When we empty ourselves of all worldly attachments, renouncing the works of the enemies and freeing ourselves from all temptations and worldly desires, only then can we be filled with the Holy Spirit, and most of all, the ocean-deep love of God, our Heavenly Father.
When we dwell in that love, He fills us to the brim and over with His grace, so that we can look upon everyone as fellow children and we shall love one another as one loved by Him.
Filled with that love, we will seek out the needs of our brethren, the orphan, the widow, the sick, and the suffering, and help them, helping to restore them to the dignity of being a child so loved by God, our Heavenly Father, leading them all to Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Even in family, this may cause divisions because they have not yet known Jesus the way we do. Yet, through His love, which is a uniting love, we will all be one in body, mind, and spirit. Amen.
Saint John Paul II, Pope pray for us…
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First reading
Ephesians 3:14-21
A prayer that faithful may know the love of Christ
This is what I pray, kneeling before the Father, from whom every family, whether spiritual or natural, takes its name:
Out of his infinite glory, may he give you the power through his Spirit for your hidden self to grow strong, so that Christ may live in your hearts through faith, and then, planted in love and built on love, you will with all the saints have strength to grasp the breadth and the length, the height and the depth; until, knowing the love of Christ, which is beyond all knowledge, you are filled with the utter fullness of God.
Glory be to him whose power, working in us, can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine; glory be to him from generation to generation in the Church and in Christ Jesus for ever and ever. Amen.
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Gospel
Luke 12:49-53
How I wish it were blazing already!
Jesus said to his disciples: ‘I have come to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were blazing already! There is a baptism I must still receive, and how great is my distress till it is over!
‘Do you suppose that I am here to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. For from now on a household of five will be divided: three against two and two against three; the father divided against the son, son against father, mother against daughter, daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law, daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.’
