Watching in prayer for the coming of God

Gospel of the Day (Matthew 24:42-51)

Therefore, stay awake! For you do not know on which day your Lord will come.

Be sure of this: if the master of the house had known the hour of night when the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and not let his house be broken into.

So too, you also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.

Who, then, is the faithful and prudent servant, whom the master has put in charge of his household to distribute to them their food at the proper time?

Blessed is that servant whom his master on his arrival finds doing so. Amen, I say to you, he will put him in charge of all his property.

But if that wicked servant says to himself, 'My master is long delayed,' and begins to beat his fellow servants, and eat and drink with drunkards, the servant's master will come on an unexpected day and at an unknown hour and will punish him severely and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.

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Reflections:

Watching in prayer for the coming of God

To pray we have no need of gestures, cries or prostrations. A prayer that is both wise and fervent is one that is a waiting for God to come and visit our souls through every point of entry, in all its ways and through all its senses. Enough of our silences, groanings and weepings: let us seek nothing in prayer but God's embrace.

When we are working, don't we make use of every bodily fibre in the effort? Don't all our limbs take part in it together? Let our soul also devote itself wholly to prayer and love of the Lord; may it not allow itself to become distracted or pulled about by its thoughts; may it be focussed on Christ. Then Christ will give it light, will teach it true prayer, will give it that pure and spiritual supplication that is according to the mind of God, an adoration «in spirit and in truth» (Jn 4,24).

Someone employed in business transactions is not simply trying to make a profit. He also tries, by every means in his power, to increase it and make it grow. He undertakes even more trips and abandons those that seem to him to be fruitless; he does not set out unless in hope of a transaction. Like him, let us know how to conduct our soul along the most diverse and opportune ways. Then – O true and greatest profit! – we shall gain that God who teaches us how to pray in truth.

The Lord places himself within the fervent soul; he makes of it his throne of glory; he takes his seat within it and dwells there.

Source: Daily Gospel