by SrMaryTerzo | Apr 15, 2019 | Spiritual Life
FRIENDS and SERVANTS of the WORD Monday of Holy Week April 15, 2019 WORD of the DAY Mary took a liter of costly perfumed oil made from genuine aromatic nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and dried them with her hair; the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil. (John 12: 3) How shall I live this Word? The waste … the first day of the Holy Week invites us to reflect on the WASTE. That thing that we produce without realizing it due to laziness, lack of temperance, by which we waste resources to no end: natural raw materials of the environment, polluting, using and throwing away, not repairing, not recycling. In the same way, with the same unconsciousness, we waste so many resources of people by humiliating them, discriminating against them, not allowing them to grow, or by forming them according to non-liberating and dull educations. Then we denounce other situations that we define only because these resources are not reserved for us. In the egocentric and not very reflective logic, everything I cannot use is waste … what I throw away is not waste. Mary teaches us another way to be aware and...
by SrMaryTerzo | Apr 12, 2019 | Spiritual Life
FRIENDS and SERVANTS of the WORD Fifth Friday of Lent, April 12, 2019 WORD of the DAY The Jews again picked up rocks to stone him. Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from my Father. For which of these are you trying to stone me?” The Jews answered him, “We are not stoning you for a good work but for blasphemy. You, a man, are making yourself God.” Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, “You are gods”’? If it calls gods those to whom the word of God came, and scripture cannot be set aside, can you say that the one whom the Father has consecrated and sent into the world blasphemes because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’? If I do not perform my Father’s works, do not believe me; but if I perform them, even if you do not believe me, believe the works, so that you may realize [and understand] that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.” [Then] they tried again to arrest him; but he escaped from their power. He went back across the Jordan to the place...
by SrMaryTerzo | Apr 11, 2019 | Spiritual Life
FRIENDS and SERVANTS of the WORD Fifth Thursday of Lent, April 11, 2019 WORD of the DAY Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever keeps my word will never see death.” (So) the Jews said to him, “Now we are sure that you are possessed. Abraham died, as did the prophets, yet you say, ‘Whoever keeps my word will never taste death.’ Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? Or the prophets, who died? Who do you make yourself out to be?” Jesus answered, “If I glorify myself, my glory is worth nothing; but it is my Father who glorifies me, of whom you say, ‘He is our God.’ You do not know him, but I know him. And if I should say that I do not know him, I would be like you a liar. But I do know him and I keep his word. Abraham your father rejoiced to see my day; he saw it and was glad. So the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old and you have seen Abraham?” Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, before Abraham came to be, I AM.” So they...
by SrMaryTerzo | Apr 9, 2019 | Spiritual Life
FRIENDS and SERVANTS of the WORD Fifth Tuesday of Lent, April 9, 2019 WORD of the DAY He said to them again, “I am going away and you will look for me, but you will die in your sin. Where I am going you cannot come.” So the Jews said, “He is not going to kill himself, is he, because he said, ‘Where I am going you cannot come’?” He said to them, “You belong to what is below, I belong to what is above. You belong to this world, but I do not belong to this world. That is why I told you that you will die in your sins. For if you do not believe that I AM, you will die in your sins.” … The one who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, because I always do what is pleasing to him.” Because he spoke this way, many came to believe in him. (John 8: 21-30) How shall I live this Word? Described with the unmistakable stylistic trait of the so-called ‘Johannine irony’, the Pharisees – each of us can be a “Pharisee”! – flounder in ignorant...
by SrMaryTerzo | Apr 4, 2019 | Spiritual Life
FRIENDS and SERVANTS of the WORD Fourth Thursday of Lent, April 4, 2019 WORD of the DAY But I have testimony greater than John’s. The works that the Father gave me to accomplish, these works that I perform testify on my behalf that the Father has sent me. (John 5: 36) How shall I live this Word? What Jesus affirms here is unequivocal. In fact, those who turn to Him because they are blind or deaf or lepers or afflicted with other serious illnesses experience that in Jesus, the Father Himself renders operative a power that is not only victory over evil but is true good. The problem is that faith is absent. Even the testimony of the Father is not believed; listening is totally absent. Thus, the Word of God cannot remain and work if we do not believe in Jesus, the One the Father sent. Lord, revive in me, in everyone faith in Your being and working in full adhesion to the Father’s plan that coincides with mine, with our salvation. THE VOICE OF Blasé Pascal, Thinker I love all people as sisters and brothers because they are all redeemed by the Father’s infinite love and the...
by SrMaryTerzo | Apr 1, 2019 | Spiritual Life
FRIENDS and SERVANTS of the WORD Fourth Monday of Lent, April 1, 2019 WORD of the DAY See, I am creating new heavens and a new earth; The former things shall not be remembered nor come to mind. (Isaiah: 65:17) How shall I live this Word? Very beautiful is this statement of the Prophet who says words inspired by God, therefore true to the end. It is about that ‘new creation’ which is the work of God: of His grace in us. It is really like the impetus of a river that completely rips the ugliness of sin away from us. Because if you repent, if you are honest in your conscience, if you have received the sacrament of forgiveness with faith, you are truly free from evil. Do not mull over your past, except to thank God, in order to start every day to live what is good. The strength of the grace that God has obtained for you through forgiveness, truly allows you to be new from your heart within your days which also become new: a happy proposal of the good for those who approach God. Lord, grant that I may be renewed each day. I...
