As we turn the page and begin a new year of grace, my prayer for all of you is that you will enter into a deeper and closer friendship with Jesus.
I want to invite you to adopt a new habit in 2022. Begin reading the Gospels, beginning to end, read a portion every day, but make sure you read them straight through. Start with the Gospel according to St. Matthew, chapter 1, and continue reading every day until you get to the end of the Gospel of John. Then begin the process again.
If you read a chapter each day, it will take you 89 days to complete all of the Gospels. But even if you read less daily, the point is to spend time with Jesus every day and to get to know his story.
And we need to know this story. That is why for many years now, I have made it part of my spiritual practices to spend time every day reading the Gospels. That is why I recommend it to you. Because in the life of Jesus, we discover the life that he wants each one of us to live.
In the Gospels, we read how Jesus invited the disciples of St. John the Baptist to reflect on his words and deeds, what they have “seen and heard.”
He invites his disciples in every age to do the same thing. This is how we get to know Jesus, and how we grow in friendship with him — by opening the pages of the Gospels to see and hear.
You can trust the Gospels. They were written by people who knew the apostles, and they are based on their witness to what Jesus really did and taught.
Read with prayer. Simply ask Jesus to speak to your heart through the words on the page. Ask for the grace to feel the excitement of being near to Jesus, and sometimes the sense of tension and danger.
Full story at Angelus News.
I would love to hear that from every pulpit.
I rather thought someone by now would have made a comment to the effect of “A good habit for you, Ab Gomez, would be for you to clean up the REC.” But no one has, and I wonder if it is just utter fatigue over the issue or a desire to be polite.
I think covid is cleaning up the REC. It was a dud as online only last year, and this year it looks like it will be the same because of Omicron. If they ever get around to getting back to normal, all the Boomers who loved the event will be dead. Maybe the whole thing will just disappear. Thanks Covid.
Excellent pastoral advice!
Abp. Gomez:
“Ask for the grace to feel the excitement of being near to Jesus, and sometimes the sense of tension and danger.“
That has got to be the most laughable, pathetic example of leadership in a time of crisis.
This is the worst the Catholic Church has ever been in California and the whole world, and also the worst this country has been in its history.
And _that_ is the advice of this bishop? To ask to feel more tension and danger with Jesus?
Does the man think this is a joke?
This is his job. Reading the Gospels is being with, listening to and hopefully obeying the Word of God, Jesus Christ who is King of the Universe. Nothing will fix the Church and the world faster.
Wow. A break from political and historical moralizing. What a treat.