Daily Gospel Listing
Tuesday, May 14, 2024 to Friday, June 14, 2024 May 14, 2024 Feast of Saint Matthias, Apostle
Jn 15:9-17
Jesus said to his disciples:
“As the Father loves me, so I also love you.
Remain in my love.
If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love,
just as I have kept my Father’s commandments
and remain in his love.
“I have told you this so that my joy might be in you
and your joy might be complete.
This is my commandment: love one another as I love you.
No one has greater love than this,
to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
You are my friends if you do what I command you.
I no longer call you slaves,
because a slave does not know what his master is doing.
I have called you friends,
because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father.
It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you
and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain,
so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you.
This I command you: love one another.”
Daily Reflection Listing
Tuesday, May 14, 2024 to Friday, June 14, 2024 May 14, 2024 Matt Buyske ’02
I heard an interesting line in the opening prayer for Mass this past Ash Wednesday: “Armed with the weapons of self-restraint,” we enter into the desert of Lent. I reflected on this phrase “armed with the weapons of self-restraint” throughout Lent, and a question struck me—how often do we think of self-restraint when we think of loving one another?
I thought I was pretty spectacular at demonstrating self-restraint. I have always been complimented on how calm and even-keeled I am under pressure. But I realized something: I say some version of “I told you so” to my children a lot.
Someone breaks a toy because they are playing with it too rough, a child drops a glass and it breaks because they are trying to carry four glasses at once to the table, or a child’s backpack explodes the zipper because they have a locker’s worth of items jammed into it. Instead of modeling Jesus’ love and forgiveness to my children, I have been rubbing their faces in each of their mistakes with a disapproving look or muttered comments.
Can you imagine if Jesus did that when we went to confession? How miserable would we feel walking out of the confessional if the message we received each time was, “I told you so”? Rather, we should walk away from the confessional, feeling the love of God’s mercy and the warmth of his embrace as our sins have been washed away. How can we model that kind of mercy and forgiveness to our children—our “fruit that will remain”?
Let us pause the next time we have the urge to make an “I told you so” comment or disapproving look when our children make a mistake. Let us exercise those “weapons of self-restraint” and warmly embrace our children, who are likely embarrassed about the mistake and willing to learn. I promise you, there is no greater love than this!
Daily Prayer Listing
Tuesday, May 14, 2024 to Friday, June 14, 2024 May 14, 2024 Rev. Thomas C. Bertone, C.S.C.
O God, you choose us this day to remain in your love as we encounter those we meet. Help us to grow in our ability to love others as fully as you have loved us in giving your life for us. Give us the patience and understanding we need to see the good in others, to see and love in them what you see and love in all of your children. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.