READING OF THE DAY First reading from the Book of Exodus EX 34:4B-6, 8-9
Early in the morning Moses went up Mount Sinai as the LORD had commanded him, taking along the two stone tablets.
Having come down in a cloud, the LORD stood with Moses there and proclaimed his name, "LORD." Thus the LORD passed before him and cried out, "The LORD, the LORD, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity." Moses at once bowed down to the ground in worship. Then he said, "If I find favor with you, O Lord, do come along in our company. This is indeed a stiff-necked people; yet pardon our wickedness and sins, and receive us as your own."
Second reading from second Letter of Saint Paul to the Corinthians 2 COR 13:11-13
Brothers and sisters, rejoice. Mend your ways, encourage one another, agree with one another, live in peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you. Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the holy ones greet you.
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.
GOSPEL OF THE DAY From the Gospel according to John JN 3:16-18
God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him will not be condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
WORDS OF THE HOLY FATHER This is the course of the humanity’s story: a journey to find Jesus Christ the Redeemer, who gives His life for love. God, in fact, has not sent the Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. (Santa Marta, 14 September 2013)
FAUSTI - "For God loved the world so much" God has always loved the world, even if the world rejects Him. The love of the Father is free and without reserve. The Son, who knows Him and lives by Him, bears witness to it from the cross. This verse presents to us the center of John's Gospel, which is intended to lead us to confess with wonder. "We have recognized and believed in the love that God has for us. For "God is Love" (1 Jn 4:16). " He gave us the Only Begotten Son" because only in him, who loves as he is loved, do we see our identity as children of the Father. Jesus, being Son, lived what we too are called to live: "filiality" and the consequent fraternity. He loves us with the same Love that the Father has for Him and assures us that the Father loves us as He loves us (17:23), with a love that is before the foundation of the world (17:24). Salvation is to believe in Jesus Crucified, the Son of Man raised up . He is the Word, the light and life of every man, who became flesh to tell us the absolute Love of the Father. In Him we receive our identity as children and we are what we are. Outside of Him, we are what we are not, the nothingness of ourselves. That is why to welcome Him, the Son, is to find oneself; to reject Him is to lose oneself. "Not to judge the world, but that the world may be saved through Him." The Son has the same judgment as the Father. He comes with the scourge into the temple not to judge or condemn the sinful world. He has come to save it precisely by "purifying" the Temple, by laying aside with His Cross the diabolical image that man has of God and of himself. In Him raised up we have the true knowledge of Him and of ourselves, which the mouth of the serpent had taken from us. To adhere to Him is true holiness and justice: it is to live of the Son and as children, to share in the common glory of the Father and the Son. Whoever does not believe in the absolute love offered by the lifted Son of man, excludes himself from love and life. The decision of faith towards the Flesh of Jesus gives us birth from above: it is eternal life. The prologue does not say that those who reject Him in the testimony of the wise men and prophets are judged. On the contrary, the Word became Flesh in order to save this world that did not receive the light and condemned itself to darkness. For this reason every man, like Nicodemus, despite uncertainties and difficulties, must be led to be born from above through the knowledge of Son. The meaning of human history is the revelation of the Son, his growth to his full stature (Eph 4:13) so that God may be everything in all.
ELISABETTA DELLA TRINITA' O my God, Trinity whom I adore, help me to forget myself completely, to dwell in You, motionless and quiet as if my soul were already in eternity. May nothing disturb my peace and make me leave you, my Unchanging One, but may every moment lead me deeper into the depths of your mystery. Peace my soul, make it your heaven, your beloved dwelling place and your resting place; may I not leave you there alone, never, but may it be present in its entirety, completely awakened in my faith, all adoring, all abandoned to your creative action. O my beloved Christ, crucified for love, I would like to be a bride for your Heart; I would like to cover you with glory, I would like to love you... until I die! But I feel my powerlessness and I ask You to clothe me with Yourself, to identify My soul with all the movements of Your soul, to submerge Me, to invade Me, to substitute You for Me, so that My life may be no more than an irradiation of Your Life. Come into me as an Adorer, as a Redeemer, as a Savior. O Word, eternal, Word of my God, I want to spend my life listening to You; I want to be completely docile to learn everything from You; then, through all the nights and all forms of emptiness or helplessness, I want to stare always at You and dwell under Your great light. O my beloved star, enchant me, so that I may no longer come out of your living splendor. O Fire that "consumes," Spirit of love, come upon me so that it may be realized in me as an incarnation of the Word; that I may be an added humanity in which He may renew all His Mystery. And you, O Father, bow down over your poor little creature, cover her with your shadow and see in her only the beloved Son in whom you have placed all your complacency. O my Three, my everything, my Bliss, Infinite Loneliness, Immensity in which I am lost, I surrender myself to you like a prey. Bury yourselves in me, that I may bury myself in you, waiting to contemplate, in your own light, the abysmal greatness.
To you, Father Almighty, origin of the cosmos and man, for Christ, the Living One, Lord of time and history, in the Spirit who sanctifies the universe, praise, honor, glory, today and in the endless centuries. Amen! St. John Paul II
READING OF THE DAY
RispondiEliminaFirst reading from the Book of Exodus
EX 34:4B-6, 8-9
Early in the morning Moses went up Mount Sinai
as the LORD had commanded him,
taking along the two stone tablets.
Having come down in a cloud, the LORD stood with Moses there
and proclaimed his name, "LORD."
Thus the LORD passed before him and cried out,
"The LORD, the LORD, a merciful and gracious God,
slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity."
Moses at once bowed down to the ground in worship.
Then he said, "If I find favor with you, O Lord,
do come along in our company.
This is indeed a stiff-necked people; yet pardon our wickedness and sins,
and receive us as your own."
Second reading from second Letter of Saint Paul to the Corinthians
2 COR 13:11-13
Brothers and sisters, rejoice.
Mend your ways, encourage one another,
agree with one another, live in peace,
and the God of love and peace will be with you.
Greet one another with a holy kiss.
All the holy ones greet you.
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ
and the love of God
and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.
GOSPEL OF THE DAY
From the Gospel according to John
JN 3:16-18
God so loved the world that he gave his only Son,
so that everyone who believes in him might not perish
but might have eternal life.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world,
but that the world might be saved through him.
Whoever believes in him will not be condemned,
but whoever does not believe has already been condemned,
because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
WORDS OF THE HOLY FATHER
This is the course of the humanity’s story: a journey to find Jesus Christ the Redeemer, who gives His life for love. God, in fact, has not sent the Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. (Santa Marta, 14 September 2013)
FAUSTI - "For God loved the world so much" God has always loved the world, even if the world rejects Him. The love of the Father is free and without reserve. The Son, who knows Him and lives by Him, bears witness to it from the cross.
RispondiEliminaThis verse presents to us the center of John's Gospel, which is intended to lead us to confess with wonder. "We have recognized and believed in the love that God has for us.
For "God is Love" (1 Jn 4:16).
" He gave us the Only Begotten Son" because only in him, who loves as he is loved, do we see our identity as children of the Father.
Jesus, being Son, lived what we too are called to live: "filiality" and the consequent fraternity. He loves us with the same Love that the Father has for Him and assures us that the Father loves us as He loves us (17:23), with a love that is before the foundation of the world (17:24).
Salvation is to believe in Jesus Crucified, the Son of Man raised up .
He is the Word, the light and life of every man, who became flesh to tell us the absolute Love of the Father.
In Him we receive our identity as children and we are what we are.
Outside of Him, we are what we are not, the nothingness of ourselves.
That is why to welcome Him, the Son, is to find oneself; to reject Him is to lose oneself.
"Not to judge the world, but that the world may be saved through Him." The Son has the same judgment as the Father. He comes with the scourge into the temple not to judge or condemn the sinful world. He has come to save it precisely by "purifying" the Temple, by laying aside with His Cross the diabolical image that man has of God and of himself. In Him raised up we have the true knowledge of Him and of ourselves, which the mouth of the serpent had taken from us. To adhere to Him is true holiness and justice: it is to live of the Son and as children, to share in the common glory of the Father and the Son. Whoever does not believe in the absolute love offered by the lifted Son of man, excludes himself from love and life.
The decision of faith towards the Flesh of Jesus gives us birth from above: it is eternal life.
The prologue does not say that those who reject Him in the testimony of the wise men and prophets are judged.
On the contrary, the Word became Flesh in order to save this world that did not receive the light and condemned itself to darkness.
For this reason every man, like Nicodemus, despite uncertainties and difficulties, must be led to be born from above through the knowledge of Son.
The meaning of human history is the revelation of the Son, his growth to his full stature (Eph 4:13) so that God may be everything in all.
ELISABETTA DELLA TRINITA' O my God, Trinity whom I adore, help me to forget myself completely, to dwell in You, motionless and quiet as if my soul were already in eternity. May nothing disturb my peace and make me leave you, my Unchanging One, but may every moment lead me deeper into the depths of your mystery.
RispondiEliminaPeace my soul, make it your heaven, your beloved dwelling place and your resting place; may I not leave you there alone, never, but may it be present in its entirety, completely awakened in my faith, all adoring, all abandoned to your creative action.
O my beloved Christ, crucified for love, I would like to be a bride for your Heart; I would like to cover you with glory, I would like to love you... until I die! But I feel my powerlessness and I ask You to clothe me with Yourself, to identify My soul with all the movements of Your soul, to submerge Me, to invade Me, to substitute You for Me, so that My life may be no more than an irradiation of Your Life. Come into me as an Adorer, as a Redeemer, as a Savior. O Word, eternal, Word of my God, I want to spend my life listening to You; I want to be completely docile to learn everything from You; then, through all the nights and all forms of emptiness or helplessness, I want to stare always at You and dwell under Your great light. O my beloved star, enchant me, so that I may no longer come out of your living splendor.
O Fire that "consumes," Spirit of love, come upon me so that it may be realized in me as an incarnation of the Word; that I may be an added humanity in which He may renew all His Mystery.
And you, O Father, bow down over your poor little creature, cover her with your shadow and see in her only the beloved Son in whom you have placed all your complacency.
O my Three, my everything, my Bliss, Infinite Loneliness, Immensity in which I am lost, I surrender myself to you like a prey. Bury yourselves in me, that I may bury myself in you, waiting to contemplate, in your own light, the abysmal greatness.
To you, Father Almighty,
RispondiEliminaorigin of the cosmos and man,
for Christ, the Living One,
Lord of time and history,
in the Spirit who sanctifies the universe,
praise, honor, glory,
today and in the endless centuries. Amen! St. John Paul II