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“Love God with all your heart, with all your
soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength, and love your neighbor as
yourself.” All of Jesus’
teachings can be summed up in this Gospel passage (Mark 12:28-34).
When we love God fully, we can’t help but love everyone
else — even the “neighbors” who make our lives difficult.
Think of the person you love the most. Is it the one who’s the easiest to serve? Do you enjoy doing good deeds for him or her? This generous love reflects your love for God.
Now think of the person you love the least. Is it someone you want to refuse to serve
because of how he or she has hurt you? This
is also a reflection of your love — or lack of it — for God.
Jesus never said that we have to enjoy doing good to our
enemies. He certainly didn’t like being
whipped and manhandled and jabbed and mocked and crucified, but that didn’t
stop Him from offering Himself as a sacrifice for you and for me and for the
people we dislike. Since He did that for
us, can we at least do small deeds of goodness that are no fun to do?
Mercy means choosing to do good whether we like it or not. To love with our whole heart, soul, mind and
strength means choosing to let nothing prevent us from doing good, no matter
how we might actually feel about it.
Love is not always a nice feeling. But love is always a choice that brings us
into unity with the One Who Is Love.
The book of Hosea tells us that on our journey of holiness
we stumble in our treatment of others and sin. Then, when we ask God to forgive our iniquity,
we blossom spiritually like beautiful lilies and we bear good fruit (Hosea
14:2-10).
However, we’re not capable of loving others more than we
love ourselves. Jesus said, “Love
your neighbor as you love yourself.” Loving ourselves and doing good for our own
selves (to get our needs met) gives us the confidence and freedom that we need
in order to do good to others, especially when life is difficult.
Low self-esteem is not God’s plan for us. Let Him heal your wounded heart. Let Him correct bad messages that have cut you
down. Let Him point out your goodness
and giftedness. Spend time observing
yourself through His eyes. Pay attention
to how much He appreciates you. He sees
your goodness even when you can’t.
God loves you with His whole heart, His whole soul, His
whole mind, and His whole strength!
************************
The Highs and Lows and Ups and Downs of the Most Holy
Rosary:
The Sorrowful mysteries:
III. The crowning of
thorns
Brief meditation:
In this mystery, we contemplate Our Lord Jesus Christ cruelly crowned with thorns by the guards and then
presented in front of the public where he is mocked and
humiliated for having preached truth and virtue. We ask the Blessed
Virgin Mary to inspire us with this scene so that every time we find ourselves
having to defend Catholic faith and morality in public, that we may never cower, that we may always defend them with courage giving more importance to God’s opinion
than to public opinion or peer pressure.
Scriptural meditations:
1. Then the soldiers
of the governor took Jesus inside the praetorium and gathered the whole cohort
around him. (Matthew 27:27)- Hail Mary…
2. They stripped off
his clothes and threw a scarlet military cloak about him. (Matthew 27:28)- Hail
Mary…
3. Weaving a crown out of thorns,
they placed it on his head, and a reed in his right hand. And kneeling before
him, they mocked him, saying, "Hail, King
of the Jews!" (Matthew 27:29)- Hail Mary…
4. They spat upon him and took the reed and kept striking him on the head. (Matthew 27:30)- Hail Mary…
5. And when they had
mocked him, they stripped him of the cloak,
dressed him in his own clothes, and led him off to crucify
him. (Matthew 27:31)- Hail Mary…
6. Lord, my God, I
call out by day; at night I cry aloud in your
presence. (Psalm 88:2)- Hail Mary…
7. You plunged me
into the bottom of the pit, into the darkness of the abyss. (Psalm 88:7)- Hail Mary…
8. All day I call on
you, Lord; I stretch out my hands to you. (Psalm 88:10)- Hail Mary…
9. Why do you reject me, Lord? Why hide your face from me? (Psalm
88:15)- Hail Mary…
10. All the day they
surge round like a flood; from every side they close in
on me. Because of you companions shun me;
my only friend is darkness. (Psalm 88:18-19)-
Hail Mary…
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