Friday, November 27 – We are in the last hour.

Preparatory Prayer (to place myself in God’s presence)

Holy Spirit, how difficult it is to properly discern what I should do to respond to the immensity of your mercy. I trust, and humbly ask you, that this prayer gives me the wisdom to fulfill God’s will with love and filial zeal.

Gospel of the day, (to guide your meditation)

From the holy Gospel according to Luke 21:29-33

At that time, Jesus proposed this comparison to his disciples: “Look at the fig tree and all the other trees. When they start to bear fruit, you know that summer is near. Likewise, when you see these things happening, know that the Kingdom of God is near. I assure you, before this generation dies, all these things will be fulfilled. Heaven and earth may pass away, but my words will never pass away.”

Word of the Lord

Reflect on what God tells you in the Gospel (we suggest you read what the Pope said)

“With the coming of God into history, we are already in the ‘last’ times, after which the final step will be the second and definitive coming of Christ.

Naturally, here we speak of the ‘quality’ of time, not its ‘quantity’. With Jesus, the fullness of time has come, fullness of meaning and fullness of salvation. There will be no new revelation, but the full manifestation of what Jesus has already revealed.

In this sense, we are already in the ‘last hour’; each moment of our life is not provisional but definitive, and each of our actions is charged with eternity. In fact, the response we give today to God who loves us in Jesus Christ influences our future.

The biblical and Christian view of time and history is not cyclical but linear: it is a path toward fulfillment. A year that has passed, therefore, does not lead us to a reality that ends but to a reality that is fulfilled; it is a further step toward the goal that lies ahead of us: a goal of hope and happiness, because we will find God, the reason for our hope and the source of our joy.” (Homily of His Holiness Pope Francis, December 31, 2013)

Dialogue with Christ

This is the most important part of your prayer, prepare to talk with much love to the One who loves you.

Purpose

Set a personal one. The one that involves the most love in response to the Beloved… or, if you believe it is what God is asking of you, live what is suggested below.

I will schedule my next spiritual direction, to identify, or continue working on overcoming my dominant defect, striving to acquire the opposite virtue.

 

“The soul always wavers: when it reflects on eternity, it chooses virtue; but when it looks at the present, it prefers the pleasures of life.”

(St. Basil, in Catena Aurea)