Reflections of Faith
Read and be inspired by a reflection based on today's Gospel made by members of the Verbum Dei Family in Manila.
5/15/2018
Daily Guidelines: May 15, 2018May 15, 2018 Tuesday
Gospel: John 17:1-11a ”All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them.”(cf. Jn 17:10) Has anyone told you, “I prayed for you.” It is nice indeed to be in someone’s prayer. And in today’s Gospel, we are one in the prayer of Jesus – he prays for us.
He has us as much as we have him and he is one with us as much as we are one with him. This is the good news of Jesus being glorified not only because of him being the Son of God but also him being one with us. He knows us and he knows what to pray for us. Today’s Gospel invites us to be one with Jesus. Being one with him means being one with our brothers and sisters. We are invited to acknowledge his presence in the peripheries – reach out to them and pray for them. #PrayVD
5/14/2018
Daily Guidelines: May 14, 2018May 14, 2018 Monday Gospel: John 15:9-17 ”Love one another.”(cf. Jn 15:17) Jesus in today’s Gospel commanded his apostles to love one another. So as for them to remain in his love, he encourage them to keep his commandment. The commandment of Jesus to love one another is timeless. It is a never-ending need for humanity.
Corruption, terrorism, poverty – with the humanity dramatically losing its morality, love is still somewhere to find in every one’s hearts. Beyond morality—principles concerning the distinction between good and bad behaviour—is love, yet love could also be before morality. The challenge of today’s Gospel is the act of loving until morality is restored. If one could love another, then the other could also do the same to another and so on and so forth. Just always choose to love. #PrayVD
5/13/2018
Daily Guidelines: May 13, 2018May 13, 2018 - Sunday
Jn 17:11B-19 Jesus is the name of the Living WordJesus lifted His eyes to heaven and prayed asking the Father to keep and protect us in his name; Jesus shared his joy to us completely and was sent in the world for us to be consecrated in the truth.
“Jesus” is the name of the living Word. Jesus is the fulfilment of the scripture. Jesus is The Word itself. The gospel is describing how powerful the Word of God is. The Word makes us one with God, the Word protects, the Word gives us complete joy and it also tells us the truth about our lives. That is how powerful and beautiful the word of God is! Just as the Father has sent his Son to make the Word alive, Jesus is sending us to spread and be his living Word in the world of today. We are invited to pray deeper and see the beauty of the Word, and to experience the complete joy of Jesus. Let us allow that joy overflow in our hearts in such a way that it may fill the world through our lives by living and preaching the Word of God.
5/12/2018
Daily Guidelines: May 12, 2018May 12, 2018 - Saturday
Jn 16:23B-28 Your Joy will be completeJesus said to His disciples “Whatever you ask the Father in My name he will give you. Until now you haven’t asked anything in my name; ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete”.
Have we asked Jesus for joy? We might have asked but, did we listen to Jesus as he speaks to us about a greater joy to desire? Worldly things may give us joy but only a temporary and incomplete one. In the gospel Jesus tells us that the Father himself loves us and the complete joy comes from his love. Let us go deeper in our relationship and love with Jesus because only his love will complete our joy. Ask and listen to him. We are also invited to show to others the source of true joy. Share to others the love we experienced from Jesus and let their hearts be filled with complete joy!
5/11/2018
Daily Guidelines: May 11, 2018May 11, 2018 – Friday
Jn 16:20-23 I will see you again and your hearts will rejoiceIn today's Gospel, Jesus talks about a woman in labor. We can compare our lives with this woman… especially when we are trying to live and preach the word of God. We are faced with our weaknesses--shyness and superficiality for example, while the world rejoices.
Indeed, trying to be faithful to the word of God will sometimes entail pain and sufferings, like pangs of childbirth. But despite the sufferings and weaknesses, if we live the word faithfully then our sufferings and weaknesses will become joy, the joy of being fruitful. The child that has been born into the world makes the woman joyful; we will also become joyful if through us Jesus is born in our world today. Through our weaknesses we are able to grow; through our sufferings we are able to understand the suffering of others. Jesus said that he will see us again and all of our sufferings will become joy. He is inviting us to be connected to him for he will give us strength amidst our sufferings, so we may bear fruit and rejoice on seeing him be born in the world today.
5/10/2018
Daily Guidelines: May 10, 2018May 10, 2018 – Thursday
Jn 16:16-20 A little while later you will see MeJesus said to His disciples “A little while longer you will no longer see me and again a little while later and you will see me”. Then some of his disciples are asking one another what Jesus meant on what he said. He knew what the disciples wanted to ask him, and asked them if they were discussing with one another about what he told them.
Jesus is inviting us to listen and dialogue with him and not to just listen and then discuss with one another. God can speak to us in a deeper manner that sometimes we cannot grasp the first time we read his word. We are invited to go deeper in our prayer with the word of God and to listen only to God. Ask the Holy Spirit for the gift of Wisdom as we go deeper in our prayer to understand his personal message for us. His word is so powerful that it can change the world. Let us us live, preach and believe in his word. His word will reveal Jesus to us and we will see him in action through our lives.
5/9/2018
Daily Guidelines: May 9, 2018May 9, 2018 – Wednesday
Jn 16:12-15 I Declare It To YouIn today’s Gospel reading, Jesus reveals in some way the unpreparedness of his disciples to receive all that he has to reveal. But when the Spirit comes then he will guide them to all truth. The Spirit will witness to the truth, he will speak what he hears from God and will declare the things that are coming. The Spirit will take everything Jesus has and declare it to them.
Jesus is telling us that He will send the spirit to us as a gift. Through the Spirit we will know the truth, we will be able to hear what God is saying to us, and we will be able to know the things that are coming. The Spirit is a very precious gift from God for he is our guide in our journey of life and prayer. Jesus is inviting us to receive the Spirit for he will speak the word of God to us. The Spirit is a gift so we can understand what God is saying in every moment of our lives. The Spirit will help us in preaching the word of God and so helping many others understand God’s message for them.
5/8/2018
Daily Guidelines: May 8, 2018May 8, 2018 – Tuesday
Jn 16:5-11 Where are you going?Jesus said to His disciples that he is now going to the one who sent Him and no one asks him where is He going. He said also that he has to go so that he can send the Spirit to the disciples.
The disciples didn’t ask Jesus where he will go for they trust Jesus and have no need to question him about anything . . . they just put their Faith in him. Jesus is also inviting us to listen to him and put our faith in him and not question what he says to us. In the gospel the line “Where are you going?” is mentioned. Jesus knows where he is going and the purpose of it: to send the Spirit to us, his disciples. How about you? Do you know where you are going? Jesus is inviting us to listen to what He is saying to us for He speaks the truth. Jesus is also inviting us to go on the places where He is sending us and bring there the Spirit of truth.
5/7/2018
Daily Guidelines: May 7, 2018May 7, 2018 – Monday
Jn 15:26 – 16:4A You will not fall awayJesus said to His disciples that he would send them the spirit of truth. He told them this so that they would not fall away when the hour of persecution came. Then he explains that those who persecute them don’t know either Jesus or God the Father--persecution is the fruit of ignorance, it is therefore an opportunity to testify!
We have a reason to be confident even when facing persecution for He has been with us from the beginning. We should not be afraid to testify Jesus to the world for we know the truth. Let this truth be spread to people who ignore Jesus and the Father. Jesus is inviting us to spread the truth and let the people who don’t know him experience His love through us. Let us be confident in this task, for the spirit of truth is within us.
5/6/2018
Daily Guidelines: May 6, 2018May 6, Sunday
Gospel - John 15: 9-17 ”I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy might be complete.”The movie “The Pursuit of Happyness” tells the story of Chris Gardner, who for love of his son, endured many trials before he finally landed a job to provide for his son. It was then he declared he found happiness.
All of us seek happiness in one form or another. Like Chris, we would go to great lengths to obtain it. Today Christ tell us the secret to finding real happiness: to love one another and to abide in His love. Love is patient and kind, forgives and bears no grudges, is generous and thinks of the welfare of the others. Love believes in the eternal and makes all things possible. That’s why, despite facing the cross, Jesus is joyful. To love like Christ is to have happiness that is complete and does not fade. That is called joy. Lord, help us to love courageously and to abide in Your love. Help us to find true joy. |
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