Suy Niệm Tin Mừng Thừ Hai Tuần thứ 5 Phục Sinh

 Suy Niệm Tin Mừng Thừ Hai Tuần thứ 5 Phục Sinh

"Ai yêu mến Thầy, thì sẽ giữ lời Thầy. Cha của Thầy sẽ yêu mến người ấy. Cha của Thầy và Thầy sẽ đến và ở lại với người ấy. " (Jn 14:23) Đây là lời hứa của Chúa Kitô đã hứa với chúng ta. Điều này cũng cho chúng ta thấy mối quan hệ mật thiết giữa Chúa Giêsu và Chúa Cha và qua đó Chúa Giêsu cũng đã muốn lôi kéo chúng ta đến một mối quan hệ gần gũi hơn với Thiên Chúa Cha. Bằng cách này, chúng ta được mời gọi để phụ thuộc hoàn toàn vào Thiên Chúa như Chúa Giêsu và qua Ngài mà Thiên Chúa đã thấy được những dấu lạ mà Chúa Giêsu đã làm. Tất cả cuộc sống của Ngài là một sự phản ánh của những sự tốt lành, quyền lực và tình yêu của Thiên Chúa. Chúng ta được mời gọi đến với cuộc đời này trong đức tin với Chúa Giêsu, như là khí cụ bình an , tình yêu và công lý của Thiên Chúa, do đó chúng ta có thể đem lại sự sống và hạnh phúc cho những người khác qua Chúa Giêsu. Điều này cũng được thực hiện bởi quyền năng của Chúa Thánh Thần luôn liên tục hành động trong và qua chúng ta. Tuy nhiên, chúng ta thường hay bị thất bại trong mối quan hệ này với Thiên Chúa bởi vì chúng ta để cho những thứ ham muốn và quyền lực của thế gian này làm ảnh hưởng và kiểm soát cuộc sống của chúng ta. Lạy Chúa, xin ban cho chúng con những ân sủng của Chúa để chúng con luôn luôn được nhắc nhở là chúng con phải biết tập trung và tuân theo tất cả những gì mà Chúa đã dạy chúng con và chúng phải biết dựa vào Chúa Thánh Thần của Chúa để chúng con có thể được hướng dẫn trong ánh sáng cứu rỗi của Chúa..

Monday on 5th Of Easter -Acts 14:5-18; Jn 14:21-26

‘If anyone loves me he will keep my word, and my father will love him, and we shall come to Him and make our home with Him.’ This is the promise of Christ to us. This also reveals the intimate relationship between Jesus and the Father that draws us to a closer relationship with them. By this, we are called to have total dependence on God like Jesus through whom God is made visible by the signs Jesus did. His whole life is a reflection of God's goodness, power and love. We are called to this life of faith in Jesus as God’s instruments of peace, love and justice, thus giving life to others through Jesus.

The purpose of this promise is to express the unrestricted scope of the personal relationship between God, Jesus and the believers. This is also made possible by the power of the Holy Spirit who continues to act in and through us. However, we often fail in this relationship by allowing worldly values to influence and control our lives. We lose track of the ‘focus’ and like the ‘crowd’ in the first reading, we become attached to worldly things — wealth, power, fame and status and other inordinate attachments. We need to remain faithful and persevering in our response to the love God has so graciously given us.

Lord, grant us the grace to always be reminded of all that You have taught us and to rely on Your Holy Spirit for guidance and light.

Epriest-Monday 5th Easter 2022

Opening Prayer: My Jesus, I come before you in this time of prayer as an act of love, and I believe you are here with me. In faith, I know that I love you, and I want to know your will for me in all things. I pray for the trust that will enable me to say yes to whatever you ask and to delight in doing your will. Your goodness is the source of my hope. Thank you, Lord, for your love for me and your patience with me as I strive to become ever more the person you created me to be.

Encountering Christ:

0. Love Desires to Obey: In Psalm 40, we read, “I delight to do your will, my God; your law is in my inner being!” (Psalm 40:9). In the book of Hebrews, we read that Jesus said, “Behold, I come to do you will, O Lord” (Hebrews 10:7, 9); in fact, Jesus said that doing the will of the one who sent him (God the Father) is his food (John 4:34). Finding our nourishment and delight in doing the will of God makes visible the love we are to have for God and neighbor, and this is the love that we see exemplified by Jesus. His self-giving love on the cross was the fruit of his love for the Father, love that was lived out in obedience. Through this kind of love, we grow in the knowledge of and intimacy with God. Do we delight in doing God’s will as an act of love? Do we have the courage to say “not my will but yours be done” (Luke 22:42) when we face difficulties?

1. Whoever Does Not Love…: There is an old saying, “Actions speak louder than words.” Here Jesus pointed to something similar in a stark statement: “Whoever does not love me does not keep my words.” In another place, he said, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in Heaven” (Matthew 7:21). Jesus held up obedience–keeping his words and obeying the Father–as the standard for what it means to love him. What gets in the way of obedience? The Catechism identifies the failure to trust God as the root of the disobedience in original sin and states, “All subsequent sin would be disobedience toward God and lack of trust in his goodness” (CCC 297). Trust is foundational to love. We can consider our trust in the Lord, and our willingness to say “yes” to whatever he asks (through Scripture, the teachings of the Church, or personal inspiration) in light of St. Paul’s teaching: “There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear because fear has to do with punishment, and so one who fears is not yet perfect in love (1 John 4:18).

2. Never Alone: Jesus assures us that we are not left alone. First, he tells us that he and the Father will come and dwell within us, and where the Father and Son are, there the Spirit is too (the Trinity cannot be separated). We are also told that the Holy Spirit will be sent to us, and he will teach us everything and remind us of all that Jesus has told us. We know that this means more than an individual relationship with the Lord and fidelity in following the teachings of the Church. We are called to communion, both in the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist and as part of the Body of Christ. The Catechism calls the Church “the great sacrament of divine communion which gathers God’s scattered children together. Communion with the Holy Trinity and fraternal communion are inseparably the fruit of the Spirit in the liturgy” (CCC 1108). When we receive Jesus in Holy Communion, we acknowledge that he is the source of fraternal communion. We treasure the members of the body of Christ and pray for unity.

Conversing with Christ: Lord, in this prayer, I have been struck by your great love for the Father—your Father and mine. I am struck by your hunger to know and do his will in all things. There was nothing you wanted or valued more than your unity with him, and that unity was made real through obedience. Lord, help me see those areas in my life where I have been saying no and need to say yes. Open my heart to your presence in my life. The opportunities for obedience are like knocks on the door of my heart; let me open that door so that you can come in and dine with me (Revelation 3:20).

Resolution: Lord, today by your grace I will increase my trust in you by spending ten minutes looking over my life and identifying several examples of your loving care, and I will share at least one of these with someone.

Epriest-Monday 5th Easter 2018

1. The Danger: It is easy to forget you, Lord, especially with all the images that are around me. Every image I harbor in my heart, every emotion I abandon myself to leaves its mark. These can come from the radio, the Internet, songs, novels… anywhere. They seem to swamp my mind and make it easier to forget you. These images and emotions can also impoverish, degrade, limit and reduce my ability to extract from life its magnificent content, usefulness, and happiness. You remind me that I should use everything only in as much as it helps me to reach you, my final goal.

2. The Gift: On the other hand, I know you have sent us the gift of the Holy Spirit. As you promise in this Gospel, he will never stop reminding me of you. All I have to do is let his projector fill my imagination with images, with thoughts, with insights. Of course, I also have to use the world’s media correctly and in moderation. Holy Spirit, I know you are near; take possession of my soul and make it all your own. Guide my every decision so that I choose what is right and reject what is evil.

3. Accepting the Gift: When I do forget, the Holy Spirit will remind me of all that Christ has said. All of the emotions and thoughts you inspire, Holy Spirit, will enrich my ability to live enthusiastically and forcefully. You will fill my mind with great and powerful images. All I have to do is open myself to you.

“The habitual difficulty in prayer is distraction. […] To set about hunting down distractions would be to fall into their trap, when all that is necessary is to turn back to our heart: for a distraction reveals to us what we are attached to, and this humble awareness before the Lord should awaken our preferential love for him and lead us resolutely to offer him our heart to be purified. Therein lies the battle, the choice of which master to serve” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 2729).

Conversation with Christ: Lord, I have the option of letting myself be consumed with thoughts of anger, lust, and power—thoughts that will make me grow old and become a more intense version of myself, closed in on myself. Help me take steps to avoid these temptations. Allow the Holy Spirit to animate my mind and my soul.

Resolution: I will clear my mind by filling my thoughts with God and his things.