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

That we develop a plan of action to promote vocations.
The Brothers’ Community and Marists, the Hermitage, Mittagong, NSW.

That we develop a plan of action to promote vocations.
The Brothers’ Community and Marists, the Hermitage, Mittagong, NSW.

Today's Gospel.

Then he began to speak to them, 'This text is being fulfilled today even while you are listening.'

Luke 4: 21.
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Luke 4: 16-30.

16 He came to Nazara, where he had been brought up, and went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day as he usually did. He stood up to read,

17 and they handed him the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. Unrolling the scroll he found the place where it is written:

18 The spirit of the Lord is on me, for he has anointed me to bring the good news to the afflicted. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives, sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free,

19 to proclaim a year of favour from the Lord.

20 He then rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the assistant and sat down. And all eyes in the synagogue were fixed on him.

21 Then he began to speak to them, 'This text is being fulfilled today even while you are listening.'

22 And he won the approval of all, and they were astonished by the gracious words that came from his lips. They said, 'This is Joseph's son, surely?'

23 But he replied, 'No doubt you will quote me the saying, "Physician, heal yourself," and tell me, "We have heard all that happened in Capernaum, do the same here in your own country." '

24 And he went on, 'In truth I tell you, no prophet is ever accepted in his own country.

25 'There were many widows in Israel, I can assure you, in Elijah's day, when heaven remained shut for three years and six months and a great famine raged throughout the land,

26 but Elijah was not sent to any one of these: he was sent to a widow at Zarephath, a town in Sidonia.

27 And in the prophet Elisha's time there were many suffering from virulent skin-diseases in Israel, but none of these was cured -- only Naaman the Syrian.'

28 When they heard this everyone in the synagogue was enraged.

29 They sprang to their feet and hustled him out of the town; and they took him up to the brow of the hill their town was built on, intending to throw him off the cliff,

30 but he passed straight through the crowd and walked away.

Breaking Open The Word

What if today, each of us...heard Jesus’ words as a gift to be humbly and gratefully received, rather than a script to declaim to others?

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

Better to Receive.

God is “the giver of every good gift,” today’s Collect proclaims. Therefore we must learn to be gracious and grateful recipients. But independent-spirited people like to be in control or prefer the role of benefactor. The reading from Luke’s Gospel offers a corrective.

The scene is familiar, the action dramatic. Selecting a Scripture passage, Jesus makes it his personal mission statement—his self-gift to the dispirited. Initially, the assembly is euphoric and relieved, until skepticism hardens into mob rule, and Jesus is cynically run out of the synagogue. But those who absorbed his message of redemption received the gift of new heart and new hope.

Is it not curious that generations of clergy and other ministers, rather than personally receiving this message along with everyone else, should themselves assume the Jesus-role of gift-giver and understand the message of liberation and hope to be directed exclusively at their congregations?

What if today, each of us—whether teachers or pastors or leaders of any kind—heard Jesus’ words as a gift to be humbly and gratefully received, rather than a script to declaim to others? For all of us are surely, in some ways, as poor, captive, blind, and oppressed as anyone in the Jerusalem synagogue or our own churches.

St. Paul claimed that Jesus said it is better to give than to receive (Acts 20:35), though the Gospels remain silent on this. But to prevent radical inequality we need to be both givers and receivers. Today’s Gospel invites us to be receivers, grateful for its words of encouragement and healing.

Fr. Anthony J. Gittins. Taken from Give Us This Day.

Fr. Anthony Gittins, CSSp, trained as an anthropologist, has spent many years living outside his native culture, and taught theology and mission in Chicago and beyond. His most recent book is Courage and Conviction: Unpretentious Christianity (Liturgical Press).

That we develop a plan of action to promote vocations.
The Brothers’ Community and Marists, the Hermitage, Mittagong, NSW.

Marist Source

Like Father Champagnat we place all our confidence in the Lord: “If the Lord does not build the house….”…also we place the best of ourselves and the resources at our disposal at the service of the mission.

Those students most in need should have a significant place in our prayer.

# EMY 139.

That we develop a plan of action to promote vocations.
The Brothers’ Community and Marists, the Hermitage, Mittagong, NSW.

To Ponder

If not for the those mentioned in the Gospel – the poor, the captives, the blind, the downtrodden then what have I been given the spirit of the Lord for?

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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