For a more enriching experience,
go down on your knees to pray or take it one step further
and prostrate yourself (lay face down) on the floor while praying.
Father, today's reading serves as a perfect reminder to always keep You and the knowingness of your Love directly in front of me and on my mind. The beatitudes in the reading below are a list of attitudes for me to be and how not to be. True joy and happiness is not as elusive as I may think if I just plant You firmly at the front of my brain and bask in Your Love before I take one step forward in my day. In the reading below, Jesus is speaking of True happiness coming from within and not coming from physical needs. St. Thomas Aquinas said, "No person can live without joy. That is why someone deprived of spiritual joy goes after carnal pleasures." That is so True because a Life without You is no real Life at all. You are my 'Source' of all my spiritual, physical, emotional, chemical, intuitive and financial substance.
I need to remember that when I seek carnal pleasure, then I have lost my lock on You and my attention has been diverted. I want to continually be hungry and thirsty for You. The reading below could easily be seen as only the thirsty, hungry and poor could reach You but Jesus is talking about spiritual hunger, thirst and poverty of spirit. Those who only seek physical pleasure and riches without concern for anything else already have their reward. Thank You Father for the awareness that when I have You in my Life, I can receive and handle Your blessings both here in the physical plane and in the invisible plane when You call me back to Yourself. I just have to keep my focus on You. Help me to be more of what I should be and less of what I should not be, keeping in mind the 'beatitudes' below. I am ready to accept the mission that You implanted in my heart. I ask for Your Divine Guidance and Blessing as I pursue my dream, passion and mission in Life that glorifies Your Name and calls attention to You.
Through Jesus Christ's Precious Blood, Most Sacred Name and Most Holy Face. ~Amen
A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Matthew
Luke 6:20-26
20 And raising his eyes toward His disciples He said: "Blessed are you who are poor, for the kingdom of God is yours.
21 Blessed are you who are now hungry, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who are now weeping, for you will laugh.
22 Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude and insult you, and denounce your name as evil on account of the Son of Man.
23 Rejoice and leap for joy on that day! Behold, your reward will be great in heaven. For their ancestors treated the prophets in the same way.
24 But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.
25 But woe to you who are filled now, for you will be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will grieve and weep.
26 Woe to you when all speak well of you, for their ancestors treated the false prophets in this way."
The Gospel of the Lord
Praise to You Lord Jesus Christ
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