WANT TO KNOW AND FALL IN LOVE WITH JESUS CHRIST?
READ THE GOSPEL DAILY.
Dear friends, AS CHRISTIANS, FOLLOWERS OF CHRIST, OUR LORD EXPECTS FROM EACH ONE OF US AN INTIMATE LOVING RELATIONSHIP, FOR THIS IS WHAT MATTERS IN THE END, FOR HE IS “THE WAY, THE TRUTH AND THE LIFE (Jn 14:6)” WHICH LEADS TO ETERNAL HAPPINESS.
St. Josemaria, in “Friends of God,” n. 12 said:
“..you might achieve spectacular success in society, in public affairs, in your own careers, if you neglect your spiritual life and ignore Our Lord you will end up a complete failure. AS FAR AS GOD IS CONCERNED — AND IN THE LAST ANALYSIS THAT IS THE ONLY THING THAT MATTERS — VICTORY ONLY COMES TO THOSE WHO STRIVE TO BEHAVE AS GENUINE CHRISTIANS. THERE IS NO MIDDLE WAY. That is why you find so many people who from a human point of view ought to be ever so happy, yet they go about uneasy and embittered. They appear to be overflowing with happiness, but just scratch beneath the surface of their souls and you will discover a bitterness more bitter than gall. This will not happen to us, provided we really try, day in day out, to do God’s will, to give him glory, and praise him and spread his kingdom to all mankind.”
As in all human relationships, ove however presupposes knowledge of the beloved for one cannot love someone whom he does not know, or as St. Augustine put it: “Nihil volitum, nisi cognitum (One cannot want that he does not know)”. If a person is interested in someone, he or she tries to find out details about the person’s life, right? And one employs the means: making a google search of the person J, finding out if the person has a social media account to befriend her, get to know her mobile number or send her a private message…..in short, the means are employed to get to contact, know the person better, till friendship and love bloom.
Well, the aforementioned things can be applied as well to grow in our relationship with God. We put the means in order get to know Him through frequent dealings with Him in prayer, in the sacraments, and in a particular way, in the Gospel reading, where one gets to know the life of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
IT TAKES A FEW MINUTES DAILY (5 MIN. AT THE MOST) TO DO GOSPEL READING trying to live the scenes and as St. Josemaria advised, to be one of the characters in the Gospel scene, meditating a phrase or paragraph to educe what God’s Word wants to teach us in order to apply it in our daily life. St. John Chrysostom wrote in his Homily to the Letter to the Colossians 3, 16:
“HEARKEN, I ENTREAT YOU, ALL YE THAT ARE CAREFUL FOR THIS LIFE, AND PROCURE BOOKS THAT WILL BE MEDICINES FOR THE SOUL. IF YE WILL NOT ANY OTHER, YET GET YOU AT LEAST THE NEW TESTAMENT, THE APOSTOLIC EPISTLES, THE ACTS, THE GOSPELS, FOR YOUR CONSTANT TEACHERS. If grief befall thee, dive into them as into a chest of medicines; take thence comfort of thy trouble, be it loss, or death, or bereavement of relations; or rather dive not into them merely, but take them wholly to thee; keep them in thy mind.
THIS IS THE CAUSE OF ALL EVILS, THE NOT KNOWING THE SCRIPTURES. We go into battle without arms, and how ought we to come off safe?”
Dedicating a few minutes of Gospel reading will lead us to know Jesus better, and thus love and follow Him more faithfully, identifying ourselves with Him, He who has “the words of eternal life (Jn 6:68)”
-Fr. Rolly Arjonillo, priest of Opus Dei. CATHOLICS STRIVING FOR HOLINESS. We are also in Facebook: www.facebook.com/CatholicsstrivingforHoliness Hope you like our page and invite your friends as well to do so in order to help more people.
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At this fast-pace technological age, we can have the entire Bible or Gospel in our fingertips by using apps in our smartphones, tablets or pcs. Among the many FREE useful apps I have encountered are:
- GOSPEL (Android app) in https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=rcr.evangelium&hl=en This app contains the daily Gospel readings of the Holy Mass throughout the year.
- TRUTH AND LIFE (Android app also available in other OS): has the entire Bible and daily Holy Mass reading plus a lot more. It has a free version you might want to check it out. In-app purchase for the audio version. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.futuresoft.truthandlife.free&hl=en