Memorial of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Intention: Intention: For those entrusted with the care of the children and young people of our world, that they will be channels of God’s wisdom, compassion, fidelity, and love.
Today’s Gospel | Luke 19:41-44
As Jesus drew near Jerusalem, he saw the city and wept over it, saying, “If this day you only knew what makes for peace – but now it is hidden from your eyes. For the days are coming upon you when your enemies will raise a palisade against you; they will encircle you and hem you in on all sides. They will smash you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave one stone upon another within you because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.”
From the Meditation on the Presentation of the Most Blessed Virgin | Saint John Baptist de La Salle
You have the happiness of being in God’s house, and you are bound there to his service. You must be filled with graces by the holy practice of prayer and strive to practice the virtues that are most fitting to your state. By these holy exercises, you will be able to fulfill your duties well, for you will not fulfill them as God requires of you except insofar as you are faithful to and diligent at the holy practice of prayer. By this means the Holy Spirit will come to you and will teach you, as Jesus Christ promises his holy Apostles, all the truths of religion and the maxims of Christianity that you must know and practice perfectly, because you are obliged to inspire them in others.
Prayer
Eternal Father, as we move through each of our days, it is not hard to see the problems of our world. Faced with the fears and suffering of so many, and the sinfulness that creates it, we know in our hearts that we must do something. Send us your Spirit, that we might find the wisdom to know and summon the courage to act. Make of us faithful builders of your Kingdom. We ask this of you who lives and reigns with your Son and the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. Amen.