A PRAYER IN MEMORY OF THE FIVE WOUNDS OF OUR LORD JESUS


Holy Mother, pierce me through;
In my heart each wound renew
Of my Saviour crucified.

(This prayer is said with five "Our Father", "Hail Mary" and "Glory be.")

The Jews murmured about Jesus because he said,"I am the bread that came down from heaven,"and they said, "Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph? Do we not know his father and mother? Then how can he say,'I have come down from heaven'?" Jesus answered and said to them,"Stop murmuring among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him, and I will raise him on the last day. It is written in the prophets: They shall all be taught by God. Everyone who listens to my Father and learns from him comes to me. Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father. Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died; this is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world." John 6:41-51

Reflection:

This is one Gospel I can relate to. Jesus is the Bread of Life. The biggest shame of all is that not many believe he truly is the Bread of Life and that he is present in the Eucharist.

He isn't just admonishing the Jews in this reading but us too. Don't we also murmur amongst ourselves, how is it possible that Jesus is present in the wafer we call the Eucharist, the Bread of Life. Do we not also murmur if Jesus was real and sent by God.

But all we have to do is look back upon history and the many miracles that have been done in his name, and how he has manifested himself for our belief. How truly blessed you are, when you believe without seeing.

It is written in the prophets that they shall all be taught by God. How true the prophets were in saying this. God does teach us when we listen. Look at all the Saints who have gone before us all, how they have listened. We have many who founded the orders we know of today, they listened to God. St. Francis, St. Dominic, St. Augustine are a few who have made a lasting house of the Lord.

Many of us too have come this far, because we have also listened to God. Can many more of us be the one's to also say we too are taught by God.

Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. Matthew 16:24

Reflection:

Where ever we are in life or what ever vocation we are called to, we are to deny ourselves and take up our crosses and follow Jesus.

Many of us follow but do not deny ourselves, but we do carry our crosses. Or vice a versa, we refuse to carry our cross, but we deny ourselves. These are half-hearted measures for sure.

We see so much of these today, when we abort a life, or we take up vices that are not healthy spiritually or bodily. Or we are followers, yet we use drugs as our means of escaping our cross.

But Jesus wants all of us to follow, by denying what we desire, taking our cross the whole way. That includes what others dislike about following Jesus. Yet, following Jesus all the way gives us the greatest peace.

Unfortunately we have developed a world that caters to our desires, and seeks to destroy what Jesus teaches us. Our world wants Jesus and God, but at their terms and not on God's. That's why we see God disappearing from public teaching in schools, to taking an oath on a Bible in a Court of Law. The removal is from those that don't want to be reminded of God's commandments, so they will not have to feel guilty.

This is from those who refuse to deny themselves and refuse to carry their cross. And we who follow let it happen, that God is disappearing from all our lives.