Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 6:7-15.

Jesus said to his disciples:

"In praying, do not babble like the pagans, who think that they will be heard because of their many
words.
Do not be like them. Your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
This is how you are to pray: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread;
and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors;
and do not subject us to the final test, but deliver us from the evil one.
If you forgive others their transgressions, your heavenly Father will forgive you.
But if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your transgressions."

Pope Francis in Evangelii Gaudium explains how God forgives - God never tires of forgiving us; we are
the ones who tire of seeking his mercy. Christ, who told us to forgive one another seventy times seven
(Mt 18:22) has given us his example: he has forgiven us seventy times seven. Time and time again he
bears us on his shoulders.

NOW WE ARE EXHORTED TO FORGIVE. CONSIDER THIS OTHER PASSAGE FROM JESUS - Be merciful, just
as your Father is merciful. Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not
be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you For the measure you
give will be the measure you get back (Lk 6:36-38).

It is such a serious and important matter that God should pardon us our sins... that we must pardon all
trifling things which have been done to us. St. Teresa of Avila.

And why should we forgive? Because it is a divine act. We participate in the Godliness of God.
We elevate our humanity and make us divine, by forgiving. This is the meaning of the saying:
To err is human; to forgive, divine. (Alexander Pope)

That is why even a non-Christian thinker like Mahatma Gandhi was able to say The weak can
never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.

Forgiveness is the final form of love. Reinhold Niebuhr

Forgiveness is not always easy. At times, it feels more painful than the wound we suffered, to
forgive the one that inflicted it. And yet, there is no peace without forgiveness.
Marianne Williamson

AND WE ARE ALL ____ HERE: FORGIVENESS SAVES US A LOT. HOW? Forgiveness is
the economy of the heart... forgiveness saves the expense of anger, the cost of hatred, the waste
of spirits. Hannah More


EXAMINATION OF CONSCIENCE
Confession heals, confession justifies, confession grants pardon of sin. All hope consists in confession. In
confession there is a chance for mercy. Believe it firmly. Do not doubt, do not hesitate, never despair of
the mercy of God. Hope and have confidence in confession. --St. Isidore of Seville

It is better to be the child of God than king of the whole world. -- St. Aloysius Gonzaga



Holy Spirit

Introduction cowards becoming brave.
1. Who is the Holy Spirit by analogy. Love between the Son and the Father.

2. JUST LIKE MIDAS TOUCH. Through Baptism, the Holy Spirit comes to dwell
in our soul and, with Him are the other two Persons of the Blessed Trinity.
The Holy Spirit dwelling in the soul in grace is giving a supernatural tone to all
your thoughts, desires and works (The Way, no. 273). The task of
sanctification is attributed, to Him by reason of its greater similarity with what
is proper to the Holy Spirit, who is love and link, union between the Father
and the Son.

3. HS, OUR TEACHER. We can say that the Holy Spirit in some way (cf. no. 3 in
Fine ), has the "assignment" (given by the Holy Trinity!) of teaching us how to
deal with the other two Persons: with God the Father, exercising our divine
filiation that leads us to fully abandon ourselves like "children" in his fatherly
hands; and with God the Son, so that we may become other Christ.

4. HS MAKES US DO IT. Without Him, we are incapable of making a single act
of love, we would be unable to say an aspiration, because no one can say
"Jesus is Lord" except in the Holy Spirit (I Cor 12:3). He enlightens our mind
and moves our heart.

5. How do we draw the Holy Spirit? SJM has the following advice:

a. To be docile: know how to discover God's will in the events of our daily
life, in the life and in the words of those who are around us and
especially of those whom God has placed beside us to help us in our
way to sanctity. Moreover, we should promptly give our all to do
whatever God wants.

b. Life of prayer: will lead us to deal with and to continually converse with
God, One and Triune, by the hand of the Holy Spirit: struggle to be
contemplative and not be contented with sporadic periods of prayer.

c. Love for the Cross: know how to discover it, with all its redemptive
efficacy, in everyday life: in dealings with others, in work, in
sickness...You tell me: I have made up my mind to go more often to the
Paraclete, to ask him for his light. Good. But remember, my child, that
the Holy Spirit comes as a result of the Cross (The Forge, no. 759).

GIFTS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
1. FEAR starting point. It draws us away from anything that may hurt God
(horror of sin). We know that God
2. PIETY We do not obey and adore Him any more out of fear but out of
love. It makes us conscious of being sons of God and brothers of all men
in Jesus Christ and it makes our charity more abundant and cordial.
3. FORTITUDE It gives us the necessary strength to fulfill our duties (daily
heroism in "little things"). It even makes up for the lack of human strength
whenever it is not due to our own fault. It places in the soul an
unquenchable desire for sanctity. In sum, it strengthens our weakness, it
drives away human fear, it makes us strong in the faith and magnanimous
in God's undertakings. E.G. DONATE BLOOD TO A RELATIVE EVEN IF
YOU ARE AFRAID.
4. KNLOWLEDGE - It perfects us in the knowledge of created things, leading
us to always pass right judgment on what they are and on what they
should become, according to divine plans. It is the gift that teaches us to
discover that there is something holy, something divine hidden in the most
ordinary situations, which is up to each one of us to discover. For us
laymen, knowledge leads us to discover the ordinary work is a gift from
God and a means to save our souls and others souls. So, if we are having
a hard time sanctifying our work, then, pray to the Holy Spirit for this gift.
5. COUNSEL It leads us to know what we should do personally or what we
should advise others, to do God's will in the face of a specific situation;
lack of time to seek advice ordinarily does not exonerate us from prudently
making a decision (not to do so would be to tempt God), But we always
need divine assistance in order not to make a mistake, especially
whenever one has to make a decision all of a sudden or regarding a
complicated situation. Then the Holy Spirit provides us with the solution as
if by instinct, without needing laborious reasoning: I will show you the way
you should walk: I will counsel you (Ps 32:8). Consequently, it also
teaches us to listen to God's advice given through spiritual direction.
6. KNOWLEDGE We need to know about God's things in depth. "The soul
sees the mystery of the Holy Trinity and other very lofty things in a
moment with such clarity that there is no theologian she would not dare to
discuss these things with" (Saint Teresa, Life, Chapter 27).
7. WISDOM - It is like a "Ph.D." on the other gifts and on the interior life. It
improves our knowledge of God and of everything that refers to Him,
giving us a knowledge of love. It can be summarized in a few words: LOVE
FOR THE CROSS!..., to the Jews indeed a stumbling-block and to the
gentiles foolishness, but to those who are called, the power of God and the
wisdom of God (I Cor 1:23-24). This is so because the Cross is the sign of
the Christian and to find the Cross is to find Christ, to be sons of God.

FRUITS - Whenever the soul corresponds with docility to the action of the Holy Spirit
through His gifts, it makes virtuous acts that can be compared to its natural fruits.
These are fruits stemming from the gifts of the Holy Spirit (cf. Gal 5:22): charity, joy,
peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, modesty, continence.
SJMs prayer to the HS - Come, Oh Holy Spirit!: Enlighten my understanding, in
order to know your commands; strengthen my heart against the snares of the
enemy; enkindle my will... I have heard your voice, and I do not want to harden my
heart and resist, saying, "Later... tomorrow". Nunccoepi Right now! Lest there be no
tomorrow for me.0 Spirit of truth and of wisdom, Spirit of understanding and of
counsel, Spirit of joy and of peace! I want whatever you want; I want because you
want; I want as you want; I want whenever you want ..