Wednesday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time
This Week’s Intention: In thanksgiving for all Lasallian educators, whose faith and zeal for their ministry continues to make their schools places of salvation for all, especially those most in need.
Today’s Gospel | Matthew 5:17-19
Jesus said to his disciples: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter will pass from the law, until all things have taken place. Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do so will be called least in the Kingdom of heaven. But whoever obeys and teaches these commandments will be called greatest in the Kingdom of heaven.”
From the Meditation on St. Margaret, Queen of Scotland | St. John Baptist de La Salle
(St. Margaret’s) love for the poor was extraordinary. Every morning, Saint Margaret spent time instructing poor children and afterward gave them food to eat. Because she honored Jesus Christ in them, she knelt to serve them. She and her husband fed three hundred poor people in their own dining room. It is also said that she frequently got money from her husband, the king, to give alms and that he gladly gave it to her. She often sent him out into the countryside to become informed about the sad state of the poor, so that he could direct all his efforts to help them.
You are by your state obliged to instruct poor children. Do you love them? Do you honor Jesus Christ in their person? With this in mind, do you prefer them to those who have a certain amount of material wealth? Do you have more concern for the former than for the latter? This saint gives you an example of this and teaches you how you ought to regard the poor.
Prayer
Eternal Father, we pray to you to help us, your people, to learn what it means to heal our world and build your Kingdom. Teach us how to pray to know your will. Teach us compassion, so that we know how to care, to embrace, to serve, and not judge the hearts of any but ourselves. And teach us faithfulness, so that every one of our words is true to your Word and every one of our actions is an instrument of your presence. We ask this of you who lives and reigns with your Son and the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. Amen.
St. John Baptist de La Salle, pray for us.
Live Jesus in our hearts forever.