GOSPEL OF THE DAY

From the Gospel according to Mark

Mk 4:35-41

On that day, as evening drew on, Jesus said to his disciples:

“Let us cross to the other side.”

Leaving the crowd, they took Jesus with them in the boat just as he was.

And other boats were with him.

A violent squall came up and waves were breaking over the boat,

so that it was already filling up.

Jesus was in the stern, asleep on a cushion.

They woke him and said to him,

“Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”

He woke up,

rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Quiet! Be still!”

The wind ceased and there was great calm.

Then he asked them, “Why are you terrified?

Do you not yet have faith?”

They were filled with great awe and said to one another,

“Who then is this whom even wind and sea obey?”

The gospel of the Lord

Coincidence

As per Fr Jacinto’s comments, Jesus transforms the disciples’ fear to the forces of nature into a reverential fear filled with amazement to His lordship. When we begin to know the Lord and He introduces us to His Heart, our biggest fear becomes being away from Him.

Landed in Married Life:

Juanjo: For a while my desire has been that our marriage gets out of the crisis, but I had tried everything and had already lost hope. When I thought that everything was lost, when I thought that I had nowhere to hold on, I realised that I could only turn myself to the Lord. So I put myself in His hands and asked for help. I hadn’t finished my prayer, and I received a WhatsApp with an invitation to a Marriage retreat. I couldn’t believe it! That couldn’t be a coincidence, and it certainly wasn’t.

Martha: The Lord saved our marriage. They were a chain of events. I had a commitment the weekend of the retreat, and the same day that Juanjo received the invitation, a colleague of mine asked me to swop days, so I became free. And so, several coincidences happened until the day of the retreat. We got converted. It was a before and an after. Our marriage did not heal at the retreat, there were still many things to do, but in that retreat we received the light and the encouragement we needed. Glory to God!

Mother,

It is the moments of turbulence that allow us to show the Lord that we believe in Him. They are also those moments in which we can be a light for those around us, who are surprised when they see us calmly living these difficult situations. Increase our faith, Mother. Through Jesus Christ Our Lord. Amen.

GOSPEL OF THE DAY

From the Gospel according to Matthew

Mt 6:24-34

Jesus said to his disciples: “No one can serve two masters.

He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear.

Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds in the sky; they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are not you more important than they?

Can any of you by worrying add a single moment to your life-span? Why are you anxious about clothes? Learn from the way the wild flowers grow.

They do not work or spin. But I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendour

was clothed like one of them. If God so clothes the grass of the field, which grows today and is thrown into the oven tomorrow, will he not much more provide for you, O you of little faith? So do not worry and say, ‘What are we to eat?’ or ‘What are we to drink?’ or ‘What are we to wear?’ All these things the pagans seek.

Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given you besides.

Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself.

Sufficient for a day is its own evil.”

The gospel of the Lord.

Crosses on their way.

The Lord says in another Gospel that whoever wants to be His disciple must deny himself, take up their “daily” cross and follow Him. One of the crosses that should not overwhelm us is that of what is going to happen tomorrow, because that does not yet correspond to today.

In other recent Gospels, the Lord spoke to me about purifying my memory or purifying current circumstances by interpreting them according to God. Now He talks to me about also purifying my projection towards the future, looking forward putting my trust in Him, believing more in the power of God’s Love than in that of material means.

Landed to Married life:

Almudena: It is true that accepting faith is accepting many crosses, but on the other hand it frees us from the heavy ones.

Mario: Which ones, for example?

Almudena: Well, for example, all the stress. How much you suffer from stress, right?

Mario: True. It feels terrible. But why do you say they are the heaviest?

Almudena: Because when you experience your crosses with faith you also experience them with love, with LOVE in capital letters, the love of God, which is the Holy Spirit.

Mario: Now I understand. When you truly love you are willing to give yourself. And when it is the Holy Spirit who moves you, that surrender is joyful and sanctifying.

Almudena: I see that you have experienced what I’m talking about. That’s why you understand it. May the Lord continue to give you light.

Mother,

Being in Your maternal Heart, we are so comfortable. Thank you Lord for giving us to Your Mother. Amen

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