B. Opening Prayer: Come Holy Spirit
Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth you Spirit and they shall be created. And you shall renew the face of the earth.
O God, who by the light of the Holy Spirit, did instruct the hearts of the faithful, grant that by the same Holy Spirit we may be truly wise and ever enjoy His consolations. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
O God, who by the light of the Holy Spirit, did instruct the hearts of the faithful, grant that by the same Holy Spirit we may be truly wise and ever enjoy His consolations. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
C. Reading of the Day:
“Those who are healthy do not need a physician, but the sick do.” - Luke 5: 31.
D. Period of Silence: Personal integration of the reading
E. Reflection on the Reading: What is God’s message for you today?
Today's Sharing:
Sickness as a human condition came together with sin. When Adam and Eve committed the original sin, mankind did not only experience spiritual death but also physical weakness. God's perfect creation became vulnerable to physical deterioration - man was exposed to different types of diseases and sicknesses - which eventually lead to physical death. Man needed a doctor.
But of course the more important thing that Jesus points out is still spiritual death: being sinful. The next verse clearly declares so. "I have come to call not the upright but sinners to repentance." [Luke 5:32]. The Lord is our spiritual doctor, healing us of our spiritual sickness that we may never end up experiencing spiritual death. However, we can never be healed unless we recognize our sinfulness. Many people today do not want to accept that they are sinners: most of them try to deny that sin is real at all - a condition which Blessed John Paul II calls the "loss of the sense of sin". This is the worst condition that man can ever have: much worse than having the gravest and most mortal sin. Perhaps this could fall under the category of "sinning against the Holy Spirit". It's like physical sickness: if the sick do not acknowledge that he or she requires medical attention, no one can do anything for him or her - even if the sickness can still be remedied.
Solving a problem starts with the pin-pointing of the problem. Unless the problem is known, it cannot be solved. Sickness must be diagnosed in order for a doctor to prescribe the proper medicine. The sinner must accept his or her sinfulness in order for the divine healer to forgive him or her.
F. Application of the Message
- What are the spiritual, moral and physical sicknesses that you wish to be healed of through prayer?
- What are you are willing to abstain from today so that you could avoid sickness of both body and soul?
- What are you willing to share materially today in order to help another to avoid the sickness of body and soul?
G. Praying the Lord’s Prayer
Our Father, Who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy name; Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.
H. Closing Prayer: Here you say your personal thanksgiving to the Father for today’s message
i. Closing Song [if done with others]
No comments:
Post a Comment