Friday of the Seventh Week in Ordinary Time
Intention: For all of the students who are graduating from Lasallian schools and universities, that they may be blessed with fulfilling and generous futures, living their lives as instruments of God’s loving and saving presence.
Today’s Gospel | Mark 10:1-12
Jesus came into the district of Judea and across the Jordan. Again crowds gathered around him and, as was his custom, he again taught them. The Pharisees approached him and asked, “Is it lawful for a husband to divorce his wife?” They were testing him. He said to them in reply, “What did Moses command you?” They replied, “Moses permitted a husband to write a bill of divorce and dismiss her.” But Jesus told them, “Because of the hardness of your hearts he wrote you this commandment. But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. So they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, no human being must separate.” In the house the disciples again questioned Jesus about this. He said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”
From the Eighth Meditation for the Time of Retreat | Saint John Baptist de La Salle
It will not, then, be enough for you to have instructed your disciples about the mysteries and the truths of our holy religion if you have not helped them learn the chief Christian virtues and if you have not taken an altogether special care to help them put these virtues into practice, as well as all the good of which they are capable at their age. For no matter how much faith they may have or how lively it may be, if they do not commit themselves to practice good works, their faith will be of no use to them.
You must especially teach this maxim to those whom you instruct if you want to put them on the road to heaven, so that you can say to them that you have acted in a way that is beyond reproach, and this has given consolation to us.
Inspire them also with piety and self-control in church and in the exercises of piety that you have them perform in the schools. Instill in them the innocence and humility that our Lord recommends so strongly in the Gospel. Do not forget to help them acquire gentleness, patience, love and respect for their parents, and all the conduct that is proper to a Christian child, in a word, all that our religion demands of them.
Prayer
Eternal Father, we thank you for sustaining us today. Thank you for your steadfast love that never ceases to show us your mercy when we are unable to see your face, to hear your voice, to answer when you call. We thank you that you are understanding of our weakness and restore us to fullness with your grace. Teach us to be instruments of your grace to one another. We ask this of you who lives and reigns with your Son and the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever. Amen.