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CHRISTIAN MORNING MEDITATION:Lectio Divina: John 15:18-21Saturday, May 25, 20191) Opening prayerLord our God;it is good to live in the friendshipof Your Son Jesus Christ.Make us realize that also in this lovewe are committed to Him and share with Himfor better or for worse,in misunderstanding and contradictionas well as in joy and intimacy.Help us to rejoice even when treatedwith indifference or ridicule on account of Him,for it means that He is still with uswho is our Lord forever.2) Gospel Reading – John 15:18-21Jesus said to his disciples: "If the world hates you, realize that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, the world would love its own; but because you do not belong to the world, and I have chosen you out of the world, the world hates you. Remember the word I spoke to you, ‘No slave is greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. And they will do all these things to you on account of my name, because they do not know the one who sent me."3) Reflection• John 15:18-19: The hatred of the world. “If the world hates you, you must realize that it hated Me before it hated you.” The Christian who follows Jesus is called to live in a way that is contrary to society. In a world organized according to the egoistic interests of people and groups, Christians seek to live and radiate the love which will be crucified. This was the destiny of Jesus. This is why, when a Christian is praised by the power of this world and is exalted as a model for all by mass media, it is good to not trust that too much. “If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you do not belong to the world, because My choice of you has drawn you out of the world, that is why the world hates you.” It was Jesus’ choice which separated us. If we base ourselves on this vocation of Jesus, we will have the strength to suffer persecution and to have joy in spite of the difficulties.• John 15:20: The servant is not greater than his master. “A servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will persecute you; if they kept My word they will keep yours as well.” Jesus had already insisted on this same point in the washing of the feet (Jn 13:16) and in the discourse on the mission (Mt 10:24-25). It is this identification with Jesus throughout the centuries that has given so much strength to people to continue the journey, and has been a source of mystical experience for many saints and martyrs.• John 15:21: Persecution on account of Jesus. “But it will be on My account that they will do all this to you, because they do not know the One who sent Me.” The repeated insistence of the Gospel in recalling those words of Jesus which can help the communities understand the reason for persecutions is evidence that our brothers and sisters of the first communities did not have an easy life. From the persecution of Nero after Christ, up to the end of the first century, they lived knowing that they could be persecuted, accused, imprisoned and killed at any moment. The force which sustained them was a certainty that God was with them.4) Personal questions• Does the world love me? Do others love me as one who goes along with the values, expectations, and priorities of the world, or as one who sets a higher example according to Jesus?• How do I respond to persecution from others? Is it a way to offer leadership in love to others, or do I shrink from it and conform to expectations?• At times when others persecute me, is it because I am truly showing love and the will of the Father to others, or am I behaving even worse than society expects?5) Concluding PrayerFor Yahweh is good,His faithful love is everlasting,His constancy from age to age. (Ps 100:5)#dailymeditations www.stswithuns.org.uk/event/dr-25052019 … See MoreSee Less

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Today, it is 9 days before me and my colleges priests will celebrate 20th Anniversary of the Sacrament of Ordination to the Holy Priesthood. We were ordained in 1999 in Krakow (Poland), and our patroness of a year is St Sr Faustyna. We start the novena to pray for ourselves, and I humbly ask all of You, your Friends and Family members to pray for us. Today, please start with this prayer to pray for us – thank You so much from the depths of my priestly heart.St. Faustina’s Prayer for Priests“O my Jesus, I beg Thee on behalf of the whole Church:Grant it love and the light of Your Spirit,and give power to the words of priestsso that hardened hearts might be brought to repentanceand return to You, O Lord.Lord, give us holy priests;You yourself maintain them in holiness.O Divine and Great High Priest,may the power of Your mercy accompany them everywhereand protect them from the devil’s traps and snareswhich are continually being set for the souls of priests.May the power of Your mercy, O Lord, shatter and bring to naughtall that might tarnish the sanctity of priests,for You can do all things.” … See MoreSee Less

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Lectio Divina: John 15:12-17Friday, May 24, 20191) Opening prayerLord our God, loving Father,You have given us your Son Jesus Christas the true vine of lifeand our source of strength.Help us to live His lifeas living branches attached to the vine,and to bear plentiful fruitof justice, goodness and love.Let our union with Him become visiblein our openness to one anotherand in our unity as brothers and sisters,that He may be visibly present among usnow and for ever.2) Gospel Reading – John 15:12-17Jesus said to his disciples: "This is my commandment: love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father. It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you. This I command you: love one another."3) Reflection• Today Gospel of John 15:12-17: Jesus defines His relationship with the disciples and gives His final commandment to them. Let us take some of the points considered that day.• John 15:12-13: To love one another as He has loved us. The commandment of Jesus is only one: “to love one another as I have loved you!” (Jn 15:12) Jesus exceeds the Old Testament. The ancient criteria was the following: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Lv 18:19). The new criteria is this: “Love one another as I have loved you.” It is the sentence that we sing even today and which says, “There is no greater love than to give one’s life for one’s brother!”• John 15:14-15: Friends and not servants. You are My friends if you do what I command you,” that is, the practice of love to the point of total gift of oneself! Immediately Jesus presents a very high ideal for the life of His disciples. He says, “I shall no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. I call you friends because I have made known to you everything I have learned from My Father!” Jesus no longer held any secrets from His disciples. He tells us everything that He has heard from the Father! Behold the wonderful ideal of life in community: to reach a state of total transparency to the point of not having any secrets among us and to have full trust in one another. Being able to enrich one another by speaking about the experience of God that we have. The first Christians succeeded in reaching this ideal after many years: “They had one only heart and one only soul” (Acts 4:32; 1:14; 2:42-46).• John 15:16-17: Jesus has chosen us. We have not chosen Jesus. He met us, called us and entrusted a mission to us to go and bear fruit, and a fruit which lasts. We need Him, but He also wants to need us and our work in order to be able to continue to do today for the people what He did for the people of Galilee. This is My commandment: love one another!”4) For Personal Consideration• To love our neighbor as Jesus has loved us. This is the ideal of every Christian. He showed this not only by dying for us, but by devoting His life to helping us to know and find God the Father. Do I love as Jesus loved and devote my life in the same way?• All that I have heard from the Father I make it known to you. This is the ideal of the community: total transparency. How do I live this in my community, which can be family, parish, neighborhood or religious order?• Jesus called them “friends” and told them to love one another. Do I make distinctions, rather than considering all equally, among those in my community whom I should call “friends”? How do I respond or accept it when I am treated differently than another “friend” in my community?5) Concluding PrayerMy heart is ready, God, my heart is ready;I will sing, and make music for You.Awake, my glory, awake, lyre and harp,that I may awake the dawn. (Ps 57:7-8)#dailymeditations www.stswithuns.org.uk/event/dr-24052019 … See MoreSee Less

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CHRISTIAN MORNING MEDITATION:Lectio Divina: John 15:9-11Thursday, May 23, 2019Easter Time1) Opening prayerLord our God,You want Your Churchto be open to all persons and all nations,for Your Son was available to alland Your love all people.God, give us open mindsand open hearts.Save us from our narrow prejudicesand stop us from trying to create peoplein our own image and likeness.We ask You this through Christ our Lord.2) Gospel Reading – John 15:9-11Jesus said to his disciples: "As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. "I have told you this so that my joy might be in you and your joy might be complete."3) Reflection• The reflection around the parable of the vine includes verses 1 to 17. Today we will mediate on verses 9 to 11; the day after tomorrow, the Gospel skips verses 12 to 17 and begins with verse 18, which speaks about another theme. This is why, today, we include in a brief comment, verses 12 to 17, because in them blossoms the flower and the parable of the vine shows all its beauty.• Today’s Gospel is formed of only three verses which continue from yesterday’s Gospel and give more light to be able to apply the comparison of the vine to the life of the community. The community is like a vine. It goes through difficult moments. It is the time of the pruning, a necessary moment in order to be able to bear more fruit.• John 15:9-11: Remain in My love, source of perfect joy. Jesus remains in the love of the Father, by observing the commandments which He receives from Him. We remain in the love of Jesus by observing the commandments which He has left for us. And we should observe them in the same way in which He observed the commandments of the Father: “If you keep My commandments you will remain in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and remain in His love”. It is in this union of the love of the Father and of Jesus that the source of true joy is found: “I have told you this so that My joy may be in you and your joy be complete.”• John 15:12-13: Love one another as I have loved you. The commandment of Jesus is only one: “To love one another, as He has loved us!” (Jn 15:12). Jesus goes beyond the Old Testament. The ancient criterion was: “You will love your neighbor as yourself” (Lev 19:18). The new criterion is, “That you love one another, as I have loved you.” Here He utters the sentence which we sing even until now: “Nobody has greater love than this: to give one’s life for one’s friends!”• John 15:14-15: Friends and not servants. “You are My friends if you do what I command you”, that is, the practice of love up to the total gift of self! Immediately after, Jesus adds a very high ideal for the life of the disciples. He says, “I shall no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. I call you friends, because I have made known to you everything I have learned from My Father!” Jesus had no more secrets for His disciples. He has told us everything He heard from the Father! This is the splendid ideal of life in community: to attain a total transparency, to the point of not having any secrets among ourselves and of being able to have total trust in one another, to be able to share the experience of God and of life that we have, and in this way enrich one another reciprocally. The first Christians succeeded in attaining this ideal during several years. They were “one only heart and one soul” (Acts 4:32; 1:14: 2:42, 46).• John 15:16-17: Jesus has chosen us. We have not chosen Jesus. He has chosen us. He has called us and has entrusted us the mission to go and bear fruit, fruit which will last. We need Him, but He also needs us and our work in order to be able to continue to do today what He did for the people of Galilee. The last recommendation: “My command to you is to love one another!”• The symbol of the vine in the Bible. The people of the bible cultivated the vine and produced good wine. The harvest of the grapes was a feast with songs and dances, and this gave origin to the song of the vine, used by the prophet Isaiah. He compares the people of Israel to the vine (Isa 5:1-7; 27:2-5; Ps 80:9, 19). Before him, the prophet Hosea had already compared Israel to an exuberant vine, the more fruit that it produced, the more it multiplied its idolatries (Hos 10:1). This theme was used by Jeremiah, who compares Israel to a bastard vine (Jer 2:21), from which the branches were uprooted (Jer 5:10; 6:9). Jeremiah uses these symbols because he himself had a vine which had been trampled on and devastated by the invaders (Jer 12:10). During the slavery of Babylonia, Ezekiel used the symbol of the vine to denounce the infidelity of the people of Israel. He told three parables on the vine: 1) the vine which is burnt and is good for nothing (Ezek 15:1-8); 2) the false vine planted and protected by two waters, symbols of the kings of Babylonia and of Egypt, enemies of Israel. (Ezek 17:1-10); and 3) the vine destroyed by the oriental wind, image of the slavery of Babylonia (Ezek 19:10-14). The comparison of the vine was used by Jesus in several parables: the laborers of the vineyard (Mt 21:1-16); the two sons who have to work in the vineyard (Mt 21:32-33); the parable of the wicked tenants, who did not pay the landowner, beat the servants, and killed the son of the landowner (Mt 21:33-45); the barren fig tree planted in the vineyard (Lk 13:6-9); and the vine and its branches (Jn 15: 1-17).4) Personal questions• We are friends and not servants. How do I consider this in my relationship with other people?• Consider what "friend" really means to you: If you came out of the kitchen with the last bowl of soup there, and your friend was sitting there, would you tell him/her there was no more, or would you offer to share it, or would you give it all to him/her? If you gave it all, would you sit there and look hungry or sad, or would you go back to the kitchen to make it look like you had some too so your friend would have no bad feelings about eating? Ask, what have I done in my past? This scene summarizes our options as Christians to our friends.• It is easy to see and think about necessities such as food in this context, especially as they are used so frequently in biblical references, but it is not limited to this. Consider if I am talking in a group and another joins who perhaps is not as confident in the language I am using. Do I slow down, or use easier words, so that the friend who has just joined the conversation may understand more? Do I help him/her, or do I just continue, not considering such things? Do I make an effort to understand his/her needs in this at all? Or do I just go on, either ignorant of my friend’s needs or handicaps, or being critical of them? Do I say "come with me and I will help you" and take personal interest in your friend, or do I just give him/her the name of a tutor and I am done with it?• Who is my friend? Is there a boundary? Do I treat those in my community as different friends than those on the street? Can a stranger be a friend? If, in the soup question, it wasn’t a friend at the table, but instead a knock at the door and a beggar was there, how would I answer differently? • To love as Jesus has loved us. How does this ideal of love grow in me?5) Concluding PrayerProclaim His salvation day after day,declare His glory among the nations,His marvels to every people! (Ps 96:2-3)#dailymeditations www.stswithuns.org.uk/event/dr-23052019 … See MoreSee Less

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