Presence

“I have loved you with an everlasting love.”(Jeremiah 31:3). Lord, may these words penetrate my heart and soul during this time of prayer today.

Freedom

“In these days, God taught me
as a schoolteacher teaches a pupil.” (Saint Ignatius).
I remind myself that there are things God has yet to teach me,
and I ask for the grace to hear them and let them change me.

Consciousness

Heavenly Father, thank You that Your love never fails and that Your mercies are new every morning. May I never fail to turn to You with my needs, with my love.

The Word of God

¹He left that place and went to the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan. And crowds again gathered around him, and, as was his custom, he again taught them.

²Some, testing him, asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” ³He answered them, “What did Moses command you?” ⁴They said, “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her.” ⁵But Jesus said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart he wrote this commandment for you. ⁶But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ ⁷‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife,^{, 8}and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. ⁹Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”

¹⁰Then in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter. ¹¹He said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her, ¹²and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”

Inspiration

Jesus knows that his authority is greater even than that of Moses and so he is free to change the commandments of Moses, which were written for people at a different stage of human development. His teaching here on divorce is clear and direct. In Christian marriage, God has joined a man and a woman to become one. We pray to try to live God’s way.

Sometimes, when we fail to follow the teachings of Jesus, we are tempted to  excuse ourselves by saying, ‘If Jesus were here today, he would change his teaching.’ But Jesus is still here, and he makes his teachings clear through the authorised voice of his Church. Let us pray to be faithful to the teaching of our Church.

Conversation

What word or phrase has caught my attention from today’s Gospel? I ask the Lord what He wants to say to me through this word…

Conclusion

Filled with the loving presence of God,
I ask Him to bless me and guide my steps
as I go to do His work in my daily life.

Amen