Presence

I slow myself down for a moment, and try to realise that God is present,
To me, here and now. He is present in what I do,
in the people that I meet, and the situations I find myself in daily.
I become present to the One who is always present to me.

Freedom

I ask for the grace
to let go of my own concerns
and be open to what God is asking of me,
to let myself be guided and formed by my loving Creator.

Consciousness

Lord, grant that I may always desire
to spend time in Your presence.
May I not forget Your goodness to me.
Guide me to share Your blessings with others.

The Word of God

¹But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared. ²They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, ³but when they went in they did not find the body. ⁴While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them. ⁵The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here but has risen. ⁶Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, ⁷that the Son of Man must be handed over to the hands of sinners and be crucified and on the third day rise again.” ⁸Then they remembered his words, ⁹and returning from the tomb they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest. ¹⁰Now it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told this to the apostles. ¹¹But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. ¹²But Peter got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; then he went home, amazed at what had happened.

Inspiration

The first Holy Saturday must have been a day of stunned silence for the mother of Jesus and for his disciples. In the Jewish understanding, a person’s end was an indication of how they had lived. In the book of Wisdom 2:16 we read, ‘He boasts that God is his Father … let us see what will happen to him in the end.’  Let us spend some time now in prayer with Mary and the apostles, sharing in the mood of sombreness and waiting for the dawn of Easter Sunday.

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