A Novena of Meditations on Humility

First Day - Matthew 7:1-5

Second Day - Matthew 11:25-30

Third Day - Matthew 18:1-4

Fourth Day - Mark 10:35-45

Fifth Day - Luke 14:7-11

Sixth Day - Luke 17:7-10

Seventh Day - Luke 18:9-14

Eighth Day - Philippians 2:1-13

Ninth Day - 1 Peter 5:1-11

A Week's Meditation on Charity

Sunday - Matthew 25:31-46

Monday - Matthew 5:38-48 (or Luke 6:27-36)

Tuesday - Matthew 18:23-35

Wednesday - Mark 12:41-44 (or Luke 21:1-4)

Thursday - John 13:31-35

Friday - John 15:12-17

Saturday - Luke 10:25-37

A Week's Meditation on the Blessed Trinity

After the weeks' meditations on Christ, the Holy Spirit, then the Father, it seemed proper to have the Blessed Trinity Himself as a theme of meditation. May meditation on the central mystery of our faith, that of the Holy Trinity, strengthen your own faith.

Sunday - Mark 1:9-11

Monday - Matthew 11:15-32

Tuesday - Mark 12:35-37

Wednesday - John 14:15-24

Thursday - John 15:18-27

Friday - John 16:12-15

Saturday - Matthew 28:16-20

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. (2 Corinthians 13:14)

A Week's Meditation on Joy

Sunday - Luke 10:17-22

Monday - Matthew 5:1-12 (or Luke 6:20-26)

Tuesday - Matthew 13:44-46

Wednesday - John 15:1-11

Thursday - John 16:16-24

Friday - John 16:25-33

Saturday - Luke 1:39-56

Other good Gospel passages on joy are Luke 2:8-20 and John 3:25-30.

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let all men know your forbearance. The Lord is at hand. Have no anxiety about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. (Phillipians 4:4-7)

A Week's Meditation on Chastity

The Gospels address the theme of chaste love from many different angles. Christ's teaching on marriage convey understanding of the state of life toward which the consummation of chaste love is directed. His teachings on those who practice celibacy relates that this love, too, is directed toward a positive end, for the sake of the kingdom. Jesus' deepening on the laws against adultery include chastity as a matter of having a chaste mind and heart. May the Gospels' teaching on chastity draw you to deeper understanding of the virtue.

Sunday - John 8:2-11

Monday - Matthew 5:1-12

Tuesday - Matthew 5:27-30

Wednesday - Mark 7:14-23

Thursday - Matthew 19:3-12

Friday - Matthew 22-23-33

Saturday - Luke 1:26-38

A Week's Meditation on the Father

It only seemed natural after having the last couple of weeks' meditation on Christ and Holy Spirit to then have this week's dedicated to the Father. In his book "Jesus of Nazareth", our Holy Father Pope Benedict points out that the two primary passages from Scripture revealing God the Father's fatherhood to us are that in which Christ says He lets rain fall on the just and the unjust (Mt 5:43-48), and when Christ explains the Father's readiness to give good things to those who ask Him (Mt 7:7-11, Lk 11: 5-13). May meditation on the passages below guide you to better knowledge and love of the Father.

Sunday - Matthew 6:7-14

Monday - Matthew 5:43-48

Tuesday - Luke 11:5-13 (or Matthew 7:7-11)

Wednesday - Matthew 18:10-14

Thursday - John 14:8-11

Friday - John 14:18-24

Saturday - Luke 15:11-32

Other very substantial passages on the Father are Mt 6:25-34 (or Luke 12:22-34); Mt 10:26-33 (or Luke 12:4-7); and John 3:16-21, 5:19-29, 6:35-46, 15:1-11, 16:25-33, and 17:20-26.

I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and earth is named. (Eph 3:14-15)

A Week's Meditation on the Holy Spirit

I've been letting it knock about in my head to meditate on the Holy Spirit this next week. Here is a daily schedule of Gospel passages on the Holy Spirit. May the Spirit Himself guide your own reflection.

Sunday - Luke 3:21-22

Monday - John 14:12-17

Tuesday - John 14:25-31

Wednesday - John 15:18-27

Thursday - John 16:1-11

Friday - John 16:12-15

Saturday - John 7:37-39

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God. (Romans 8:14)

Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross

Celebrate it by praying a decade of the Scriptural Rosary. While you're at it, please pray for a special intention of mine, the resolution of which is to come in the next couple of days, God willing.

The Crucifixion and Death of the Lord

Our Father

1- When they came to the place called The Skull, there they crucified him. (Lk 23:33) Hail Mary

2- And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” (Lk 23:34) Hail Mary

3- The rulers scoffed at him saying, “He saved others; let him save himself, if he is the Christ of God, his Chose One!” (Lk 23:35) Hail Mary

4- Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdelene. (John 19:25) Hail Mary

5- When Jesus saw his mother, and the disciple whom he loved standing near, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold your son!” (Jn 19:26) Hail Mary

6- Then he said to his disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home. (Jn 19:27) Hail Mary

7- After this Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the scripture), “I thirst.” (Jn 19:28) Hail Mary

8- Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Mt 27:46) Hail Mary

9- Then Jesus, crying out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit!” And having said this he breathed his last. (Lk 23:46) Hail Mary

10- One of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water. (Jn 19:34) Hail Mary

Glory be

A Week's Meditation on Christ-Centeredness

It came to mind at Mass this evening to meditate on Christ-Centeredness this coming week. Below please find a Gospel passage for each day of the week on this theme. These may serve as guides for meditation that we may better internalize Christ as the center of our lives.

Sunday - John 11:17-27

Monday - John 14:1-7

Tuesday - John 15:1-11

Wednesday - Matthew 11:25-30

Thursday - Matthew 17:1-8 (or Mark 9:2-8 or Luke 9:28-36)

Friday - Luke 9:23-27 (or Matthew 16:24-28 or Mark 8:26-9:1)

Saturday - John 1:1-18

As you received Christ Jesus the Lord, walk in him,
rooted in him and built upon him
and established in the faith as you were taught. (Col 2:6)

A Week's Meditation on Faith and Trust in God, Inner Peace

Last Sunday's Gospel from the 1962 Missal (see below, previous post) got me going on a stint. I decided to meditate on a Gospel passage everyday this past week whose theme all had to do with faith and the inner peace which results therefrom. Here are seven passages I have chosen which may also serve as a week's meditation on this theme. I split them up as per day of the week but it would be laughable for me to say it's necessary to follow this schedule. I can say that taking a week to meditate on this same theme daily has been indispensable in growth in the virtues of faith, trust in God, and inner peace.

Sunday - John 20:19-23

Monday - Luke 12:4-12 (or Matthew 10:26-33)

Tuesday - Luke 12:22-34 (or Matthew 6:24-34)

Wednesday - John 14:1-7

Thursday - John 14:25-31

Friday - John 16:29-33

Saturday - Mark 4:35-41 (or Matthew 8:23-27 or Luke 8:22-25)

Passages which I don't have listed here but which also convey this theme well are those in which Mary and Joseph model these virtues, as in Mary's fiat in the Annunciation (Lk 1:26-38), Joseph's obedience of faith in taking Mary into his home (Mt 1:18-25), Joseph's trust in God for the flight into Egypt (Mt 2:13-15), and Mary and Joseph's faith upon looking for and finding Jesus in the temple (Lk 2:41-51).

What Good Is It?

That's the question Christ asks about being anxious in today's Gospel from the 1962 Missal.

I'd say the gist of the whole Gospel passage, Luke 12:22-31, is summed up in two verses, 25 &26: "And which of you by being anxious can add one cubit to his span of life? If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest?"

In other words, being anxious is good for nothing. This is a message I would personally take to heart as I currently have so much on my plate. It helps to take Christ's questions in the above verses as addressed to one personally; being anxious about things is useless, why do it?

For those of us who may suffer from the habit of worrying, we are offered in the same passage anxiety's counter-virtue: faith; "if God so clothes the grass of the which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he cloth you, O men of little faith?" (28) A result of weak faith is little trust in God's omnipotence and his place to take care of us. We know that the best way to fight vice is not necessarily to extinguish it completely so as to leave a vacuum in our lives where the vice once resided (see Mt 12:43-45, Lk 11:24-26), but to replace the vice with its opposite virtue, so as to flush the vice out and fill that place where the vice formerly dwelt. Let us pray to be "men of much faith" so as to trust in God's almighty power to take care of even the most seemingly complex areas of our lives, and leave little room for worrying.