. Are you alright?

Paula: Well… I was really angry when I got home and saw that the bed hadn’t been made. I’d been thinking about how I was going to tell you off, but your attitude has completely taken the wind out of my sails. Now I realise that forgetting the bed was just one of your absent-minded moments.

Josh: Oh, sweetheart! Did I really forget again? I’m hopeless. Please forgive me! Every morning I ask the Lord to help me do His will and overcome my laziness and my lack of organisation… but there are still some things I just can’t seem to get right.

Paula: Don’t apologise. I think this time it’s me the Lord is correcting. You’re such a good man, and I’m the one who needs to see you for the kind-hearted person you are. I should be grateful for the opportunity the Lord gives me whenever I find the bed unmade, to work on my own passions, to put my gifts at your service, and in doing so, give glory to God.

Mother,

May we become aware of all the opportunities the Lord gives us to do His will. Blessed be the Lord!

Do not demand proofs. Reflection for marriages. Matthew 12:38-42

Leave a Reply

From the Gospel according to Matthew 12:38–42

Some of the scribes and Pharisees said to Jesus, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.” He said to them in reply, “An evil and unfaithful generation seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it except the sign of Jonah the prophet. Just as Jonah was in the belly of the whale three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights.
At the judgment, the men of Nineveh will arise with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and there is something greater than Jonah here. At the judgment the queen of the south will arise with this generation and condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and there is something greater than Solomon here.”

Do not demand proofs

In this Gospel, Jesus denounces an attitude that can also appear in marriage: the constant need for “proof” in order to believe in the other person’s love. The Pharisees ask for an extraordinary sign, yet they are unable to recognise the presence of God already standing before them. The same can happen to us when we expect spectacular gestures in order to feel loved and fail to appreciate the small, everyday signs: a conversation, a sacrifice, a quiet act of service, a loving glance, or sincere forgiveness.

The Lord invites us to ask not so much, “What else does my husband or wife have to do to prove that they love me?” but rather, “Do I have a heart willing to recognise the love I already receive and allow myself to be transformed by it?” When our hearts become accustomed to demanding proof, we end up becoming blind to the gifts God is already giving us. But when we learn to look with gratitude, we discover that Christ continues to work miracles in our home through patience, faithfulness, reconciliation, and mutual service.

The Lord reminds us that the greatest sign is His total self-giving on the Cross and His Resurrection. True love is not demonstrated with fireworks but through a steadfast gift of self, even when it is difficult. As husbands and wives, we too are called to make our lives a “sign of Jonah”: dying to selfishness so that love may rise again each day.

Applied to marriage life

Pam: Alfie, I’ve been waiting for days for a sign that you love me.

Alfie: And what about me trying to go along with all the plans you suggest?

Pam: Well, I just see that as normal. I was expecting something more spectacular… a serenade, a trip to Paris… I don’t know, something with fireworks.

Alfie: Ah, so a bit like the Pharisees in the Gospel: “Lord, give us a sign.”

Pam: Well… yes, I suppose so.

Alfie: The problem is that when you’re waiting for something extraordinary, you stop seeing the ordinary. Jesus told them that the greatest sign was already right in front of them, but they failed to recognise it.

Pam: That’s true. Sometimes I don’t notice your little acts of love because I’m waiting for bigger, more dramatic ones.

Alfie: I have to admit that sometimes I do the same to you. I expect you to be someone you’re not.

Pam: So the miracle isn’t fireworks…

Alfie: …it’s discovering that love is shown every day in the simplest of details.

Pam: Well… if one day a trip to Paris happens as well…

Alfie:  We’ll have to keep praying for that miracle a little longer!

Mother,

Teach us to recognise the presence of Jesus in the simple moments of everyday life. May we not spend our lives waiting for great signs, but instead learn to recognise the miracle of a love that gives itself with patience, forgiveness, and faithfulness.

Praise be to Our Lord Jesus Christ.