Suy Niệm Tin Mừng Thứ Bẩy Tuần 10 Thường Niên,
            Ngay trong Bữa Tiệc Ly, Thánh Phêrô đã dám tuyên bố rằng ông sẽ sẵn sàng theo Chúa Giêsu cho đến chết, nhưng sự can đảm và nhiệt tình đó không còn nữa ngay ông ta khi nhìn thấy Chúa Giêsu đã tự nộp mình cho quân dữ trong vừa cây dầu. Thánh Phêrô khám phá ra sự thật đáng buồn là ông không thể theo Chúa Giêsu đến nơi thập giá với sức mạnh của sự quyết tâm nơi mình. Mãi đến sau khi Chúa Thánh Thần Hiên Xuống thì ông ta mới nhận được sức mạnh của Chúa Thánh Thần và có can đảm và vững tâm rao giảng Tin Mừng mà không còn sợ hãi những khi phải đối mặt với sự bắt bớ, trừng phạt và cái chết.
            Mỗi người chúng ta cũng cần phải phấn đấu để trở thành những người chân tình và trung thành như Thánh Phêrô. Cũng như Chúa Giêsu có thể nhìn thấy chân lý phản ánh qua các môn đệ, những người xung quanh chúng ta sẽ thấy chân lý và sự chân thành được phản ánh trong những  hành vi và việc làm của chúng ta. Trong thực tại, thật là dễ dàng để chúng ta thổi phồng và tô điểm sự thật. 
            Khi chúng ta tự đầu hàng con tim và tâm thức chúng ta với Chúa, chúng ta có thể làm chủ cuộc sống tâm linh, tình cảm của chúng ta qua kinh nghiệm  sống trong sự  liêm chính, và thánh thiện trọn vẹn. Thực tại của thiên đường, những lời hứa của một Thiên Chúa trung thành, và một nỗi sợ hãi tội lỗi lành mạnh sẽ làm việc với nhau để hình thành trong chúng ta một sự cam kết chân thành với chân lý, sự thật mà Chúa Giêsu đã cho thấy. Chúng ta hãy tôi tiếp tục cầu xin Thánh Thần nắn đúc chúng ta theo hình ảnh của Chúa Kitô. Thế giới đang chờ đợi những việc làm chúng của chúng ta..
 
 
REFLECTION
Why is it so hard for us to be truthful? Is it because we are afraid or insecure? Is it because we are too proud to admit that we might be wrong? Or maybe it is hard to face the consequences of the truth. In contrast to Peter's denial was Jesus' response when he was asked if he was the Messiah. Jesus simply replied, "I am." By giving such an answer, Jesus signed his own death warrant. Fear did not overcome him because he had placed himself in his Father's hands and knew that God's word could never be overcome.
            At the Last Supper, Peter said that he would willingly die for Jesus, but his bravado and enthusiasm soon left him when he saw how meekly Jesus surrendered to his captors. Peter discovered the sad truth that he could not follow Jesus to the cross solely by the power of his own resolve. It was only after Pentecost that he received the power of the Spirit and began to preach the Gospel with boldness — even in the face of punishment and death.
            Each one of us should strive to be sincere and truthful people. Just as Jesus could see truth reflected in his disciples, those around us should see truth and sincerity reflected in our conduct. It is too easy to exaggerate and embellish the truth. For example, frequently during election time, we hear people saying they do not know whom to vote for, because they cannot trust politicians. Has anybody lost trust in us?
As we surrender our hearts and minds to the Spirit, we too can master our emotional life and experience a godly wholeness and integrity. The reality of heaven, the promises of a faithful God, and a healthy fear of sin will work together to form in us the simple commitment to the truth that Jesus showed. Let us continue to ask the spirit to mold us into the image of Christ. The world is waiting for our witness.
 
Satursday Most Immaculate Heart of Mother Mary of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time 2023
He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them; and his mother kept all these things in her heart. Luke 2:51
Over and over, the Scriptures reveal to us that the Blessed Virgin Mary “kept all these things in her heart.” What things? She continually pondered the great mystery of the life of her Son as His sacred life unfolded before her eyes.
A mother’s love is strong. Many times, a mother is more aware of the details of her child’s life than even the child itself. She is attentive, consoling, present, tender and loving. This was who Mary was to her divine Son, Jesus.
Mother Mary did not have full knowledge of every divine reality. She did not gaze upon the Most Holy Trinity with her eyes as she walked the earth. She did not have the full knowledge of the plan of the Father. But she did walk through life with the perfection of faith. She also knew the many truths of Heaven and earth through her Immaculate Heart. Her heart was a heart filled with every virtue. She loved with a love that was indescribable. And what she especially pondered in her Immaculate Heart, over and over throughout life, was the pure and perfect love she had for her Son. To her, this love left her in amazement. She was continually in a state of holy awe as she interacted with her Son, gazed upon His sacred life, and watched Him advance in “wisdom and age and favor before God and man” (John 2:52). The love in her heart was a lesson to herself. She continually deepened her knowledge of God through the pondering of the perfect love placed in her heart by her God. And this God, her Savior, was her Son.
We celebrate today the Memorial of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Though there are many feasts throughout the year in which we honor this holy daughter of God, this celebration is an opportunity for us all to ponder her pondering heart.
A human heart is not just physical, it is also spiritual. It is the spiritual source of our love of God and others. From our heart flows either virtue or vice, love or hate, generosity or selfishness. As we honor the Immaculate Heart today, we are called to look at the ideal of what should live within our own hearts and what should flow forth from them. The perfection of all virtue is what must ideally flow from every human heart throughout time. And it is the heart of our Blessed Mother that will teach us how to internalize those virtues so as to become an instrument of the love of God to others.
Reflect, today, upon the spiritual perfection of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Perfection is difficult to comprehend in our fallen state. But the more we look to the ideal, the more we will desire that ideal. And the more we desire that ideal, the more we will obtain it. Allow yourself today to ponder the ideal heart as it resided in the Mother of God and ask for her to intercede for you so that you will more fully imitate her.
Most Immaculate Heart of Mother Mary, you reveal to us the perfect way to love your Son and to be devoted to Him. Fill me with the love you had for your Son by interceding for me. Thank you for the witness you gave to us all and help us to imitate the countless virtues that flowed from your heart. Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us. Jesus, I trust in You.
 
Satursday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time 2023
Opening Prayer: I believe in you, Lord, because you are truth itself. I hope in you because you are infinite mercy and are faithful to your promises. I love you because you are infinitely lovable. I need your grace, and as I come into your presence, I thank you ahead of time for whatever grace you wish to give me today. Help me recognize, receive, and respond generously to it.
Encountering Christ:
1. Responding with Faith: Yesterday, we celebrated Jesus’s Sacred Heart, the eloquent and powerful revelation of how thoroughly and passionately God loves us. Today we celebrate Mary’s Immaculate Heart, the inspiring model of how we as human beings can respond to God’s love. Mary’s experiences with Christ were not always easy to endure or understand. Losing him in the Temple, as today’s Gospel passage shows, filled her with “great anxiety.” Her experience on Calvary, watching her son be rejected and crucified, filled her with great sorrow—usually symbolized in images of the Immaculate Heart by a sword piercing Mary’s heart. God’s ways are not ours, and even for the Blessed Virgin Mary, who had been preserved by God’s grace from the effects of original sin, being faithful to God’s will in her life was hard. It was risky. It was, at times, confusing. But through it all, she continued to anchor her life firmly and definitively on the rock foundation of her faith. This is why St. Elizabeth told Mary, “Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled” (Luke 1:45). How do I respond to the challenging, confusing, painful circumstances of my life? How healthy is my faith?
2. Learning to Be Contemplative: Artistic renditions of Mary’s Immaculate Heart usually show her heart encircled by blooming roses. A flower in bloom is open to receiving the light and warmth of the sun and the moisture of life-giving rain. This is why such flowers traditionally symbolize openness to God’s grace. And that was one of Mary’s special characteristics. She was “full of grace” and remained open to God’s actions in her life. This comes across beautifully in the last line of today’s Gospel passage: “…and his mother kept all things in her heart.” The Greek word for “kept” is “diaterei.” It has connotations of taking care of something attentively, preserving and storing it up as valuable, and even treasuring it. Mary’s heart was a place where she did all those things. It was a place of encountering God and contemplating God’s words and actions with that kind of attention and affection. Her heart was like the rich soil Jesus described in his parable of the sower—soil ready to welcome and nourish the seeds God wants to plant there. Mary also teaches us about following God; she shares her motherly wisdom. We all must learn to be contemplative, to keep our hearts and minds open to God’s action, and give ourselves time to absorb and be enriched by all that he gives us. This is harder than ever in today's fast-paced, frenetic, noisy world. But we must face that challenge if we want our Christian lives to grow and flourish. How do I carve out time and space for quiet contemplation of God’s goodness and action? How can I become more contemplative even amid my activity?
3. A Presence We Need: Mary not only instructs us by modeling how to live the Christian life. She also accompanies and intercedes for us. She is meant to be a presence in our life. As the Catechism puts it, “a mother to us in the order of grace” (CCC 968). Throughout the history of the Church, Mary has made her presence felt in myriad ways: her many apparitions through the centuries; her feast days in the liturgy; inspiring Marian images; devotional practices like the rosary. In images of the Immaculate Heart, this loving, grace-filled presence is symbolized by the living flames burning from her heart. In our increasingly post-Christian culture, motherhood and the life-giving genius of authentic femininity are becoming as sidelined as fatherhood and authentic masculinity. God gave us Mary’s presence because he knew we would need it, and we need it more than ever today. We don’t worship Mary as if she were some kind of divinity, as some critics of Catholicism claim we do. Rather, we look to her spiritually as a beacon of hope, a model of virtue, and a caring mother—we look to her now, in our lives, as God’s children, just the way Jesus looked at her when he was a child in Nazareth. At least, we are invited and called to do so. 
Conversing with Christ: Lord, I know you didn’t do anything by mistake, and I know that through the Holy Spirit, you have continued to guide your Church in every age. So the presence of your Mother in every corner of our Catholic lives is something you want for us—for me. Thank you for making yourself my brother and inviting me into your family. Thank you for working such marvels of grace in Mary, your mother. And thank you for giving her to me as my mother in the order of grace. Help me value her and relate to her in my life the way you want me to.
Resolution: Lord, today, by your grace, I will learn something new about the Blessed Virgin Mary, and I will put one of my favorite images of her in a place where I can frequently see it.
 
REFLECTION
     Today our Lord reminds us to speak truthfully and so live with integrity.
      Our words are powerful. Our words can mislead people, set wrong directions, hurt feelings, divide a community and maybe even kill. We must take care that what we say is what we honestly and truly mean. And what we honestly mean is what is truthful and real.
      Simply put, our words must be words lived out always in a life of truthful love. We need not take an oath to profess our compassion for others, especially the weak: we need only to express it daily in heartfelt and generous charity. We need not pronounce vows to assure others of our sincerity: we need only to be consistent in our humble service. We need not swear unremitting loyalty to prove that we are trustworthy: we only need faithfulness in our day-to-day responsibilities and respect for our dreams for the least in our society.
      It is only when our words reflect and signify the Truth that the Word-made­ Flesh has revealed to us that our words could be truly powerful, life-giving and life-sustaining. Let us then pray to the God of Truth that we may speak truthfully and so live with integrity.