Monday, October 7, 2019
READ:
This is the word of the LORD that came to Jonah, son of Amittai: “Set out for the great city of Nineveh, and preach against it; their wickedness has come up before me.” But Jonah made ready to flee to Tarshish away from the LORD. He went down to Joppa, found a ship going to Tarshish, paid the fare, and went aboard to journey with them to Tarshish, away from the LORD. The LORD, however, hurled a violent wind upon the sea, and in the furious tempest that arose the ship was on the point of breaking up. Then the mariners became frightened and each one cried to his god. To lighten the ship for themselves, they threw its cargo into the sea. Meanwhile, Jonah had gone down into the hold of the ship, and lay there fast asleep. The captain came to him and said, “What are you doing asleep? Rise up, call upon your God! Perhaps God will be mindful of us so that we may not perish.”
–Jonah 1:1-6
REFLECT:
Outside of the sacraments, the rosary is our most powerful weapon in spiritual warfare. That’s not to denigrate our own direct prayers to God. God will always hear our prayers, and it’s not like He hears Mary’s prayers better than ours. The fault in our prayers lies with us. We are concupiscent creatures, who do not pray as well as we could. Mary on the other hand is our immaculate mother who has been assumed into heaven. She prays perfectly. When we ask her to pray for our intentions, and to purify them and raise them up to her Son, we are then praying as well as we can.
RESPOND:
Today, pray a rosary and ask our Mother to perfect your intentions and pray for what you truly need. Also, familiarize yourself with consecration to Jesus through Mary if you aren’t already, or consider renewing your consecration.
Today’s Health Challenge: Relate
Today your goal is to be flexible and to show empathy to others so you can better relate to them as a child of God.
