Lk 21:5-11
When some were talking about the Temple, remarking how it was adorned with fine stonework and votive offerings, he said, ‘All these things you are staring at now — the time will come when not a single stone will be left on another; everything will be destroyed.’ Read More
150th Meditation
“Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever” (Ps 23:6).
The psalmist expresses what the Heavenly Father has arranged for us, and which we can recognize by faith: it is the great “yes” of God to our existence; a “yes” that manifests itself to us in various ways. It is a “yes” that He never revokes, after having pronounced it once and forever on our life. Even the person who rejects God, testifies by their very existence to God’s “yes” to them.
149th Meditation
“You prepare a table for me under the eyes of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup brims over”(Ps 23:5).
This verse is taken from the psalms of David, whom the Lord chose as king of Israel. Likewise, each of us Christians has been anointed by God’s grace to be a “son of the great King.” Thus, we can adapt the words of this psalm for ourselves as well, for our King is God Himself. When Pontius Pilate asked Jesus if He was a king, He replied, “It is you who say that I am a king” (Jn 18:37).
Lk 18:1-8
Then Jesus told them a parable about the need to pray continually and never lose heart. ‘There was a judge in a certain town,’ he said, ‘who had neither fear of God nor respect for anyone. In the same town there was also a widow who kept on coming to him and saying, “I want justice from you against my enemy!” Read More
148th Meditation
“Even were I to walk in a ravine as dark as death I should fear no danger, for you are at my side. Your staff and your crook are there to soothe me” (Ps 23:4).
Who has not traversed dark glens in life? Who does not perceive the abundant dangers that surround us? Many times they are even present within us and try to devour us. But life in this world also testifies to the darkness of estrangement from God.
Lk 17:26-37
Jesus said to his disciples: ‘As it was in Noah’s day, so will it also be in the days of the Son of man. People were eating and drinking, marrying wives and husbands, right up to the day Noah went into the ark, and the Flood came and destroyed them all. Read More
147th Meditation
“The Lord refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for His name’s sake” (Ps 23:3).
The German translation of this verse says: “The Lord satisfies my longing” instead of “He refreshes my soul”. Indeed, God has sown deep in our hearts a longing for Him. In His Wisdom, He allows us to experience that our life lacks something essential when we do not know Him and other lesser things take their place in our heart. Even if initially we do not perceive or understand much of this emptiness, and even if the many distractions temporarily satisfy us, deep down in our soul we know that: “As a deer yearns for running streams, so I yearn for you, my God” – as the psalmist expresses it (Ps 42:1).
Lk 17:20-25
Asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God was to come, Jesus gave them this answer, ‘The coming of the kingdom of God does not admit of observation and there will be no one to say, “Look, it is here! Look, it is there!” For look, the kingdom of God is among you.’ He said to the disciples, ‘A time will come when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of man and will not see it. Read More
Jn 2:13-22
When the time of the Jewish Passover was near Jesus went up to Jerusalem, and in the Temple he found people selling cattle and sheep and doves, and the money changers sitting there. Making a whip out of cord, he drove them all out of the Temple, sheep and cattle as well, scattered the money changers’ coins, knocked their tables over and said to the dove sellers, ‘Take all this out of here and stop using my Father’s house as a market.’ Read More
146th Meditation
“He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; he leadeth me beside the still waters” (Ps 23:2).
Day after day, the Heavenly Father feeds us with His holy Word; day after day He invites us to the table of His grace; day after day He watches over our life; day after day He speaks to our heart; day after day His Holy Spirit reminds us of all that Jesus said and did (Jn 14:26); day after day our soul can graze in the green pastures of God and be satisfied.
