Prayer of the heart Thursday of the fourteenth week of ordinary time come Holy Spirit,
today I want to give you in my future, until the last day
of my life. I want to walk illuminated by your divine light to know
where I am going, so as not to wear out energies in things that
are not worth it. I don' t want to be obsessed with the
future, and that' s why I' d rather deliver it in your
presence and let myself be driven by your impulse. Holy Spirit, it will
be my anxiety to accept that everything comes to its time, already in its
time. Today the Church celebrates St Benedict of Nursia, the chief patron of
Europe, the Gospel of St Matthew, chapter nineteen, verses twenty- seven
to twenty- nine. At that time Jesus said Peter to Jesus. We
' ve left everything and followed you. What' s going to happen to
us? Jesus told them I assure you when the renewal comes and the son
of man feels the throne of his glory, you too, who have followed
me, will sit on twelve thrones to rule the twelve tribes of Israel.
Whoever leaves home for me, brothers or sisters, father or mother, wife,
children or lands, will receive a hundred times more and inherit eternal life.
Gratitude in following Jesus is the answer to the gratitude of the love and
salvation that Jesus gives us. And when you want, when you want,
to reconcile the Lord with what the world offers or poverty of spirit with selfish
material wealth. The result is a meliocre Christianity. It' s the spirit
of the world. These Christians echo the words of the prophet Elijah who said
they took with both legs because they do not know what they want. To
understand this it is necessary to remember that Jesus tells us that the first will
be the last. And the last will be the first, that is to
say the one who is believed to be the greatest, it has to be
returned to become the smallest server. Following Jesus from a human point of view
is not a good business. It' s serving he said. And if
Mr Gives You the chance to be the first, you have to behave like
the last one to serve? And if the Lord gives you the possibility of
having goods, you have to employ yourself to serve the others. There are
three things, three steps that distance you from Jesus, riches, vanity and
pride. That' s why riches are so dangerous because they immediately lead you
to vanity and you think you' re important. And how hard he thinks
he' s an important foot of his head and he' s lost you
see. We' ve left everything and followed you. It would be not
to understand it well if we interpreted leaving the whole pedro as just the option
of becoming a missionary or one who becomes that of the other religion. Every
Christian is called in some way to leave that whole thing that begins by leaving
oneself. When Jesus calls us to love more and invites us to a more
full and conscious surrender. The first thing we should do is reject the selfishness
of our lives. With the words of Pope John 23rd. We' re
putting self- respect under our shoes. It is our main obstacle and what
prevents God' s love from reaching us and spreading around us. Therefore,
our reward will have the measure of our love for God. The more generous
it is, the greater it will be. It is not forgiveness of an
option, of a delivery that we can easily reach from ourselves. It is
an invitation that comes from God, which he certainly wants for each one of
us, although he also asks us for our cooperation in this, we must
trust, for it is God who inspires so many purposes. He himself will
assist with his grace and will never abandon them, because following Christ means behaving
like Jesus does not behave. It means going wherever he goes, always following
in his footsteps, loving as he loves, guarding others as he guards us.
To be interested in the life of those who trust me to follow him
also means to speak with his words, to feel how he feels to have
his values. Following Jesus means coming to sea as Jesus loves me by following
the tendencies that he imposes on me in my life. We would like to
feel that what we have left everything to follow in his footsteps. Whatever happens
in the light of our successes, in the darkness of our failures. We
don' t always feel so free to follow him without fear. These words
have been with us for many years. I' ll follow you. Lord
where you go s s s s chapter eight, remind us that our vocation
passes by being with him, by walking with him, following Christ does not
consist in doing many things, in achieving many goals. It is not to
be very effective and successful, to find my pastoral successes full of hands,
for example, to be with him, to sleep where he sleeps, to
follow in his footsteps and if suddenly I lose his traces. And if I
won' t be no And if I don' t know if I'
ve left the place where he, where I am to set out on a
new path, I don' t know. I just know he' s
with me, and that makes me think that I' m where he'
s doing what he wants me to do tell Lord Jesus, when I compare
myself to others, when I try to see how others do it. Sometimes
I doubt and I get that pressure to be like us. I want to
be true to your call to follow you on the paths of life, of
my life. I don' t want to feel like I' m asking
for your face. Sometimes I don' t know how to do it.
I think it means that for once I stop thinking about my plans and how
to ask you, sir, to get into them and help me figure them
out. In my own way, following you is leaving my plans and thinking
empty of me what your plan is for me, your way. For me,
I trust him. Abandonment is the only way to follow it. I
don' t want to make excuses, I don' t want to hinder
your wishes. I recommend that you pray frequently a jaculatory that will help you
to fight discouragement in the face of difficulties, with the enthusiasm of my faith
and of my love for God, for example, is that I learned from
St Joseph Mary, Lord God, mine, in your hands I abandon the
past and the present and the future, the little, the small and the
great, the little and the much, the temporal and the eternal. Jesus,
of this meeting with you, help me, that this meeting with you
helps me to realize my generosity. I want to live with that openness in
all the circumstances of my life, especially in those that require a special detachment
from my own being to make myself available to others' ideas, without seeking
ephemeral rewards, but only to fulfill your will out of love. May the
blessing, Lord, be in your heart that you may know how to love
with all him, that he may be in your lips, that you may
speak with strength and faith of his resurrection, that he may be in your
arms, that you may work without rest for his sake, and that I
may enter his kingdom, that it may be in your feet, that you
may walk in the paths of peace which he will show you, that it
may be in your clean gaze, that your eyes may see Jesus and others,
that it may be your joy that you may never lose it, even
if you have reason and may give to others in the name of the father
and son and of the Holy Spirit Amen.