Marist Association Daily Prayer

Let us always remember that

we are in the holy presence of God

May God continue to live in our hearts

In the name of the Father,

Son and Holy Spirit

Amen

CLICK HERE TO BEGIN
  • Intention of the Day
  • Today's Gospel
  • Breaking Open the Word
  • Marist Source
  • Reflection
  • Meditation
  • Call to Action
  • Closing Prayer

Intention of the Day

For teachers in Catholic schools.
Marists at St Teresa’s Catholic College, Noosaville, QLD.

For teachers in Catholic schools.
Marists at St Teresa’s Catholic College, Noosaville, QLD.

Today's Gospel. Saint Joseph, husband of Mary.

Mary stored up all these things in her heart.

Luke 2: 51
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Luke 2: 41-51.

41 Every year his parents used to go to Jerusalem for the feast of the Passover.

42 When he was twelve years old, they went up for the feast as usual.

43 When the days of the feast were over and they set off home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem without his parents knowing it.

44 They assumed he was somewhere in the party, and it was only after a day's journey that they went to look for him among their relations and acquaintances.

45 When they failed to find him they went back to Jerusalem looking for him everywhere.

46 It happened that, three days later, they found him in the Temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them, and asking them questions;

47 and all those who heard him were astounded at his intelligence and his replies.

48 They were overcome when they saw him, and his mother said to him, 'My child, why have you done this to us? See how worried your father and I have been, looking for you.'

49 He replied, 'Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?'

50 But they did not understand what he meant.

51 He went down with them then and came to Nazareth and lived under their authority. His mother stored up all these things in her heart.

Breaking Open The Word

We are to be like Abraham and David in our wholehearted reliance on God.

Taken from: Give Us This Day
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Taken from: Give Us This Day

God’s Unnatural Family.

Matthew’s Gospel begins with a genealogy of Jesus, naming him “the Son of David, the Son of Abraham.” We Christians also descend from Abraham and from David. In our case, as St. Paul points out today, the family resemblance is not genetic, but is instead a matter of faith. We are to be like Abraham and David in our wholehearted reliance on God.

Joseph gives us an image of what it means to be a “child of Abraham, child of David”: his trust, his mercy to Mary, even when he thought she had been unfaithful, let him become a witness and partaker in the still greater mercy of God. Rather than the natural family Joseph had expected, he took God’s unnatural mercy into his house, welcoming not only Mary but with her the work of the Holy Spirit and an unknown child. By accepting an event that transcended human understanding, the Holy Family became the core of a human family built on a graced charity that expands natural affection.

Early Christians distinguished between the natural generation of children and the way God’s spiritual generation upset the natural order. Gentile Christians were children of Abraham, “raised up from these stones” (Matt 3:9), born by God’s choice rather than by nature or human will (John 1:13). Joseph would not be the natural father of a child by Mary; instead, he would be the adoptive father to multitudes of children raised up by the reconciling work of Jesus Christ. As we look at our lives, where is the Holy Spirit overturning our expectations and asking us to accept God’s supernatural family?

Kimberly Hope Belcher. Taken from Give Us This Day.

Kimberly Hope Belcher is a married mother of three children and a professor of theology and liturgy at the University of Notre Dame.

For teachers in Catholic schools.
Marists at St Teresa’s Catholic College, Noosaville, QLD.

Marist Source

All our relationships are enriched when they are lived by taking Mary as the inspiration for our way of being and doing with others. With Mary we learn how to express God’s love in all the relationships of our personal and communal living…

# WFR 102.

For teachers in Catholic schools.
Marists at St Teresa’s Catholic College, Noosaville, QLD.

To Ponder

“She will bear a son…” How do I, like Mary, bring Christlife to birth?

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Where has the Spirit drawn you in today's prayer?

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Closing Prayer

All Loving God

Cultivate in us a spirituality that flows out of Marian simplicity, humility and modesty.

Release in us wellsprings of refreshment, inspiration and excitement for your work in which we share.

Help us set our gaze on those people and places most in need of Christlife,

Impel us to respond together,

And lead us to be in communion with one another, and with you.

Like Mary, we listen for your invitation,

Like Mary, we set out joyfully and in haste to the hill country of the lives of young people,

Like Mary, we build communities in ways that are Christ-centred.

All Loving God, come and live in our hearts.

 

 Amen