I LEAD THEM WITH LEADING-STRINGS OF LOVE

84th Meditation on God the Father

“I lead them with human ties, with leading-strings of love. With them, I was like someone lifting an infant to his cheek, and I bent down to feed him” (Hos 11:4).

The Father uses a thousand ways to show His love to mankind. In many forms he bends down to us, and this happens most clearly in the birth of the Son of God, who came to us as a man, so that we might understand how close God wants to be to us, how precious we are to Him…. Read More

Time is short

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1 Cor 7:25-31

About people remaining virgin, I have no directions from the Lord, but I give my own opinion as a person who has been granted the Lord’s mercy to be faithful. Well then, because of the stress which is weighing upon us, the right thing seems to be this: it is good for people to stay as they are. If you are joined to a wife, do not seek to be released; if you are freed of a wife, do not look for a wife. Read More

THEY DID NOT KNOW THAT I HEALED THEM

83rd Meditation on God the Father 

“I myself taught Ephraim to walk, I myself took them by the arm, but they did not know that I healed them” (Hos 11:3).

The Father and His chosen people… What a love story with so many facets! In yesterday’s verses we heard that the more God called them, the more the children of Israel turned away from Him and turned to idols. Read More

THE LOVE OF GOD DOES NOT EXTINGUISH

82nd Meditation on God the Father

“When Israel was a child I loved him, and I called my son out of Egypt. But the more I called, the further they went away from me; they offered sacrifice to Baal and burnt incense to idols” (Hos 11:1-2).

This is the drama that our Father experiences so often. It runs through the whole of human history, and it is particularly painful when it is the people of Israel who are the protagonists. The verses that follow this passage from the Prophet Hosea show us how tenderly God calls His own and how He is always ready to forgive them. But it is with sorrow that He has to note that the more He calls them and shows them His love, the more His people turn away from Him and offend Him with their aberrations. Read More

The saints will judge the world

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1 Cor 6:1-11

Is one of you with a complaint against another so brazen as to seek judgement from sinners and not from God’s holy people? Do you not realise that the holy people of God are to be the judges of the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you not competent for petty cases? Do you not realise that we shall be the judges of angels? – then quite certainly over matters of this life. Read More

Joy in suffering

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Note: By a mistake, we have today taken the reading corresponding to the odd-numbered year. However, it allows us to meditate on a very important theme for the Christian life, which will certainly be profitable for many.

Col 1:24-2:3

It makes me happy to be suffering for you now, and in my own body to make up all the hardships that still have to be undergone by Christ for the sake of his body, the Church, of which I was made a servant with the responsibility towards you that God gave to me, that of completing God’s message, the message which was a mystery hidden for generations and centuries and has now been revealed to his holy people. Read More

Invested by mercy in the service of God

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2 Cor 4:1-2.5-7

Reading for the memorial of St. Gregory the Great

Such by God’s mercy is our ministry, and therefore we do not waver but have renounced all shameful secrecy. It is not our way to be devious, or to falsify the word of God; instead, in God’s sight we commend ourselves to every human being with a conscience by showing the truth openly. Read More